Pierre Attaingnant

Pierre Attaingnant or Attaignant (c. 1494 – late 1551 or 1552) was a French music publisher, active in Paris. He was one of the first to print music by single-impression printing, greatly reducing the labor involved, and he published music by more than 150 composers.

Life

Attaingnant learned the printing trade by printing first "livres d'heure" with the printer Philippe Pigouchet who sold them to Simon Vostre book shop located in St John the evangelist street near the Sorbonne University in the Parisian student district. Later Pigouchet became Attaingnant's father-in-law when Attaingnant married his daughter.

Attaingnant published over 1500 chansons by many different composers, including Paris composers Claudin de Sermisy, Pierre Sandrin and Pierre Certon, and most prominently Clément Janequin with five books of chansons by Josquin Desprez . Attaingnant acquired royal privileges for his music books, which were renewed many times. In 1537, he was named imprimeur et libraire du Roy en musique (printer and bookseller of the King for music) for Francis I of France.

Works

Attaingnant's major contribution to music printing consists in his popularizing the single-impression method for music printing, which he first employed in his 1528 publication Chansons nouvelles en musique à quatre parties, a book of chansons. In this system, the individual notes were printed directly onto segments of staff, and so the notes, staff lines, and text could all be printed with one send through the printing press. The main disadvantage of this method was the alignment of the staff lines, which often had a “bumpy” look—-some being slightly higher or slightly disjointed from others.