title: Geoff Capes

text: Capes competed at many Highland Games gatherings in Scotland and across the world and became a hugely popular and respected figure. He won the World Heavy Events title in Lagos in 1981, in a year when there were two world championships, the second won in Melbourne by Bill Anderson. He went on to win again in 1983 in Carmunnock and the next four consecutive titles, making him the most successful competitor ever in terms of titles. He set world records in many disciplines, including the 56 lb weight over the bar and brick lifting. As a Highland competitor he was dubbed Geoff Dubh Laidir, translated as Black Strong Geoff.


title: Geoff Capes

text: Capes went on to coach many rising stars in both athletics and strength athletics. Adrian Smith later took fifth spot at the World's Strongest Man under the combined coaching of Capes and Bill Pittuck. Capes also helped promote the Daily Star funded UK Strongest Man tournaments until the turn of the millennium.


title: Geoff Capes

text: Outside his sporting career Capes was for a long time a policeman and prior to that was a member of the Air Training Corps. Prior to his athletic retirement he had been awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, for services to the community. He went on to run a sportswear retail shop in Holbeach, before moving to Spalding where in 1998 he became a Justice of the Peace. At the height of his fame in 1985, the game "Geoff Capes Strongman" was released on the Amstrad CPC, the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64, featuring a truck pulling and tug-of-war, allowing control of each muscle group. His profile also led to numerous appearances on British television, one such example being in the Tyne Tees Television programme "Supergran" in the episode "Supergran Grounded". He appeared on Blue Peter where he lost a challenge from Welsh strongman/showman George Davies (Strang the Strong, Georgie Muscles). In 1987, Capes was a timekeeper on the charity television special "The Grand Knockout Tournament".


title: Geoff Capes

text: A persistent story about Capes is that in 1979, he stood in for friend and fellow strongman David Prowse to play the part of Darth Vader in several scenes during filming of "The Empire Strikes Back" while Prowse recovered from an elbow injury. During an interview on BBC Radio Cleveland on 31 January 2007, Capes was asked about this and he stated that it never happened. Another story, told on YouTube by former wrestler Mark Rocco, is that Big Daddy picked him up and threw him to the ground after Capes challenged him to 'wrestle' on a training ground.


title: Geoff Capes

text: Later, he appeared on the fourth series of "Shooting Stars", alongside Patsy Kensit, where he threw a bomb at Johnny Vegas and in 2007 he became the face of Cadbury's Wispa relaunch, appearing on billboards and magazine advertisements. As of Spring 2010, he was in the advert for the Great British Food Fight, which appeared on Channel 4 as well as being in an advert for Churchill insurance.


title: Geoff Capes

text: Aside from sport and television appearances, Capes is famed for breeding budgerigars and has had quite a lot of success (a former world champion) on the show bench with his Recessive Pieds. In 2008 he assumed the role of president of the Budgerigar Society, along with Mick Widdowson who is also a keen budgie breeder and friend. He frequently appears in the pages of "Cage & Aviary Birds".


title: Geoff Capes

text: Capes lives in Stoke Rochford, near Grantham. His daughter Emma was English Schools' shot put champion and Youth Olympics bronze medallist. His son Lewis played American football for the London Monarchs. He has four grandchildren.


title: United States Pharmacopeia

text: The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) is a pharmacopeia (compendium of drug information) for the United States published annually by the United States Pharmacopeial Convention (usually also called the USP), a nonprofit organization that owns the trademark and also owns the copyright on the pharmacopeia itself. The "USP" is published in a combined volume with the "National Formulary" (a formulary) as the USP-NF. If a drug ingredient or drug product has an applicable "USP" quality standard (in the form of a "USP-NF" monograph), it must conform in order to use the designation "USP" or "NF". Drugs subject to "USP" standards include both human drugs (prescription, over-the-counter, or otherwise) and animal drugs. "USP-NF" standards also have a role in US federal law; a drug or drug ingredient with a name recognized in "USP-NF" is considered adulterated if it does not satisfy compendial standards for strength, quality or purity. USP also sets standards for dietary supplements and food ingredients (as part of the "Food Chemicals Codex"). USP has no role in enforcing its standards; enforcement is the responsibility of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other government authorities in the United States.


title: United States Pharmacopeia

text: "USP" establishes written (documentary) and physical (reference) standards for medicines, food ingredients, dietary supplement products, and ingredients. These standards are used by regulatory agencies and manufacturers to help to ensure that these products are of the appropriate identity, as well as strength, quality, purity, and consistency. USP 800 is an example of a publication created by the United States Pharmacopeia.


title: United States Pharmacopeia

text: Prescription and over-the-counter medicines available in the United States must, by federal law, meet "USP-NF" public standards, where such standards exist. Many other countries use the "USP-NF" instead of issuing their own pharmacopeia, or to supplement their government pharmacopeia.


title: United States Pharmacopeia

text: USP's standards for food ingredients can be found in its "Food Chemicals Codex" ("FCC"). The "FCC" is a compendium of standards used internationally for the quality and purity of food ingredients like preservatives, flavorings, colorings and nutrients. While the "FCC" is recognized in law in countries like Australia, Canada and New Zealand, it currently does not have statutory recognition in the United States, although "FCC" standards are incorporated by reference in over 200 FDA food regulations. USP obtained the "FCC" from the Institute of Medicine in 2006. The IOM had published the first five editions of the "FCC".


title: United States Pharmacopeia

text: USP also conducts verification programs for dietary supplement products and ingredients. These are testing and audit programs. Products that meet the requirements of the program can display the USP Verified Dietary Supplement Mark on their labels. This is different from seeing the letters "USP" alone on a dietary supplement label, which means that the manufacturer is claiming to adhere to USP standards. "USP" does not test such products as it does with USP Verified products.


title: United States Pharmacopeia

text: In the past, Congress authorized the Secretary of HHS to request USP to develop a drug classification system that Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit plans may use to develop their formularies, and to revise such classification from time to time to reflect changes in therapeutic uses covered by Part D drugs and the addition of new covered Part D drugs. USP has developed six versions of the Model Guidelines, the last issued early in 2014 for the 2015–2017 benefit years.


title: United States Pharmacopeia

text: Since 1992, USP has worked cooperatively with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to help developing countries address critical issues related to poor quality medicines. This partnership operated as the Drug Quality and Information (DQI) program until 2009, when, to better meet growing global needs, USAID awarded USP a five-year, $35 million cooperative agreement to establish a new, expanded program: Promoting the Quality of Medicines (PQM). In 2013 USAID extended the PQM program for five years (through September 2019), increased its funding to $110 million, and expanded the geographical reach of the program.


title: United States Pharmacopeia

text: PQM serves as a primary mechanism to help USAID-supported countries strengthen their quality assurance and quality control systems to better ensure the quality of medicines that reach patients. PQM has four key objectives:


title: United States Pharmacopeia

text: USP-USAID collaborative efforts have helped communities improve drug quality in more than 35 countries. PQM currently works in Africa, Asia, Europe/Eurasia, and the Caribbean/Latin America.


title: United States Pharmacopeia

text: USP works internationally, largely through agreements with other pharmacopeias, as well as regulatory bodies, manufacturer associations and others. In recent years, USP signed a series of Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with groups including the Pharmacopeia of the People's Republic of China Chinese Pharmacopeia Commission, nine countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the Federal Service on Surveillance in Healthcare and Social Development of the Russian Federation (Roszdravnadzor). USP also operates an international office in Switzerland and offices and laboratories in Brazil, India, and China.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez ( – 27 August 1521) was a composer of High Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he was a central figure of the Franco-Flemish School and had a profound influence on the music of 16th-century Europe. Building on the work of his predecessors Guillaume Du Fay and Johannes Ockeghem, he developed a complex style of expressive—and often imitative—movement between independent voices (polyphony) which informs much of his work. He further emphasized the relationship between text and music, and departed from the early Renaissance tendency towards lengthy melismatic lines on a single syllable, preferring to use shorter, repeated motifs between voices. Josquin was a singer, and his compositions are mainly vocal. They include masses, motets and secular chansons.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin's biography has been continually revised by modern scholarship, and remains highly uncertain. Little is known of his early years; he was born in the French-speaking area of Flanders, and he may have been an altar boy and have been educated at the Cambrai Cathedral, or taught by Ockeghem. By 1477 he was in the choir of René of Anjou and then probably served under Louis XI of France. Now a wealthy man, in the 1480s Josquin traveled Italy with the Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, may have worked in Hungary for king Matthias Corvinus, and wrote the motet "Ave Maria ... Virgo serena", and the popular chansons "Adieu mes amours" and "Que vous ma dame". He served Pope Innocent VIII and Pope Alexander VI in Rome, Louis XII in France, and Ercole I d'Este in Ferrara. Many of his works were published by Ottaviano Petrucci in the early 16th century, including the "Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae". In his final years in Condé, Josquin produced some of his most admired works, including the masses "Missa de Beata Virgine" and "Missa Pange lingua"; the motets "Benedicta es", "Inviolata", "Pater noster–Ave Maria" and "Praeter rerum seriem"; and the chansons "Mille regretz", "Nimphes, nappés" and "Plus nulz regretz".


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Influential both during and after his lifetime, Josquin has been described as the first Western composer to retain posthumous fame. His music was widely performed and imitated in 16th-century Europe, and was highly praised by Martin Luther and the music theorists Heinrich Glarean and Gioseffo Zarlino. In the Baroque era, Josquin's reputation became overshadowed by the Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, though he was still studied by some theorists and music historians. During the 20th-century early music revival, publications by August Wilhelm Ambros, Albert Smijers, Helmuth Osthoff and Edward Lowinsky, and a successful academic conference, caused his reevaluation as a central figure in Renaissance music. This has led to controversy over whether he has been unrealistically elevated over his contemporaries, particularly in light of over a hundred attributions now considered dubious. He continues to draw interest in the 21st century and his music is frequently recorded, central in the repertoire of early music vocal ensembles, and the subject of continuing scholarship. He was celebrated worldwide on the 500th anniversary of his death in 2021.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin's full name, Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez, became known in the late 20th century from a pair of 1483 documents found in Condé-sur-l'Escaut, where he is referred to as the nephew of Gille Lebloitte dit des Prez and the son of Gossard Lebloitte dit des Prez. His first name Josquin is a diminutive form of Josse, the French form of the name of a Judoc, a Breton saint of the 7th century. Josquin was a common name in Flanders and Northern France in the 15th and 16th centuries. Other documents indicate that the surname des Prez had been used by the family for at least two generations, perhaps to distinguish them from other branches of the Lebloitte family. At the time, the name Lebloitte was rare and the reason that Josquin's family took up the more common surname des Prez as their dit name remains uncertain.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: His name has many spellings in contemporary records: his first name is spelled as Gosse, Gossequin, Jodocus, Joskin, Josquinus, Josse, Jossequin, Judocus and Juschino; and his surname is given as a Prato, de Prato, Pratensis, de Prés, Desprez, des Prés and des Près. In his motet "Illibata Dei virgo nutrix", he includes an acrostic of his name, where it is spelled IOSQVIN Des PREZ. Documents from Condé, where he lived for the last years of his life, refer to him as "Maistre Josse Desprez". These include a letter written by the chapter of Notre-Dame of Condé to Margaret of Austria where he is named as "Josquin Desprez". Scholarly opinion differs on whether his surname should be written as one word (Desprez) or two (des Prez), with publications from continental Europe preferring the former and English-language publications the latter. Modern scholarship typically refers to him as Josquin.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Little is known about Josquin's early years. The specifics of his biography have been debated for centuries. The musicologist William Elders noted that "it could be called a twist of fate that neither the year, nor the place of birth of the greatest composer of the Renaissance is known". A now-outdated theory is that he was born around 1440, based on a mistaken association with Jushinus de Kessalia, recorded in documents as "Judocus de Picardia". A reevaluation of his later career, name and family background has discredited this claim. He is now thought to have been born around 1450, and at the latest 1455, making him a "a close contemporary" of Loyset Compère and Heinrich Isaac, and slightly older than Jacob Obrecht.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin's father was a policeman in the castellany of Ath, who was accused of numerous offenses, including complaints of undue force, and disappears from the records after 1448. Nothing is known of Josquin's mother, who is absent from surviving documents, suggesting that she was either not considered Josquin's legitimate mother, or that she died soon after, or during, his birth. Around 1466, perhaps on the death of his father, Josquin was named by his uncle and aunt, Gille Lebloitte dit des Prez and Jacque Banestonne, as their heir.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin was born in the French-speaking area of Flanders, in modern-day northeastern France or Belgium. Despite his association with Condé in his later years, Josquin's own testimony indicates that he was not born there. The only firm evidence for his birthplace is a later legal document in which Josquin described being born beyond Noir Eauwe, meaning 'Black Water'. This description has puzzled scholars, and there are various theories on which body of water is being referred to. L'Eau Noire river in the Ardennes has been proposed, and there was a village named Prez there, though the musicologist David Fallows contends that the complications surrounding Josquin's name make a surname connection irrelevant, and that the river is too small and too far from Condé to be a candidate. Fallows proposes a birthplace near the converging Escaut and Haine rivers at Condé, preferring the latter since it was known for transporting coal, perhaps fitting the "Black Water" description. Other theories include a birth near Saint-Quentin, Aisne, due to his early association with the Collegiate Church of Saint-Quentin, or in the small village of Beaurevoir, which is near the Escaut, a river that may be referred to in an acrostic in his later motet "Illibata Dei virgo nutrix".


title: Josquin des Prez

text: There is no documentary evidence covering Josquin's education or upbringing. Fallows associates him with Goseequin de Condent, an altar boy at the collegiate church of Saint-Géry, Cambrai until mid-1466. Other scholars such as Gustave Reese relay a 17th-century account from Cardinal Richelieu's friend Claude Hémeré, suggesting that Josquin became a choirboy with his friend Jean Mouton at the Collegiate Church of Saint-Quentin; this account has been questioned. The collegiate chapel there was an important center of royal patronage and music for the area. All records from Saint-Quentin were destroyed in 1669, and Josquin may have acquired his later connections with the French royal chapel through an early association with Saint-Quentin. He may have studied under Johannes Ockeghem, a leading composer whom he greatly admired throughout his life. This is claimed by later writers such as Gioseffo Zarlino and Lodovico Zacconi; Josquin wrote a lamentation on the death of Ockeghem, "Nymphes des bois". There is no concrete evidence for this tutorship, and later commentators may only have meant that Josquin "learnt from the older composer's example". Josquin musically quoted Ockeghem several times, most directly in his double motet "Alma Redemptoris mater/Ave regina caelorum", which shares an opening line with Ockeghem's motet "Alma Redemptoris mater".


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin could have been associated with Cambrai Cathedral, as there is a "des Prez" among the cathedral's musicians listed in "Omnium bonorum plena", a motet by Compère. The motet was composed before 1474 and names many important musicians of the time, including Antoine Busnois, Johannes Tinctoris, Johannes Regis, Ockeghem and Guillaume Du Fay. The motet may refer to the singer Pasquier Desprez, but Josquin is a likelier candidate. Josquin was certainly influenced by Du Fay's music; the musicologist Alejandro Planchart suggests that the impact was not particularly large.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: The first firm record of Josquin's employment is from 19 April 1477 when he was a singer in the chapel of René of Anjou, in Aix-en-Provence. Other evidence may place him in Aix as early as 1475. Josquin remained there until at least 1478, after which his name disappears from historical records for five years. He may have remained in René's service, joining his other singers to serve Louis XI, who sent them to the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris. Josquin's connection to Louis XI could be furthered by his early motet "Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo", which may be a musical tribute for the king, since it ends with the psalm verse "In te Domine speravi, non confundar in aeternum", the line Louis commissioned Jean Bourdichon to write on 50 scrolls in the Château de Plessis-lez-Tours. A less accepted theory for Josquin's activities between 1478 and 1483 is that he had already entered the household of his future employer Ascanio Sforza in 1480. In that case, Josquin would have been with Ascanio in Ferrara and might have written his "Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae" at this time for Ercole d'Este. Around this period the "Casanatense chansonnier" was collected in Ferrara, which includes six chansons by Josquin, "Adieu mes amours", "En l'ombre d'ung buissonet", "Et trop penser", "Ile fantazies de Joskin", "Que vous ma dame" and "Une mousque de Biscaye". "Adieu mes amours" and "Que vous ma dame" are thought to have been particularly popular, given their wide dissemination in later sources.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: In February 1483 Josquin returned to Condé to claim his inheritance from his aunt and uncle, who may have been killed when the army of Louis XI besieged the town in May 1478 and had the population locked and burned in a church. In the same document, the collegiate church of Condé is reported to have given "vin d'honneur" () to Josquin, because "as a musician who had already served two kings, he was now a distinguished visitor to the little town". Josquin hired at least 15 procurators to deal with his inheritance, suggesting he was then wealthy. This would explain how later in his life he was able to travel frequently and did not have to compose greatly demanded mass cycles like contemporaries Isaac and Ludwig Senfl.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: A surviving record indicates that Josquin was in Milan by 15 May 1484, perhaps just after his 1483 trip to Condé. In March 1484 he may have visited Rome. Fallows speculates that Josquin left Condé for Italy so quickly because his inheritance gave him more freedom and allowed him to avoid serving a king who he suspected had caused the deaths of his aunt and uncle. By then, the sacred music of Milan Cathedral had a reputation for excellence. Josquin was employed by the House of Sforza, and on 20 June 1484 came into the service of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza. Josquin's renown as a composer, a strong recommendation from a patron of fellow musician, or the use of his wealth, might have helped him get this prestigious and long-term position. While working for Ascanio, on 19 August Josquin successfully requested a previously rejected dispensation to be rector at the parish church Saint Aubin without having been ordained a priest. Joshua Rifkin dates the well-known motet "Ave Maria ... Virgo serena" to this time, .


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin went to Rome with Ascanio in July 1484 for a year, and may have gone to Paris for a litigation suit involving the benefice in Saint Aubin during the later 1480s. Around this time the poet Serafino dell'Aquila wrote his sonnet to Josquin, "Ad Jusquino suo compagno musico d'Ascanio" ("To Josquin, his fellow musician of Ascanio"), which asks him "not to be discouraged if his 'genius so sublime' seemed poorly remunerated". Between 1485 and 1489 Josquin may have served under Matthias Corvinus in the Kingdom of Hungary; an account by the Cardinal Girolamo Aleandro in 1539 recalls the archbishop of Esztergom stating that the court of Matthias included "excellent painters and musicians, among them even Josquin himself". Some scholars suggest Aleandro was repeating a false rumor, or that Varday confused Josquin des Prez for Josquin Dor or Johannes de Stokem. Fallows contends that it is unlikely that Varday, who was well-educated and a musician, would have made such a mistake, but concedes that it is possible. The court of Matthias had a high standard of music and employed numerous musicians, many of them from Italy. Though Fallows asserts that Josquin's presence in Hungary is likely, the evidence is circumstantial, and no original documents survive to confirm the claim. Josquin was in Milan again in January 1489, probably until early May, and met the theorist and composer Franchinus Gaffurius there.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: From June 1489 until at least April 1494, Josquin was a member of the papal choir in Rome, under Pope Innocent VIII then the Borgia pope Alexander VI. Josquin may have arrived there due to an exchange of singers between Ludovico Sforza and Pope Innocent, where the latter sent Gaspar van Weerbeke to Milan, presumably in return for Josquin. Josquin's arrival brought much-needed prestige to the choir, as the composers Gaspar and Stokem had left recently and the only other choristers known to be composers were Marbrianus de Orto and Bertrandus Vaqueras. Two months after his arrival, Josquin laid claim to the first of various benefices on 18 August. Holding three unrelated benefices at once, without having residency there or needing to speak that area's language, was a special privilege that Josquin's tenure and position offered; many of his choir colleagues had also enjoyed such privileges. His claims included a canonry at the Notre-Dame de Paris; Saint Omer, Cambrai; a parish in the gift of Saint-Ghislain Abbey; the Basse-Yttre parish church; two parishes near Frasnes, Hainaut; and Saint-Géry, Cambrai. Surviving papal letters indicate that some of these claims were approved, but he does not appear to have taken up any of the canonries. The Sistine Chapel's monthly payment records give the best record of Josquin's career, but all papal chapel records from April 1494 to November 1500 are lost, making it unknown when he left Rome.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: After restorations from 1997 to 1998, the name was found as a graffito on the wall of the Sistine Chapel's "cantoria" (choir gallery). It is one of almost four hundred names inscribed in the chapel, around a hundred of which can be identified with singers of the papal choir. They date from the 15th to 18th centuries, and the signature is in the style of the former. There is some evidence suggesting the name refers to Josquin des Prez; it may be interpreted as either "Josquin" or "Josquinus", depending on whether the curved line on the far right is read as the abbreviation for "us". Other choristers named Josquin tended to sign their name in full, whereas Josquin des Prez is known to have done so mononymously on occasion. Andrea Adami da Bolsena notes in his 1711 "Osservazioni per ben regolare il coro dei cantori della Cappella Pontificia" that in his time Josquin's name was visibly 'sculpted' in the Sistine Chapel's choir room. The musicologist Richard Sherr writes that "while this is not a true autograph signature, the possibility that Josquin des Prez actually produced it during his stay in the papal chapel is very high", and Fallows says that "it hardly counts as an autograph, but it may be the closest we can get."


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Documents found since the late 20th century have shed some light on Josquin's life and works between 1494 and 1503; at some point he was ordained a priest. In August 1494 he went to Cambrai, as attested by a "vin d'honneur" () record, and he may have returned to Rome soon after. From then to 1498 there is no firm evidence for his activities; Fallows suggests he stayed in Cambrai for these four years, citing Johannes Manlius's 1562 book "Locorum communium collectanea", which associates Josquin with Cambrai's musical establishment. This assertion would fit with Josquin's possible youthful connections in Cambrai and later "vin d'honneur" there. Manlius cites the reformer Philip Melanchthon as the source for many of his stories, strengthening the authenticity of his Josquin anecdotes; Melanchthon was close to musical figures of his time, including the publisher Georg Rhau and the composer Adrianus Petit Coclico.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Two letters between members of the House of Gonzaga and Ascanio Sforza suggest that Josquin may have re-entered the service of the Sforza family in Milan around 1498; they refer to a servant Juschino who delivered the hunting dogs to the Gonzagas. Circumstantial evidence suggests Juschino may have been Josquin des Prez, but he is not known to have been qualified for such a task, and it would be unusual to refer to him as a servant rather than a musician or singer. Josquin probably did not stay in Milan long, since his former employers were captured during Louis XII's 1499 invasion. Before he left, he most likely wrote two secular compositions, the well-known frottola "El Grillo" ("The Cricket"), and "In te Domine speravi" ("I have placed my hope in you, Lord"), based on Psalm 31. The latter might be a veiled reference to the religious reformer Girolamo Savonarola, who had been burned at the stake in Florence in 1498, and for whom Josquin seems to have had a special reverence; the text was Savonarola's favorite psalm, a meditation on which he left unfinished in prison when he was executed.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin was probably in France during the early 16th century; documents found in 2008 indicate that he visited Troyes twice between 1499 and 1501. The long doubted account from Hémeré that Josquin had a canonry at Saint-Quentin was confirmed by documentary evidence that he had exchanged it by 30 May 1503. Canonries at Saint-Quentin were almost always gifts from the French king to royal household members, suggesting Josquin had been employed by Louis XII. According to Glarean in the "Dodecachordon" of 1547, the motet "Memor esto verbi tui servo tuo" ("Remember thy promise unto thy servant") was composed as a gentle reminder to the king to keep his promise of a benefice to Josquin. Glarean claimed that on receiving the benefice, Josquin wrote a motet on the text "Bonitatem fecisti cum servo tuo, Domine" ("Lord, thou hast dealt graciously with thy servant") to show his gratitude to the king, either Louis XI or Louis XII. Although such a motet survives and is mentioned with Josquin's "Memor esto" in many sources, "Bonitatem fecisti" is now attributed to Carpentras. Some of Josquin's other compositions have been tentatively dated to his French period, such as "Vive le roy", and "In exitu Israel", which resembles the style of other composers of the French court. The five-voice "De profundis", a setting of Psalm 130, seems to have been written for a royal funeral, perhaps that of Louis XII, Anne of Brittany or Philip I of Castile.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin arrived in Ferrara by 30 May 1503, to serve Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, an arts patron who had been trying for many years to replace the composer and choirmaster Johannes Martini, who had recently died. No extant documents record Josquin as having worked in Ferrara before, though his earlier associations with Ercole suggest prior employment there; he signed a deed indicating he did not intend to stay there for long. Ercole is known to have met with Josquin's former employer Louis XII throughout 1499 to 1502, and these meetings may have led to his service for the Duke. Two letters survive explaining the circumstances of his arrival, both from courtiers who scouted musical talent in the service of Ercole. The first of these was from Girolamo da Sestola (nicknamed "Coglia") to Ercole, explaining: "My lord, I believe that there is neither lord nor king who will now have a better chapel than yours if your lordship sends for Josquin [...] and by having Josquin in our chapel I want to place a crown upon this chapel of ours" (14 August 1502). The second letter, from the courtier Gian de Artiganova, criticized Josquin and suggested Heinrich Isaac instead:


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Around three months later, Josquin was chosen; his salary of 200 ducats was the highest ever for a ducal chapel member. The Artiganova letter is a unique source for Josquin's personality, and the musicologist Patrick Macey interprets it as meaning he was a "difficult colleague and that he took an independent attitude towards producing music for his patrons". Edward Lowinsky connected his purportedly difficult behavior with musical talent, and used the letter as evidence that Josquin's contemporaries recognized his genius. Musicologist Rob Wegman questions whether meaningful conclusions can be drawn from such an anecdote. In a later publication, Wegman notes the largely unprecedented nature of such a position and warns "yet of course the letter could equally well be seen to reflect the attitudes and expectations of its recipient, Ercole d'Este".


title: Josquin des Prez

text: While in Ferrara, Josquin wrote some of his most famous compositions, including the austere, Savonarola-influenced "Miserere mei, Deus", which became one of the most widely distributed motets of the 16th century. Also probably from this period was the virtuoso motet "Virgo salutiferi", set to a poem by Ercole Strozzi, and "O virgo prudentissima" based on a poem by Poliziano. Due to its stylistic resemblance to "Miserere" and "Virgo salutiferi", the "Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae" is also attributed to this time; it was previously thought to have been written in the early 1480s. Josquin did not stay in Ferrara long. An outbreak of the plague in 1503 prompted the evacuation of the Duke and his family, as well as two-thirds of the citizens, and Josquin left by April 1504. His replacement, Obrecht, died of the plague in mid-1505.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin probably moved from Ferrara to his home region of Condé-sur-l'Escaut, and became provost of the collegiate church of Notre-Dame on 3 May 1504; he may have obtained the post from Philip I's sponsorship. His role gave him political responsibility, and put him in charge of a workforce which included a dean, a treasurer, 25 canons, 18 chaplains, 16 vicars, 6 choir-boys and other priests. This was an appealing place for his old age: it was near his birthplace, had a renowned choir and was the leading musical establishment in Hainaut, besides St. Vincent at Soignies and Cambrai Cathedral. Very few records of his activity survive from this time; he bought a house in September 1504, and sold it (or a different one) in November 1508. The Josquin mentioned may be the Joskin who traveled to present chansons to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in Brussels or Mechelen.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: In his later years Josquin composed many of his most admired works. They include the masses "Missa de Beata Virgine" and "Missa Pange lingua"; the motets "Benedicta es", "Inviolata", "Pater noster–Ave Maria" and "Praeter rerum seriem"; and the chansons "Mille regretz", "Nimphes, nappés" and "Plus nulz regretz". The last of these, "Plus nulz regretz", is set to a poem by Jean Lemaire de Belges that celebrates the future engagement between Charles V and Mary Tudor. In his last years Josquin's music saw European-wide dissemination through publications by the printer Ottaviano Petrucci. Josquin's compositions were given a prominent place by Petrucci, and were reissued numerous times.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: On his deathbed, Josquin left an endowment for the performance of his work, "Pater noster", at all general processions when townsfolk passed his house, stopping to place a wafer on the marketplace altar to the Holy Virgin. He died on 27 August 1521 and left his possessions to Condé's chapter of Notre Dame. He was buried in front of the church's high altar, but his tomb was destroyed, either during the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598) or in 1793 when the church was demolished amid the French Revolution.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: After Du Fay died in 1474, Josquin and his contemporaries lived in a musical world of frequent stylistic change, in part due to the movement of musicians between different regions of Europe. A line of musicologists credits Josquin with three primary developments:


title: Josquin des Prez

text: 1) The gradual departure from extensive melismatic lines, and emphasis instead on smaller motifs. These "motivic cells" were short, easily recognizable melodic fragments which passed from one voice to another in a contrapuntal texture, giving it an inner unity.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: 2) The prominent use of imitative polyphony, equally between voices, which "combines a rational and homogeneous integration of the musical space with a self-renewing rhythmic impetus".


title: Josquin des Prez

text: 3) A focus on the text, with the music serving to emphasize its meaning, an early form of word painting.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: The musicologist Jeremy Noble concludes that these innovations demonstrate the transition from the earlier music of Du Fay and Ockeghem, to Josquin's successors Adrian Willaert and Jacques Arcadelt, and eventually to the late Renaissance composers Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlande de Lassus.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin was a professional singer throughout his life, and his compositions are almost exclusively vocal. He wrote in primarily three genres: the mass, motet, and chanson (with French text). In his 50-year career, Josquin's body of work is larger than that of any other composer of his period, besides perhaps Isaac and Obrecht. Establishing a chronology of his compositions is difficult; the sources in which they were published offer little evidence, and historical and contextual connections are meager. Few manuscripts of Josquin's music date from before the 16th century, due to, according to Noble, "time, war and enthusiasm (both religious and anti-religious)". Identifying earlier works is particularly difficult, and later works only occasionally offer any more certainty. The musicologist Richard Taruskin writes that modern scholarship is "still nowhere near a wholly reliable chronology and unlikely ever to reach it", and suggests that the current tentative models "tell us more about ourselves, and the way in which we come to know what we know, than they do about Josquin".


title: Josquin des Prez

text: The mass is the central rite of the Catholic Church, and polyphonic settings of the ordinary of the mass—the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei—increased in popularity in the 14th century. From the 15th century, composers treated it as a central genre in Western classical music in accordance with greater demand. By Josquin's time, masses were generally standardized into substantial, polyphonic five-movement works, making it difficult for composers to satisfy both liturgical and musical demands. Previous examples in the genre by composers such as Du Fay and Ockeghem were widely admired and emulated.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin and Obrecht led an intensive development of the genre. Josquin's masses are generally less progressive than his motets—though he is credited with numerous innovations in the genre. His less radical approach may be explained by most of the masses being earlier works, or the structural and textual limitations of the genre. Almost all are for four voices.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin began his career at a time when composers started to find strict "cantus firmus" masses limiting. He pioneered paraphrase and parody masses, which were not well established before the 16th century. Many of his works combine the "cantus firmus" style with paraphrase and parody, making strict categorization problematic. Reflecting on Josquin's masses, Noble notes that "In general his instinct, at least in his mature works, seems to be to extract as much variety as possible from his given musical material, sacred or secular, by any appropriate means."


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin's predecessors and contemporaries wrote masses based on canonic imitation. The canonic voices in these masses derive from pre-existing melodies such as the "L'homme armé" song (Faugues, Compère and Forestier), or chant (Fevin and La Rue's "Missae de feria"). Josquin's two canonic masses are not based on existing tunes, and so stand apart from the mainstream. They are closer to the "Missa prolationum" written by Ockeghem, and "Missa ad fugam" by de Orto, both of which use original melodies in all the voices.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin's two canonic masses were published in Petrucci's third book of Josquin masses in 1514; the "Missa ad fugam" is the earlier of the two. It has a head-motif consisting of the whole first Kyrie which is repeated in the beginning of all five movements. The canon is restricted to the highest voice, and the pitch interval between the voices is fixed while the temporal interval varies between only two values; the two free voices generally do not participate in the imitation. The precise relationship of Josquin's mass to de Orto's is uncertain, as is Josquin's authorship of the mass.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: No questions of authenticity cloud the "Missa sine nomine", written during Josquin's final years in Condé. In contrast to the inflexibility of the canonic scheme in the "Missa ad fugam", the temporal and pitch interval of the canon, along with the voices that participate in it, are varied throughout. The free voices are more fully integrated into the texture, and frequently participate in imitation with the canonic voices, sometimes preemptively.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Prior to Josquin's mature period, the most common technique for writing masses was the "cantus firmus", a technique which had been in use for most of the 15th century. Josquin used the technique early in his career, with the "Missa L'ami Baudichon" considered to be one of his earliest masses. This mass is based on a secular tune similar to "Three Blind Mice". Basing a mass on such a source was an accepted procedure, as evidenced by the existence of the mass in Sistine Chapel part-books copied during the papacy of Julius II (1503–1513).


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin's most famous "cantus firmus" masses are the two based on the "L'homme armé" (), a popular tune for mass composition throughout the Renaissance. Though both are relatively mature compositions, they are very different. "Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales", is a technical tour-de-force on the tune, containing numerous mensuration canons and contrapuntal display. Throughout the work, the melody is presented on each note of the natural hexachord: C, D, E, F, G and A. The later "Missa L'homme armé sexti toni" is a "fantasia on the theme of the armed man." While based on a "cantus firmus", it is also a paraphrase mass, for fragments of the tune appear in all voices; throughout the work the melody appears in a wide variety of tempos and rhythms. Technically it is almost restrained, compared to the other "L'homme armé" mass, until the closing Agnus Dei, which contains a complex canonic structure including a rare retrograde canon, around which other voices are woven.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: The paraphrase mass differed from the "cantus firmus" technique in that the source material, though still monophonic, could be (by Josquin's time) highly embellished, often with ornaments. As in the "cantus firmus" technique, the source tune may appear in many voices of the mass. Several of Josquin's masses feature the paraphrase technique, such as the early "Missa Gaudeamus", which also includes "cantus firmus" and canonic elements. The "Missa Ave maris stella", also probably an early work, paraphrases the Marian antiphon of the same name; it is one of his shortest masses. The late "Missa de Beata Virgine" paraphrases plainchants in praise of the Virgin Mary. As a Lady Mass, it is a votive mass for Saturday performance, and was his most popular mass in the 16th century.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: The best known of Josquin's paraphrase masses, and one of the most famous mass settings of the Renaissance, is the "Missa Pange lingua", based on a hymn by Thomas Aquinas for the Vespers of Corpus Christi. It was probably the last mass Josquin composed. This mass is an extended fantasia on the tune, using the melody in all voices and all parts of the mass, in elaborate and ever-changing polyphony. One of the high points of the mass is the "et incarnatus est" section of the Credo, where the texture becomes homophonic, and the tune appears in the topmost voice. Here the portion which would normally set—"Sing, O my tongue, of the mystery of the divine body"—is instead given the words "And he became incarnate by the Holy Ghost from the Virgin Mary, and was made man." Noble comments that "The vigour of the earlier masses can still be felt in the rhythms and the strong drive to cadences, perhaps more so than in the "Missa de Beata Virgine", but essentially the two contrasting strains of Josquin's music—fantasy and intellectual control—are so blended and balanced in these two works that one can see in them the beginnings of a new style: one which reconciles the conflicting aims of the great 15th-century composers in a new synthesis that was in essence to remain valid for the whole of the 16th century."


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Du Fay was one of the first to write masses based on secular songs (a parody mass), and his "Missa Se la face ay pale", dates to the decade of Josquin's birth. By the turn of the 16th century, composers were moving from quoting single voice lines, to widen their reference to all voices in the piece. This was part of the transition from the medieval "cantus firmus" mass, where the voice bearing the preexisting melody stood aloof from the others, to the Renaissance parody masses, where all the voices formed an integrated texture. In such masses, the source material was not a single line, but motifs and points of imitation from all voices within a polyphonic work. By the time Josquin died, these parody masses had become well established and Josquin's works demonstrate the variety of methods in musical borrowing during this transition period.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Six works are generally attributed to Josquin which borrow from polyphonic pieces, two of which also include canonic features. One of these—the "Missa Di dadi", which includes a canon in the "Benedictus"—is based on a chanson by Robert Morton and has the rhythmic augmentation of the borrowed tenor part indicated by dice faces, which are printed next to the staff. Canon can also be found in the "Osanna" of the "Missa Faisant regretz" which is based on Walter Frye's "Tout a par moy". The "Missa Fortuna desperata" is based on the popular three-voice Italian song "Fortuna desperata". In this mass, Josquin used each of the Italian song's voices as "cantus firmi", varying throughout the work. A similar variation in the source material's voices is used in the "Missa Malheur me bat", based on a chanson variously attributed to Martini or Abertijne Malcourt. The dating of "Missa Malheur me bat" remains controversial, with some scholars calling it an early composition, and others a later one. The "Missa Mater Patris", based on a three-voice motet by Antoine Brumel, is probably the earliest true parody mass by any composer, as it no longer contains any hint of a "cantus firmus". "Missa D'ung aultre amer" is based on a popular chanson of the same name by Ockeghem, and is one of Josquin's shortest masses.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: A solmization mass is a polyphonic mass which uses notes drawn from a word or phrase. The style is first described by Zarlino in 1558, who called it "soggetto cavato", from "soggetto cavato dalle parole", meaning "carved out of the words". The earliest known mass by any composer using solmization syllables is the "Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae", which Josquin wrote for Ercole I. It is based on a "cantus firmus" of musical syllables of the Duke's name, 'Ercole, Duke of Ferrara', which in Latin is 'Hercules Dux Ferrarie'. Taking the solmization syllables with the same vowels gives: , which is in modern nomenclature. The "Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae" remains the best known work to use this device and was published by Petrucci in 1505, relatively soon after its composition. Taruskin notes that the use of Ercole's name is Josquin's method of memorialization for his patron, akin to a portrait painting.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: The other Josquin mass to prominently use this technique is the "Missa La sol fa re mi", based on the musical syllables contained in " ("let me take care of it"). Essentially the entire mass's content is related to this phrase, and the piece is thus something of an ostinato. The traditional story, as told by Glarean in 1547, was that an unknown aristocrat used to order suitors away with this phrase, and Josquin immediately wrote an "exceedingly elegant" mass on it as a jab at him. Scholars have proposed different origins for the piece; Lowinsky has connected it to the court of Ascanio Sforza, and the art historian Dawson Kiang connected it to the Turkish prince Cem Sultan's promise to the pope to overthrow his brother Bayezid II.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin's motets are his most celebrated and influential works. Their style varies considerably, but can generally be divided into homophonic settings with block chords and syllabic text declamation; ornate—and often imitative—contrapuntal fantasias in which the text is overshadowed by music; and psalm settings which combined these extremes with the addition of rhetorical figures and text-painting that foreshadowed the later development of the madrigal. He wrote most of them for four voices, which had become the compositional norm by the mid-15th century, and descended from the four-part writing of Guillaume de Machaut and John Dunstaple in the late Middle Ages. Josquin was also a considerable innovator in writing motets for five and six voices.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Many of the motets use compositional constraint on the process; others are freely composed. Some use a "cantus firmus" as a unifying device, some are canonic, others use a motto which repeats throughout, and some use several of these methods. In some motets which use canon, it is designed to be heard and appreciated as such; in others a canon is present, but difficult to hear. Josquin frequently used imitation in writing his motets, with sections akin to fugal expositions occurring on successive lines of the text he was setting. This is prominent in his motet "Ave Maria ... Virgo serena", an early work where each voice enters by restating the line sung before it. Other early works such as a "Alma Redemptoris mater/Ave regina caelorum" show prominent imitation, as do later ones such as his setting of "Dominus regnavit" (Psalm 93) for four voices. Josquin favored the technique throughout his career.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Few composers before Josquin had written polyphonic psalm settings, and these form a large proportion of his later motets. Josquin's settings include the famous "Miserere" (Psalm 51); "Memor esto verbi tui", based on Psalm 119; and two settings of "De profundis" (Psalm 130), which are often considered to be among his most significant accomplishments. Josquin wrote several examples of a new type of piece developed in Milan, the motet-chanson. Though similar to 15th-century works based on the "formes fixes" mold which were completely secular, Josquin's motet-chansons contained a chant-derived Latin "cantus firmus" in the lowest of the three voices. The other voices sang a secular French text, which had either a symbolic relationship to the sacred Latin text, or commented on it. Josquin's three known motet-chansons are "Que vous madame/In pace", "A la mort/Monstra te esse matrem" and "Fortune destrange plummaige/Pauper sum ego".


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin left numerous French chansons, for three to six voices, some of which were probably intended for instrumental performance as well. In his chansons, he often used a "cantus firmus", sometimes a popular song whose origin can no longer be traced, as in "Si j'avoye Marion". In other works he used a tune originally associated with a separate text, or freely composed an entire song, using no apparent external source material. Another technique Josquin used was to take a popular song and write it as a canon with itself, in two inner voices, and write new melodic material above and around it, to a new text: he did this in one of his most famous chansons, "Faulte d'argent".


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin's earliest chansons were probably composed in northern Europe, under the influence of composers such as Ockeghem and Busnois. Unlike them, he never adhered strictly to the conventions of the "formes fixes"—the rigid and complex repetition patterns of the rondeau, virelai, and ballade—instead he often wrote his early chansons in strict imitation, as with many of his sacred works. He was one of the first to write chansons with all voices equal parts of the texture, and many contain points of imitation, similar to his motets. He also used melodic repetition, especially where the lines of text rhymed, and many of his chansons had a lighter texture and faster tempo than his motets. Some of his chansons were almost certainly designed to be performed with instruments; Petrucci published many of them without text, and some of the pieces (for example, the fanfare-like "Vive le roy") contain writing more idiomatic for instruments than voices. Josquin's most famous chansons circulated widely in Europe; some of the better-known include his lament on the death of Ockeghem, "Nymphes des bois/Requiem aeternam"; "Mille regretz", an uncertain attribution to Josquin; "Nimphes, nappés"; and "Plus nulz regretz".


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Josquin also wrote at least three pieces in the manner of the frottola, a popular Italian song form which he would have heard during his years in Milan. These songs include "Scaramella", "El grillo" and "In te domine speravi". They are even simpler in texture than his French chansons, being almost uniformly syllabic and homophonic, and they remain among his most frequently performed pieces.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: A small woodcut portraying Josquin is the most reproduced image of any Renaissance composer. Printed in Petrus Opmeer's 1611 "Opus chronographicum orbis universi", the woodcut is the earliest known depiction of Josquin and presumably based on an oil painting which Opmeer says was kept in the collegiate church of St. Goedele. Church documents discovered in the 1990s have corroborated Opmeer's statement about the painting's existence. It may have been painted during Josquin's lifetime and was owned by Petrus Jacobi (), a cantor and organist at St. Gudula, Brussels. Following the will's instructions, the altarpiece was placed next to Jacobi's tomb, but it was destroyed in the late 16th century by Protestant iconoclasts. Whether the woodcut is a realistic likeness of the oil painting remains uncertain; Elders notes that comparisons between contemporaneous woodcuts based on original paintings that do survive often show incompetent realizations, putting the accuracy of the woodcut in question.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: The "Portrait of a Musician", widely attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, depicts a man holding sheet music, which has led many scholars to identify him as a musician. The work is usually dated to the mid-1480s, and numerous candidates have been proposed, including Franchinus Gaffurius and Atalante Migliorotti, though none have achieved wide approval. In 1972, the Belgian musicologist argued the subject is Josquin; she interpreted the words on the sitter's sheet music as "Cont" (an abbreviation of "Contratenor"), "Cantuz" (Cantus) and "A Z" (an abbreviation of "Altuz"), and she identified the music as Josquin's "llibata Dei Virgo nutrix". Several factors make this unlikely: the painting does not resemble the Opmeer portrait, the notation is largely illegible and as a priest in his mid-thirties Josquin does not seem like the younger layperson in the portrait. Fallows disagrees, noting that "a lot of new details point to Josquin, who was the right age, in the right place, had already served at least two kings, and was now rich enough to have his portrait painted by the best", but concludes that "we shall probably never know who Leonardo's musician was".


title: Josquin des Prez

text: A portrait from the early 16th century kept in the Galleria nazionale di Parma is often related to Josquin. It is usually attributed to Filippo Mazzola, and is thought to depict the Italian music theorist , though neither the attribution nor sitter are certain. The man in the painting is holding an altered version of Josquin's canon "Guillaume se va chauffer". Fallows notes that the subject has similar facial features to the portrait printed by Opmeer, but concludes that there is not enough evidence to conclude Josquin is the sitter. Clercx-Lejeune also suggested Josquin was depicted in Jean Perréal's fresco of the liberal arts in Le Puy Cathedral, but this has not achieved acceptance from other scholars. An 1811 painting by depicts Josquin; it was created long after the composer's death, but Clercx-Lejeune has contended that it is an older portrait which Housez restored and modified.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Elders described Josquin as "the first composer in the history of Western music not to have been forgotten after his death", while John Milsom called him "the towering composer of the Renaissance". Fallows wrote that his influence on 16th century European music is comparable to that of Beethoven on the 19th and Igor Stravinsky on the 20th century. Comparisons with Beethoven are particularly common, though Taruskin cautions that:


title: Josquin des Prez

text: His popularity led to imitation by fellow composers, and some publishers (especially in Germany) misattributed works to him after his death to meet the demand for new Josquin compositions. This inspired a well-known remark that "now that Josquin is dead, he is producing more compositions than when he was still alive". Fallows asserts that the issue was more complex than publishers attempting to increase their profits: similar names of composers and compositions caused confusion, as did works which quoted Josquin, or student works which imitated his style. Josquin's pupils may have included Jean Lhéritier and Nicolas Gombert; Coclico claimed to be his student, though his statements are notoriously unreliable.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Numerous composers wrote laments after his death, three of which were published by Tielman Susato in a 1545 edition of Josquin's music. These included works by Benedictus Appenzeller, Gombert, Jacquet of Mantua and Jheronimus Vinders, as well as the anonymous "Absolve, quaesumus", while Jean Richafort's requiem musically quoted him. Josquin's compositions traveled widely after his death, more so than those of Du Fay, Ockeghem and Obrecht combined. Surviving copies of his motets and masses in Spanish cathedrals date from the mid-16th century, and the Sistine Chapel is known to have performed his works regularly throughout the late 16th century and into the 17th. Instrumental arrangements of his works were often published from the 1530s to the 1590s. Josquin was described by Taruskin as the "master architect" of High Renaissance music, and his compositions were parodied or quoted throughout Europe by almost every major composer of the later Renaissance, including Arcadelt, Brumel, Bartolomé de Escobedo, Antoine de Févin, Robert de Févin, George de La Hèle, Lupus Hellinck, , Lassus, Jacquet, Claudio Merulo, Philippe de Monte, Pierre Moulu, Philippe Rogier, Palestrina, Cipriano de Rore, Nicola Vicentino and Willaert.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: There is little information on Josquin's reputation during his lifetime. His composition of masses was commended by , and the poet Jean Molinet and the music theorists Gaffurius and Pietro Aron wrote about his works. Josquin's popularity during his lifetime is also suggested by publications: Petrucci's "Misse Josquin" of 1502 was the first single-composer mass anthology, and Josquin was the only composer whose masses merited a second and a third volume. Fallows asserts that Josquin gained European renown between 1494 and 1503, since the Petrucci publications and references by Gaffurius and Molinet occurred during this time. After Josquin's death, humanists such as Cosimo Bartoli, Baldassare Castiglione and François Rabelais praised him, with Bartoli describing him as Michelangelo's equal in music. Josquin was championed by the later theorists Heinrich Glarean and Gioseffo Zarlino, and the theologian Martin Luther declared "he is the master of the notes. They must do as he wills; as for the other composers, they have to do as the notes will."


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Upon the emergence of Baroque music in the 17th century, Josquin's dominance began to lessen. He was overshadowed by Palestrina, who dominated the pre-common practice period musical narrative, and whose compositions were considered the summit of polyphonic refinement. Until the 20th century, discussion of Josquin's music was mainly limited to music scholars such as the theorists Angelo Berardi in the 1680s–1690s, and Johann Gottfried Walther in 1732. The late 18th century saw a new interest in Netherlandish music: studies from Charles Burney, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, and François-Joseph Fétis gave Josquin more prominence. The music historian August Wilhelm Ambros described Josquin in the 1860s as "one of the towering figures of Western music history, not merely a forerunner of Palestrina but his equal", and his research established the foundation for modern Josquin scholarship. In the early 20th century, leading musicologists such as Alfred Einstein and Carl Dahlhaus largely dismissed Josquin. Various publications then began to raise his status, beginning with a new edition of his complete works by Albert Smijers (1920s) and high evaluation by Friedrich Blume in the "" series. The early music revival raised Josquin's status, and brought the first major study on him by Helmuth Osthoff (Vol 1 1962/Vol 2 1965), an influential article by Lowinsky (1964), and debates between the musicologist Joseph Kerman and Lowinsky (1965). The 1971 International Josquin Festival-Conference firmly established Josquin in the center of Renaissance music, a position later cemented by Lowinsky's 1976 monograph. The "New Josquin Edition" began publication in 1987.


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Reflecting on the sentiment that Josquin was "the greatest composer of his generation, and the most important, innovative, and influential composer of the late 15th and early 16th centuries", Sherr notes growing dissent from that position in the early 21st century. Josquin's 2001 article in "Grove Music Online" lists less than 200 works attributed to him, down from more than 370. These revisions of Josquin's "oeuvre" have compromised some earlier scholarship which analyzed Josquin's style with works now not considered his. Major revision has also occurred in Josquin's biography, with entire portions of it being rewritten due to Josquin having being confused with people with similar names. Controversy has arisen about the extent of Josquin's influence; there is no doubt about his importance in Western music, but some scholars have contended that the extent of his reevaluation has unrealistically apotheosized him over his contemporaries. Wegman asserts that Obrecht was more highly regarded in Josquin's time, to which Noble has noted that Josquin's prestigious positions, publications and employers "scarcely looks like the career of an unregarded composer". Reflecting on the dispute, Sherr has concluded that Josquin's reputation is somewhat lessened, but on the basis of his most admired and firmly attributed works "he remains one of the towering figures in the history of music".


title: Josquin des Prez

text: Since the 1950s, Josquin's music has become central to the repertoire of many early music vocal ensembles and has been increasingly featured in recordings, with those by the Hilliard Ensemble, Orlando Consort, and A Sei Voci recommended by critics in the "1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die" (2017) survey. The Tallis Scholars have recorded all of Josquin's masses, and won the "Gramophone" "record of the year" in 1987 for their recording of "Missa Pange lingua", the only early music group to do so. Josquin's presence in 21st-century scholarship remains strong; he was the subject of David Fallows's major monograph (2009), which is currently the standard biography for the composer, and he and Machaut were the only pre-Baroque composers to have entire chapters in Taruskin's "Oxford History of Western Music" (2005). The 500th anniversary of Josquin's death in 2021 was widely commemorated.


title: Laurentino Cortizo

text: Laurentino "Nito" Cortizo Cohen (; born 30 January 1953) is a Panamanian politician who has served as the President of Panama since 2019. Cortizo is the former President of the National Assembly and Minister of Agricultural and Livestock Development. He was also a member of the National Assembly between 1994 and 2004, serving a year as chamber president.


title: Laurentino Cortizo

text: A member of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, he was elected as president on in the 2019 general election, winning 33.27% of the vote. He took office on 1 July 2019.


title: Laurentino Cortizo

text: Laurentino Cortizo Cohen was born in Panama City to Laurentino Cortizo, a Galician from Beariz, Spain, and Esther Cohen, of Jewish descent.


title: Laurentino Cortizo

text: The eldest of six siblings, Cortizo attended Javier Elementary School and completed his secondary education at La Salle College in Diriamba, Nicaragua. He then went on to attend the Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania. After this, he studied at Norwich University in Vermont, the oldest military college in the United States. Cortizo then attended the University of Texas at Austin, earning a master's degree in business administration and later a doctorate.


title: Laurentino Cortizo

text: After graduation, Cortizo moved to Washington, D.C., in 1981 to work as a technical advisor to the secretary-general of the Organisation of American States (OAS).


title: Laurentino Cortizo

text: In November 1986, Cortizo assumed the role of Panama's alternate ambassador to the OAS. During that time, he was a member of the budget committee and the working group for the private sector. In addition, Cortizo chaired the working group for development problems of the states of the Central American isthmus and the permanent executive committee of the economic and social council.


title: Laurentino Cortizo

text: Cortizo served as a member of the National Assembly from 1994 to 2004 and is described as being from the centrist wing of his party. He became President of the National Assembly in 2000, serving until 2001.


title: Laurentino Cortizo

text: He also served as Minister of Agricultural and Livestock Development under President Martín Torrijos, however he resigned in 2006 due to his objections to the negotiations made in pursuit of the US-Panama Free Trade Agreement.


title: Laurentino Cortizo

text: Cortizo is married to Yazmín Colón de Cortizo. They have two children, Carolina and Jorge. Carolina is currently the director of Wingo that is part of Copa Airlines.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: The border between Norway and Russia (, , "Rossiysko-Norvezhskaya Granitsa") consists of a land border between Sør-Varanger, Norway, and Pechengsky District, Russia, and a marine border in the Varangerfjord. It further consists of a border between the two countries' exclusive economic zones (EEZ) in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean. Between 1944 and 1991 the border was between Norway and the Soviet Union. There is a single border crossing, on E105, located at Storskog in Norway and Borisoglebsky (Boris Gleb) in Russia. The Norwegian side is patrolled by the Garrison of Sør-Varanger and is under the jurisdiction of the Norwegian Border Commissioner, while the Russian side is patrolled by the Border Guard Service of Russia. Two-thirds of the border follows two rivers, the Pasvikelva and Jakobselva.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: The border was defined as a march in a treaty in 1326 and separated which parts of the Sami could be taxed by Norway and Russia. The border line was defined by a treaty in 1826 and essentially remains the same border today. In 1920 Petsamo was ceded to Finland and the border became part of the Finland–Norway border. Petsamo was ceded to the Soviet Union in 1944 and the Norway–Soviet Union border was established. During the Cold War, the border was one of two between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Soviet Union, the other being the Soviet Union's border with Turkey. From 1991 to 1999 it was the only border between Russia and NATO. It is Norway's youngest unchanged border. Since the 1960s there has been disagreement as to the border between the two countries' EEZs, but this was resolved by a delimitation agreement in 2010.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: From the 11th century Olaf III of Norway regarded the borders of Norway as reaching to the White Sea. The first Norwegians started moving to Finnmark in the 13th century. Vardøhus Fortress was erected by Norway in 1300 further east than today's land border, supporting Norwegian land ownership on the Varanger Peninsula. There were no permanent Norwegian settlements on the Kola Peninsula. In 1326 Norway and the Novgorod Republic signed an agreement regarding taxation of the Kola Peninsula and Finnmark. No border line was drawn, creating a marchland where both countries held the right to taxation of the Sami. Religiously motivated Russian colonization of the jointly taxed areas started in the 16th century, and Russian-Orthodox chapels were built at Neiden, Pechenga and Boris Gleb. This accelerated the need for a specific border line. In 1582 Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible declared the Kola Bay part of Russia, later specifying that Russia claimed all of Lapland. He further proposed that a new border line be drawn up. Denmark–Norway's King Frederick II responded by renewing the Norwegian claim to all land to the White Sea. His successor Christian IV traveled along the Finnmark coast in 1599 to increase the weight of the claims. As part of the Treaty of Knäred in 1613, Sweden abandoned all claims in Finnmark.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: The Dano-Norwegian government took the initiative to establish a border line in 1789. Russian authorities agreed, but because of the Russo-Turkish War no work was undertaken. New Dano-Norwegian requests were raised in 1793, 1797, and 1809, without action from their Russian counterpart. Norway joined a union with Sweden in 1814 and two years later King Carl John again tried to start negotiations, without success. In 1825, however, a common Norwegian and Russian commission was established to draw a border line, resulting in a report and a map which was approved by both countries' authorities. The treaty was signed in Saint Petersburg on 14 May 1826, and the following summer border poles were laid along the border. The thalweg principle was followed in the Jakobselva and Pasvikelva Rivers. Along the land borders the boundary markers were laid at a distance of 6 alen or 5 arshin (). The border remains Norway's youngest unchanged border and Russia's oldest.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: The border was reviewed in 1846; a cairn was constructed at Krokfjellet, and the land border from the sea to Golmmešoaivi was cleared. The marker at the mouth of the Jakobselva was gone and had to be rebuilt, while several others had to be repaired. It was agreed that there would be a review every twenty-five years, which was formalized through a declaration the following year. Some markers were repaired in 1857, and new reviews were carried out in 1871 and 1896. In the latter year the width of the cleared area increased to . Maps were created for the entire border line in 1:42,000 scale, and in 1:8400 scale for the area immediately surrounding each marker. A partial review was carried out between Neiden and the Tana River in 1912. Up until the 1940s the border had been open, without border controls; farmers at Grense Jakobselv, for instance, did not need to worry about whether or not their cattle were on the correct side of the border.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: During the late 19th century customs checkpoints were established at Elvenes and Grense Jakobselv. Norwegian authorities gave permission for customs-free transit of wares along Pasvikelva. There was a limited amount of trans-border trade, and import for personal use under certain volumes was customs-free. This was accelerated by significantly lower prices in Russia compared to Norway. From 1902 to 1917 the border crossing was used to smuggle revolutionary Russian literature into Russia. The material was printed at Finnmarken's printing press in Vadsø and smuggled over the border by boat. During World War I six soldiers were stationed at Nyborgmoen in Nesseby as "neutrality guards". This was gradually increased so that by 1918 there were 93 soldiers stationed in Sør-Varanger to guard the border.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: Finland declared its independence from Russia following the October Revolution, which was followed up with the 1920 Treaty of Tartu, which ceded Petsamo to Finland, thus giving Finland access to the Barents Sea. This resulted in Norway and the Soviet Union no longer having a common border. The planned 1921 review was not carried out. A treaty regarding the border was signed between Finland and Norway on 28 April 1924, replacing the 1826 treaty, but not changing the border line. A review was carried out in 1925. The border line at the mouth of the Jakobselva was revised on 12 September 1931, and new markers were placed in June 1939. When Finland owned the Petsamo area there was a car ferry over the river between Svanvik–Salmijärvi which was the main border crossing.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: The Moscow Armistice of 1944 and the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947 ceded Petsamo and other Finnish areas to the USSR. During Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II, northern Norway served as the staging area for the German attack on Murmansk. The Soviet Union made an excursion over the border in 1944 in the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive which aimed to extinguish the German military forces in the area. Soviet forces took the town of Kirkenes, which had been evacuated by the Germans who used scorched earth tactics, on 24 October 1944. Soviet troops continued west to Tana, but withdrew in September 1945.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: The ceding of Petsamo from Finland to the Soviet Union had no effect on the border, as the Soviet Union by default inherits the old border line. A common commission was created to the review the border, with negotiations taking place from 1 to 16 August 1946. The field review took place between 1 July and 4 September 1947. Norway initially proposed using cairns to mark the border, but the Soviet Union wanted to use the same method as along its other borders, with wooden markers, each from the border line. There was to be a free line of sight from each pair of markers to the next. The idea initially met resistance from Norwegian authorities of cost reasons, but they soon agreed on the principle to reduce unintentional border crossings. Markers in soil were dug down and markers on bedrock were fastened with four bolts. Border checkpoints were established at Skafferhullet and Boris Gleb. Geodesic measurements were undertaken to establish the border in accordance with the Bessel ellipsoid. The entire border area was mapped in 1:20,000.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: The Soviet authorities made proposals to change the border. The first was an equal exchange of land at Skoltefoss, but this was rejected by the Norwegian authorities as the proposed ceding was valuable for hydroelectricity. At Grensefoss Norway owned land on both sides of the border, but there was no interest by the Norwegian authorities to change the border as they wanted it to remain the same as from 1826. The border along Klistervatn and Fossevatn was set based on the maps from 1896. At the mouth of Jakobselva the maps from 1896 were of poor quality in combination with the thalweg having shifted since 1896. The thalweg line would create problems for the settlement at Grense Jakobselv, as they no longer would be able to use their harbor or have free access to the sea. The countries therefore agreed on a new line based on a Norwegian proposal, in exchange for the Soviet Union receiving three islets, including Kistholmen and Brennholmen, in the Pasvik River. The marine border within the territorial waters was established by a protocol signed on 15 February 1957. It was marked with two lead markers and originally stretched .


title: Norway–Russia border

text: During the Soviet era the border was guarded by Soviet border troops. The border was one of the two land borders between NATO and the Soviet Union, the other being the Soviet Union–Turkey border. This ensured that Russia–Norway border relations were a relevant matter for other NATO allies. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was considered Norway's main enemy and Norway maintained a large military presence on the border. Norwegian government plans for the defense of Finnmark against the Soviet Union during the Cold War were based on using scorched earth tactics in the event of the Soviets crossing the border. The whole county of Finnmark was regarded by NATO as a buffer zone. Norwegian military leaders regarded the population in the county as potentially unreliable, and did not trust that they would be willing to defend their country against intruders, on account of the county's special ethnic and political composition, specifically Sami people and a higher number of communist sympathizers than elsewhere.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: On the Norwegian side the border was from 1948 to 1950 patrolled by the National Mobile Police Service. From 1950 the responsibility was transferred to Sør-Varanger Police District, who received 25 officers from around the country. From 15 July 1955 the responsibility was taken over by the Norwegian Border Commission, who had nine outpost sergeants and 42 officers. This was terminated on 29 December 1958, when the responsibility was transferred to the Norwegian Army, who created the Garrison of Sør-Varanger.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: Initially all meetings between the Norwegian and Soviet commissioners and their staff was held at the Storskog–Boris Gleb crossing. The Soviets quickly bought a small cabin to host meetings. If the meeting was initiated by the Soviets, it was held in the premises, while it was held outdoors if initiated by the Norwegians, unless circumstances dictated that it had to be held indoors. This caused the Norwegian authorities to build a conference room on their side of the border, which opened in 1956. Initially meetings between the two commissioners would be called by hoisting a flag or red lamp at the border, and the other country's soldiers would alert the commissioner, who would meet within two hours. Later a telephone connection was installed and the parties agreed on two hours each week day that they were to be available along with an interpreter. Initially the Soviet commissioner was based in Salmijärvi, but later moved to Nikel.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: The area on both sides of the river saw an increased industrialization, especially Sydvaranger in Norway and Pechenganikel (now, part of MMC Norilsk Nickel) in Russia. This raised the question of utilizing Pasvikelven for hydroelectricity. An agreement was signed in 1957 which would result in the construction of four power stations, the Paatsjoki River Hydroelectric Plants, of which two were owned by each of the countries. All four were built by Norwegian contractors and as the sites were all built on both sides of the border, they required increased flexibility of border crossing procedures. This was further complicated by the workers not having a sense of the border being closed and frequent, innocent transgressions of the border protocols. The power plants opened between 1963 and 1978. Up until the power plants opened the river had been used for log driving from Finland to the sawmill at Elvenes, which was permitted according to the border treaty.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: There have been a limited number of illegal crossings of the border. For instance an American in 1947 and a West German in 1964 both received a few weeks in detention and smaller fines. During the summer of 1965 a trial was made whereby Norwegians could visit Boris Gleb without a visa. This was organized by the creation of a separate border checkpoint at Skafferhullet. Although this was intended only for the local population, the 27-year-old American tourist Newcomb Mott chose to cross the border illegally and when he arrived at the border control, he was apprehended. He was tried and sentenced to one and a half years in a labor camp, but was later found dead on a train. This, combined with "vodka traffic" the visa-free crossing created and concerns of recruitment of Soviet spies, made Norwegian authorities terminate the Skafferhullet crossing and the visa-free project later that year.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: A Soviet border provocation on 7 June 1968, together with the invasion of Czechoslovakia that year and a general increase in Soviet military activity on the Norwegian border, contributed to a large increase in the funding for the Norwegian military presence on the border. Yet the Russia–Norway border is the only one of Russia's borders where an open war between the two bordering countries has not taken place. (there was a war between the Soviet Union and German controlled Norway which much affected this area)


title: Norway–Russia border

text: Proposals for conservation of the Norwegian part of Pasvikdalen was first launched by Carl Schøyen in 1936. An area of was preserved in 1951 and Øvre Pasvik National Park was created in 1970, with a slightly smaller area. The park was expanded to in 2003. On 7 December 1971 the two countries signed a protocol regarding protection of the fisheries in Jakobselven and Pasvikelven. In the late 1970s Norway, inspired by Finland, considered replacing the wooden poles with fibreglass as this would make them more durable and reduce maintenance. Two poles were replaced in 1979 and remained at the turn of the millennium. However, the authorities concluded that wooden poles were more suitable and more durable in relation to human contact, as Norway, unlike Russia and Finland, allows people to travel up to the border. In 1989 there were 2,000 border crossings.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 caused the Norway–Soviet Union border to become the Norway–Russia border. This resulted in a more liberal border crossing policy, which saw the number of crossings increase to 80,000 by 1992. For Norwegian authorities this meant that police and customs authorities would have to be regularly stationed at the border. A large amount of the initial traffic was from Russians who sold crafts and souvenirs at markets and fairs throughout Finnmark. From 1992 Norwegian authorities introduced limitations on the activity, resulting in a reduction in trans-border traffic. However, by 1998 the traffic had nearly hit 100,000.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: From 1991 to 1999 (Poland joining NATO), Norway was the only NATO country to share a land border with Russia. This caused a decrease in allied interest in Norway's border issue, leaving Norway more to itself in managing the relationship. Cooperation concerning conservation of nature started in 1990. It was initially a Norwegian proposal to protect the important bird area and lake of Fjærvann, and resulted in a joint Norwegian and Russian Pasvik Nature Reserve. The Russian part was formally established in 1992 and the Norwegian part the following year.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: In 2003 a new border station was opened at Borisoglebsk, financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Norway and Russia signed a protocol on 11 July 2007 which established the border through the Varangerfjord out from land. In 2011 the two countries agreed to replace the wooden markers with poles made of composite materials. This was to reduce the need for maintenance, as the new markers are expected to have a life span up to fifty years, compared to five to ten years for wooden poles. This took place at the same time as a review of the border and creation of new maps along a wide corridor on both sides of the border line. New maps were completed in 2012.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: Work started in 2011 on the Russian side and 2014 on the Norwegian side of the border to upgrade the E105 highway. It was completed in 2017 with a new tunnel and bridge on the Norway side of the border. The driving time between Kirkenes and Murmansk, the regional capital on the Russian side, is now about three hours unless there are delays at the border. The border station at Storskog was upgraded for increased capacity with completion in April 2012. Residents of Sør-Varanger and parts of Pechengsky District can from 29 May 2012 visit the other country without a visa (but they need a permit, a kind of multi-travel visa), on the condition that they do not travel outside a zone from the border. On 29 April 2022, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Norway closed its border to Russian freight. However, Russian fishing vessels are exempt from the sanctions.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: Negotiations on the outside marine border were initiated in 1970. Norway claimed, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Article 15 and the Convention on the High Seas, that the border should follow the equidistance principle, the border being defined by midpoints between the nearest land area or islands, as is normal practice internationally. The Soviet Union claimed, based on a decision by Joseph Stalin from 1926, which was not recognized by any other country than the Soviet Union, that a "sector principle" should apply, such that the border should follow meridian lines. Most of the disputed area was within what would normally be considered Norwegian according to the relevant international treaties. In 1975 the two countries agreed upon a moratorium prohibiting exploration for oil and gas in the disputed area.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: In 1978 a temporary agreement regulating fishery in a zone, named The Grey Zone in some documents from the same period, was signed, which has since been renewed annually. From the Norwegian side, the agreement was negotiated by Labour Party politician Jens Evensen and his protégé Arne Treholt, who was later exposed as a Soviet spy and convicted of high treason. The agreement was highly controversial in Norway. Many Norwegians believed that Evensen and Treholt gave too many concessions to the Soviet Union, and that they were motivated by Soviet sympathies. The agreement caused consternation in parliament and government, and Evensen had difficulty receiving acceptance from his own government, where many held the opinion that he had exceeded his authority. The opposition criticized him for having accepted less than Norway's rightful claim. Treholt, who was then serving a twenty-year sentence, admitted in 1990 that he had acted as an informer for the Soviet negotiators. The arrest and conviction of Treholt in 1984 and 1985 had a devastating effect on Evensen, who withdrew completely from public life in Norway. In 1989, Evensen compared Treholt to Vidkun Quisling.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: During a meeting in Oslo on 27 April 2010, President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg announced that the territorial dispute in the Barents Sea was settled. The agreement is a compromise which divides a disputed area of around into two approximately equally sized parts. The agreement was signed on 15 September 2010 in Murmansk by Medvedev and Stoltenberg. The Parliament of Norway unanimously approved the treaty on 8 February 2011. The debate lasted only an hour, and all representatives of Norwegian political parties praised the agreement. On 30 March, Russia's State Duma also voted in support of ratification, despite strong opposition from Communist Party representatives. Medvedev signed a law ratifying the treaty on 8 April 2011. The law was titled "Federal Law on Ratification of the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the Kingdom of Norway on Maritime Delimitation and Cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean". After ratification by both countries, there was a 30-day waiting period before it came into force. The treaty entered force on 7 July 2011, ending the 44-year-old border dispute.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: The treaty stipulates conditions for fishing cooperation, providing for the retention of the mechanism to jointly regulate fishing in the Barents Sea. The treaty also defines the principles of cooperation in hydrocarbons deposits exploration. A deposit which is crossed by the maritime border may only be exploited as a whole subject to a bilateral agreement. The border treaty is economically significant, as it makes possible to conduct geological surveys and hydrocarbons drilling in the formerly disputed area, which is estimated to contain up to 6.8 billion tons of oil and gas. The area is located west of Shtokman, one of the world's largest natural gas fields. According to Anatoly Zolotukhin, vice president of World Petroleum Council, it is "a very prolific area—maybe even more prolific than Shtokman". The Norwegian company Petroleum Geo-Services has been contracted to begin surveying the Norwegian part of the area in 2011. Seismic acquisition in Norway's new maritime zone started on 8 July 2011, and is scheduled to be completed in summer 2012.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: In 2015 an Arctic route through the Storskog border crossing was established by migrants to the European Union/EEA. The Arctic route involves fewer border crossings and avoids any dangerous sea crossings. Migrants began to cross the border riding bicycles, as pedestrians are not allowed in the Russian border area, and public transport operators and private car drivers are heavily penalised for transporting passengers who lack official documentation. Between August and October 2015 the number of migrants transiting through Storskog doubled every week.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: The loophole was closed in January 2016, when juxtaposed controls were introduced, and a border barrier was erected. An estimated 5,500 to 10,800 migrants, mostly from Syria, crossed the border riding bicycles.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: The river of Pasvikelva is long and runs through the valley of Pasvikdalen. The river drains Finland's Lake Inari and empties into Varangerfjord at Elvenes. After a very short section in Finland, the river runs through Russia before reaching the Norway–Russia border, after which is acts as a border river for . Prior to being dammed the river consisted of nine lakes and fifteen waterfalls. It was originally possible to travel the entire length of the river by boat, but the current seven dams make it difficult as boats must be carried past the dams. The river falls and the entire high difference is regulated and used for hydroelectricity. Finland receives compensation for the impact on Lake Inari, which is regulated for level difference of .


title: Norway–Russia border

text: Both countries have appointed a border commissioner to uphold the border treaty and its protocols. The Norwegian Border Commissioner is based in Kirkenes and is subordinate to the National Police Directorate. The Russian commissioner is based in Nikel. Norwegian border patrolling is undertaken by the Garrison of Sør-Varanger, which largely bases itself on use of conscripts. In Russia border patrolling is carried out by the Border Guard Service of Russia and the Federal Security Service. The EEZs are patrolled by the Norwegian Coast Guard and the Russian FSB Coast Guard, respectively.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: The border is marked with 415 border markers, consisting of 387 pairs of poles, 25 cairns, two lead markers and one stake. The three-country cairn is unnumbered, while the remaining markers are numbered from 1 through 415 starting at the Finnish border. Each of the pairs of poles are both located from the border, unless the border runs through water. The Norwegian markers are yellow with a tall black top—this was chosen because it would be most visible in all types of weather and lighting. The Russian markers have a pattern of alternating red and green, each tall. The red was chosen to symbolize the Flag of the Soviet Union, while the green symbolized the color of the border guards' uniforms. Both poles have the respective country's coat of arms on the side facing the border. While originally made of wood, the border markers are now made of composite materials.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: Each country has the responsibility for maintenance of its boundary markers and keeping the clear-cut zone. Most of the maintenance is undertaken during the summer. In August each year there is a common inspection of the entire border. The practical responsibility alternates between the two countries each year. It is carried out by three groups, each which cover a third of the border. Each group consists of two Norwegians and two Russians and the inspection takes two to three days. Afterwards there is a common debriefing.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: On the Norwegian side there are no physical hindrances on the border and it is permitted to move all the way to the border itself, except for Storskog, Skafferhullet, and some hydro power stations, where there are fences where roads reach the border. On the Russian side there is a fence located anywhere between from the border. Although not electrified, it has sensors which will notify the border controllers if touched. The fence stretches the entire distance between the Barents Sea and the Gulf of Finland and was built during the Cold War to keep in the population of the Soviet Union. It remains the only barbed-wire fence along a Russian border in Europe. Within lies the Border Security Zone which civilians are not permitted access to. Photography from one country into the other is only permitted if the pictures do not include military personnel and installations, that tripods are not used and not using longer than 200 mm lenses.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: Norwegian border police issued an announcement in 2016 that it is forbidden to cross the border on land, water and in air, including at border markers (except with permission or at the border station), or to have contact with people across the border or throw things over the border. This is already written in the law.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: There is one legal border crossing point, with stations on both sides, at Storskog in Norway and Borisoglebsky in Russia, located on the E105 highway some 15 km east of Kirkenes. Crossing time at both stations is unpredictable and depends on the amount of traffic. The crossing is open between 07:00 and 21:00 Norwegian time. Immigration control at Storskog is carried out by Eastern Finnmark Police District, while customs are carried out by the Norwegian Customs and Excise Authorities. The Norwegian Border Commissioner also has representatives at the checkpoint. It is the only one of Norway's land border crossings which does not border the Schengen Area and thus the only one manned by the police.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: The Border Guard Service of Russia operates the border crossing at Borisoglebsky. It consists of a customs area and a border control area, both with independent checks. Once past Borisoglebsky travelers enter the Border Security Zone, a twenty-minute transit-only area. The road is located outside the barbed-wire fence which stretches along Russia's entire Norway and Finland border. Upon reaching the end of the transit zone there is another checkpoint at which there is performed a check of passports. Previously there was also another checkpoint located at Titovka, between Nikel and Murmansk. There are more border checkpoints today than during the Cold War.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: Since 29 September 2017, a new bridge has been opened passing the Pasvik river, with the Storskog-Borisoglebsk customs stations still handling the travels between the two countries.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: As of 2010 there were 140,855 border crossings, of which 19,000 were by Norwegians and the rest by Russians. There are five main motivations for trans-border traffic: shopping in border towns, business, vacation and leisure, visiting friends and relatives, and transfer to other destinations via Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen. Russian residents of Murmansk Oblast, Arkhangelsk Oblast and Nenets Autonomous Okrug can obtain Pomor visas, a multi-entry Schengen visa, without an invitation. In 2010, the Russian Consulate General in Kirkenes issued 8,000 visas to Norwegians.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: There is a special (almost) visa-free arrangement for a designated area of between surrounding the border, based on a clause in the Schengen Agreement. It is only available for residents of the zone for the past three years and requires that a special ID-card be acquired from the consulate of the country to visit (a kind of multiple-journey visa). Stay is limited to 15 days. Towns within the area include Kirkenes in Norway and Nikel, Pechenga and Zapolyarny in Russia. 9,000 Norwegians and 45,000 Russians are eligible for this arrangement. After a similar agreement on border between Poland and Kaliningrad Oblast it is the second time such a visa-free border agreement has been made between Russia and part of the Schengen Area. The distance 30 km is calculated as straight distances on the map, so local Norwegians can visit Zapolyarny which is the largest city in the border area, located 11 km (7 mi) from the border, but 50 km (31 mi) from the border station by road.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: There are more roads which cross the border and connect to the road network of both countries. They are not open to public. These are the two Paatsjoki river hydroelectric plants: Hevoskoski and Skogfoss. Also the historic border crossing at Skafferhullet has such a road, and there is one over the upper part of Jakobselva river.


title: Norway–Russia border

text: As Norway grants the right to travel right up to the border, it is also permitted for residents of Norway to operate boats in the two border rivers and fish. All boats must be registered with the Norwegian Border Commission and registration plates must be mounted on both sides of the vessel. Boating is only permitted in daylight. Fishing and boating is only permitted on the Norwegian side of the river; however in the narrow passages of Pasvikelva it is permitted to travel through on the Russian side on the condition that the boat does not stop, except in emergencies. Parts of Pasvikelva is marked with yellow buoys along the border line during summer.