composer

Sarton, Joannes

Joannes Sarton is an unknown name in music history, unless one agrees with Emily Robertson in her thorough and extensive paper in Current Musicology 88, 2009. She produces several arguments to assume that Jean Sarton and Pierre Certon are one and the same composer; their names seem to be interchangeable in literature, and especially the musical and stylistic DNA look very much Certon’s.
Pierre Certon (c. 1510-1572) lived most of his life in Paris. He appears in the records in 1527, when he was in the service of the king. Thanks to his youth he escaped imprisonment for severe irreverences in 1530: one of which was playing ball in Notre-Dame Cathedral. From this events a birthdate is deducted: between 1510 and 1520.
In 1536 he got the appointment of Master of the choristers at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and he served this post for the rest of his life. Besides this he was a cat the cathedral of Melun - his probable town of birth.
He was a close friend of Claudin de Sermisy, whom he admired greatly, as evidenced by the lament he wrote for his death in 1562. This lament was modeled after the lament for the death of Johannes Ockeghem by Josquin DesPrez.
Cees Wagemakers, 2017