Jean Richafort (c.1480-c.1547)

Though something of a shadowy figure today, Jean Richafort was one of the leading composers of the first “post-Josquin” generation. He seems to have been active throughout the Low Countries and France throughout his life but records are sketchy with little information for between the years of 1509, when he left his post of choir master at St. Rumbold’s Cathedral in Mechelen, and 1542 when he took up a similar position at St. Giles’ Church in Bruges (a position he held until his death). According to the contemporary poet Pierre de Ronsard, he studied with Josquin des Prez and often quoted his music in his own, most famously in his Missa pro defunctis (written in memory of Josquin).