Pierre Certon/Guillaume Morlaye

(? ca. 1510 - Paris, 23 Feb 1572). Certon was a  clerk (first at Notre Dame, then at the Ste Chapelle). In 1536 he was appointed Master of the Choristers. He held that post, adding to it benefices within the diocese, until his death. In a document of 1567 he is accorded the title ‘chantre de la chapelle du Roy’, a honorary title of great importance (only Pierre Sandrin and Clément Janequin are known to have received this title as well). Without abandoning his duties at the Ste Chapelle, Certon took part in other activities towards the end of his life. Certon wrote  masses, motets, Psalms, chansons spirituelles, and numerous secular chansons. He was skilled at varying texture between homophonic and polyphonic passages, changing the number and register of voices singing at any time, and - with regard to works of greater length - with a keen eye on the coherence. His chanson settings were famous, and influential in assisting the transformation of the chanson from the previous light, dance-like, four-part texture to the late-century style of careful text setting, emotionalism, greater vocal range, and larger number of voices. Cross-influence with the contemporary Italian form of the madrigal was obvious, but chansons such as those by Certon retained a lightness and a rhythmic element characteristic of the French language itself. In the final stage of his life, he returned to  contrapunctal and polyphonic intricacy.

[source: shortened version of Grove's dictionary. Frank Dobbins]

The image is copied from the 1554 edition.