DEP'PING, OEORq BERNARD (1784-1S53). A German-French historian. He was horn at ,\1iinster, Westphalia, settled in Paris in ISM, 'vas employed for a time as a teacher in several institutions, and subsequently contributed to French and (:ernian periodicals. Ile wrote on a wide range of subjects. Two of his juvenile works attained wonderful popularity: _Vern-Wes et de la nature en France (1811) ; and Les soirees d'hiver, including the instructions of a father to his children on moral and scientific -ubjeets. Ile assisted 'Alalte-Brun in his geo graphical works, and published a number of histories, books of travel. and biographies, in eluding: Iligtoire des expeditions maritimcs firs YormandR 11826) : 11Woire Cut commerce entre l'Europc et le, Levant depuis les croisades (1832); and Les .1 nifs on rnoyin lige (1834).
DEPRtS, de- prtt', JosQ (c.1450.1.521 ) .
A Flemish composer, and one of the world's greatest masters, born at Con di', Hainaut. Ile was the successor of okeghetn, and the immediate predecessor of Lassus and Pales. trina in the evolution of music. Little is known of the details of his life, but there is record of his appointment as chapel-master of Saint Quentin, and that he studied under Okeghem. From 1171 to 1484 he was at the Court of Pope Sixtus IV., and was regarded as the future great musician of the world. The library of the Sis• tine Chapel to this day treasures much of the fruits of his stay in Rome. During his life
time he visited or held appointments from the greatest princes and courts of the world. His high place in musical history is due to the fact that, besides being an expert cant rapuntalist, his artistic sense of balance, and of the religious pro prieties, enabled him to utilize the technical intricacies of Flemish counterpoint, and yet make them subsidiary to his beautiful and expressive melodies. Other composers of Jos quilt's school had developed the custom of taking a secular cantos firmus, the voice to which it was assigned singing the secular words, the re maining voices singing those of the mass proper. So grave an abuse did this custom become, that a reform was brought about in church music, and all such eompositions were condemned. Josquin, however, had consistently striven to realize the emotional content of the words of the mass in his compositions, so far as he was able, although many instances are found in his works where a few syllables are scattered through several pages, indicating that the music was of far greater importance than the text. The invention of music-printing by movable types at a time (1498) when Joaquin was at the height of his fame as a composer did much to make is music universally popular. Consult: "Josquin de Pres." in Berne Interna tionale de Music/Ile, No. 21 (Paris, 1899).