Nicolas Champion

Background

Champion was born in or near Liège, where he probably received his early training.

Career

Little information survives regarding his early life, and the first record relating to his involvement with Philip"s Grande chapelle, the Habsburg chapel choir, dates from 13 November 1501, prior to Philip"s first trip to Spain. The setting of De profundis, long attributed to Josquin, is relatively well-known: for example, Grout and Palisca"s History of Western, often used in college music history courses, gives it as an example of Josquin"s late style.

Achievements

• There is evidence that Champion may also have been associated with the court of Frederick the Wise, Duke of Saxony, such as the five-voice mass he wrote for them. Champion"s surviving music includes two masses, both for five voices: Missa Maria Magdalena and Missa Ducis saxsonie: Sing ich niet wol. Two psalm motets, one for four and one for six voices. And a secular song, Noch weet ick, in Dutch. The famous copyist Pierre Alamire attributed it to Champion in its earliest extant source, the manuscript VienNB Music 15941, and the case has recently been made that the attribution should remain with Champion, for stylistic reasons.

Membership

He was a member of the renowned musical establishments of the Habsburg court, including the chapels of Philip I of Castile and Charles V. While with Philip"s chapel he was a close associate of composers such as Pierre de Louisiana Rue, Marbrianus de Orto, and Alexander Agricola.