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Artus Aux-Cousteaux

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One page of Aux-Cousteaux's Psalmi aliquot... (Paris, Pierre I Ballard, 1631).

Artus Aux-Cousteaux (Hautcousteaux, Haultcousteau, Arthur d'Auxcousteaux; c. 1590-1656) was a French singer and composer, active in Picardy and Paris.

He was born in Picardy in either Beauvais (according to Charles Magnin) or Saint-Quentin (according to Charles Gomart). His family coat of arms contains a pun on his name; it is Azur à trois cousteaux, d'argent garnis d'or ("Azure on three sides, of silver decorated with gold").

He was a singer in the church of Noyon, of which fact there is a record in the library of Amiens. Then he became Maistre de la Sainte Chapelle at Paris. According to the preface to Antoine Godeau's 1656 psalter published by Pierre Le Petit [fr], he was a haute-contre in the chapel of Louis XIII.

He left many masses and chansons, all printed by Pierre I Ballard [fr] of Paris. His style is remarkably in advance of his contemporaries, and François-Joseph Fétis believes him to have studied the Italian masters.

Sources

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Jean-Paul C. Montagnier, The Polyphonic Mass in France, 1600-1780: The Evidence of the Printed Choirbooks, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainGrove, George, ed. (1900). "Auxcousteaux, Arthur d'. A Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London: Macmillan and Company.