composer

Attaignant, Pierre

Date of birth: c. 1490
Date of death: c. 1552

Pierre Attaignant (c. 1490-c. 1552) was one of the first publishers of music able to print on a large scale by using a new music-printing technique that was much faster and cheaper than that by his predecessors such as Ottaviano Petrucci. He published many chansons by Paris composers Claudin de Sermisy, Pierre Certon, Clément Janequin and Pierre Sandrin. But these famous composers not only composed chansons of a more or less burlesque nature; they wrote sacred music as well. Some scholars also name Pierre Attaignant as a composer, but this is not certain.