Pierre Attaingnant orAttaignant (c. 1494 – late 1551 or 1552) was a Frenchmusic publisher,[1] 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.[1]
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 theSorbonne University in the Parisian student district. Later Pigouchet became Attaingnant's father-in-law when Attaingnant married his daughter.
Attaingnant published over 1500chansons by many different composers, including Paris composersClaudin de Sermisy,Pierre Sandrin andPierre Certon, and most prominentlyClément Janequin with five books of chansons byJosquin Desprez . Attaingnant acquiredroyal privileges for his music books, which were renewed many times. In 1537, he was namedimprimeur et libraire du Roy en musique (printer and bookseller of the King for music) forFrancis I of France.[1]
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 publicationChansons nouvelles en musique à quatre parties, a book ofchansons.[1] In this system, the individualnotes were printed directly onto segments ofstaff, and so the notes, staff lines, and text could all be printed with one send through theprinting 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. Nevertheless, this method became standard music printing acrossEurope in the 16th and 17th centuries.[1]
Though Attaingnant is often credited with being the first to develop this technique, one scholar has suggested that John Rastell, an English printer in London, was the first to use single-impression printing in 1520.[2] Attaingnant's biographer Daniel Heartz, in contrast, analyzed the printer's inventory records and other documents and concluded that Attaingnant's claims of inventing the technique were likely true.[3]
Apart from his 36 collections of chansons, he also published books with pieces inlute or keyboardtablature, as well asMasses andmotets.
Among the most important documents for keyboard music in general and for French Renaissance keyboard music in particular are the seven volumes published by Attaingnant in Paris in the spring of 1531:
Of Attaingnant's publications, 111 are known to have survived to the present day, and they form an important source of information about sixteenth-century music.[1]
