Fourteen different composers are represented in the Cantiones. Three of them – Gombert, Jacquet, and Willaert, composed 16 motets – the majority of the anthology. The works of the remaining ten composers who contributed just a single motet, in addition to Johannes Lupi's two pieces, are the subject of this chapter.

Maistre Jhan, Pater noster (no. 1)

Schöffer opens his anthology with Maistre Jhan of Ferrara's settings of the Pater noster and the Ave Maria. Although the pairing of these two texts was common in spoken prayers, it was not until Josquin had set them together in his six-voice motet that the idea apparently caught on as a concept among composers. Josquin's setting was first published posthumously in the Novum et insigne opus musicum (Nuremberg: Ott & Formschneider, 1537), although it appeared as the second item in the collection. However, Johannes Petreius also began his Modulationes (1538) with Willaert's four-voice setting of the Pater noster–Ave Maria, an editorial decision which may have inspired Schöffer also to give prime position to Maistre Jhan's setting in his Cantiones the following year. With Maistre Jhan having possibly only died a few months previously in October 1538, Schöffer may also have considered this a way to pay homage to the composer, although no mention of him is made in the anthology's prefatory material.

Maistre Jhan's five-voice Pater noster–Ave Maria is 185 breves in length, the secunda pars being considerably shorter than the prima pars. The prima pars is based on the familiar Pater noster chant melody that begins with a stepwise rising third (see example 6.1), prevalent in many other sixteenth-century settings. Texturally, the work is largely homophonic and syllabic, often utilising just three or four voices at any one time, and reserving full five-part texture for particular moments of significance. The Ave Maria is based – albeit rather loosely – on the same chant that Josquin used for his four-voice Ave Maria… benedicta tu. Jhan's Ave Maria is also not in an altogether similar style to its Pater noster companion, being decidedly more contrapuntal, with the opening entries staggered between all voices, and with multiple melodies appearing simultaneously at the opening and without any attempt at proper imitation. In addition, smaller note values are scattered much more liberally through the secunda pars, with semiminim and fusa runs and ornamentation quite common.