Pierre Moulu

Pierre Moulu (1484? – c. 1550) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance who was active in France, probably in Paris.

Little is known of his life, but internal evidence in his compositions indicates he was probably at the French royal chapel during the first two decades of the 16th century, at least, and was also associated with the cathedral in Meaux, on the Marne east of Paris. He composed music for ceremonial occasions, for example a sombre lament for the death of Queen Anne of Brittany (1514), and he also composed a motet which lists all the composers which he considered to be the most celebrated in France, arranged chronologically, and ending with Josquin. Documents from the Vatican (1505–1513) help establish his identity, as they indicate that a "Petrus Moulu" held various clerical positions at Meaux Cathedral. He may have written his mass Stephane gloriose, for the cathedral of St Etienne (Saint Stephen) in this town.

Moulu's music was clearly influenced by Josquin, and though Pierre Ronsard wrote that Moulu studied with Josquin, no documentary evidence survives to substantiate this claim. The motet Anxiatus est in me spiritus meus which laments Queen Anne's death is modeled on a similar, and much more famous composition by Josquin for the death of Ockeghem, La Déploration sur la mort Ockeghem. Moulu's music shows the style of pervasive imitation and smooth polyphony with exactly equal voices which was prevalent in the generation after Josquin (well exemplified by, and perhaps most famous in, the music of Nicolas Gombert).

Of Moulu's music, five masses survive, the most famous being his mass on the Marian antiphon Alma Redemptoris Mater, which can be sung in two different manners: with or without rests longer than a quarter. The latest discovery is the mass Paranymphus, based on a motet by Loyset Compère. In addition to the masses, Moulu wrote motets and chansons, some of which are of doubtful authorship (Mouton and Josquin are also suggested as the composer for several of these pieces).

In addition some works of Moulu have survived without text. For example, as late as 1592, an untexted 3-voice canon appears in Lodovico Zacconi's Prattica de musica under the name 'Pietro Molu'. This canon already appeared in 1503, printed by Petrucci, so Moulu's atrribution is very unlikely.