WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.640 Welcome to the Deep Dive. Grab a seat, because 00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:07.139 today we are looking at something pretty wild. 00:00:07.749 --> 00:00:10.609 Imagine for a moment that you are scrolling through 00:00:10.609 --> 00:00:13.529 the grand, sweeping tapestry of the Renaissance. 00:00:13.849 --> 00:00:16.449 Right. You're passing by the towering names you 00:00:16.449 --> 00:00:18.730 already know, you know, the monarchs, the legendary 00:00:18.730 --> 00:00:21.190 artists, the people with massive biographies. 00:00:21.530 --> 00:00:24.870 And you suddenly stumble onto a single, surprisingly 00:00:24.870 --> 00:00:28.089 sparse Wikipedia article. Oh, incredibly sparse. 00:00:28.170 --> 00:00:30.010 Yeah, it's about a man named Pierre Cadillac. 00:00:30.030 --> 00:00:32.329 He was a French composer, likely a singer. And 00:00:32.329 --> 00:00:34.210 we know he was active roughly between the years 00:00:34.210 --> 00:00:38.549 1538 and 1558. And honestly, that is almost the 00:00:38.549 --> 00:00:40.950 entirety of his biographical footprint. Which 00:00:40.950 --> 00:00:43.109 makes this an incredibly compelling subject for 00:00:43.109 --> 00:00:45.189 us to explore today. I mean, our mission in this 00:00:45.189 --> 00:00:47.270 deep dive isn't just to recount dates because, 00:00:47.329 --> 00:00:49.090 well, we don't really have many dates to recount. 00:00:49.350 --> 00:00:52.369 We are looking at a fascinating paradox. How 00:00:52.369 --> 00:00:54.590 does a composer whose personal life is essentially 00:00:54.590 --> 00:00:57.729 a historical blank slate. managed to create what 00:00:57.729 --> 00:01:00.329 we can really only describe as a genuine 16th 00:01:00.329 --> 00:01:02.789 century viral hit. It's crazy. We're talking 00:01:02.789 --> 00:01:06.109 about a piece of music that completely outgrew 00:01:06.109 --> 00:01:09.209 its creator, swept across international borders, 00:01:09.450 --> 00:01:11.870 and took on a radically different life of its 00:01:11.870 --> 00:01:14.969 own. It is the ultimate story of the art, completely 00:01:14.969 --> 00:01:18.129 eclipsing the artist. You know, you often hear 00:01:18.129 --> 00:01:20.890 about famous historical figures where historians 00:01:20.890 --> 00:01:24.189 have preserved just every minute detail. What 00:01:24.189 --> 00:01:26.069 they ate for breakfast. Right. What they ate, 00:01:26.129 --> 00:01:28.430 who their bitter rivals were, the exact street 00:01:28.430 --> 00:01:31.450 they lived on. And Cadillac is the absolute inverse 00:01:31.450 --> 00:01:34.310 of that. The details we actually have about his 00:01:34.310 --> 00:01:37.989 lies are basically just a handful of very sparse 00:01:37.989 --> 00:01:40.989 historical breadcrumbs. Sparse is almost an understatement 00:01:40.989 --> 00:01:42.930 here. When we look at the historical record, 00:01:43.069 --> 00:01:44.790 he's like a ghost who just occasionally bumps 00:01:44.790 --> 00:01:46.670 into the furniture. That's a great way to put 00:01:46.670 --> 00:01:49.030 it. We know he was active in Gascony, which is 00:01:49.030 --> 00:01:52.230 a region in southwestern France. But his actual 00:01:52.230 --> 00:01:55.569 day -to -day existence, his personality, his 00:01:55.569 --> 00:01:58.269 struggles, all of that is largely a mystery to 00:01:58.269 --> 00:02:00.230 us. Okay, let's unpack this because the clues 00:02:00.230 --> 00:02:02.750 we do have are almost comical in how little they 00:02:02.750 --> 00:02:04.709 reveal. They really are. Let's start with clue 00:02:04.709 --> 00:02:07.530 number one, which is his name. The name Kadiak 00:02:07.530 --> 00:02:10.150 strongly suggests he was originally from a small 00:02:10.150 --> 00:02:12.849 town literally called Kadiak. Right down near 00:02:12.849 --> 00:02:15.169 the Pyrenees Mountains. Exactly, in the southern 00:02:15.169 --> 00:02:18.379 part of Gascony. So that gives us a geographic 00:02:18.379 --> 00:02:21.199 origin, a starting point on the map, but absolutely 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:24.000 nothing else. You are defined entirely by the 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:26.680 town you maybe came from. And that leads us to 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:29.960 the second clue, which is his first actual appearance 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:33.020 on the historical radar. The earliest known date 00:02:33.020 --> 00:02:37.919 of his activity is 1538. 1538. Yeah, and we only 00:02:37.919 --> 00:02:40.039 know this because a publisher named Jacques Modern 00:02:40.039 --> 00:02:43.259 printed some of his secular songs, his chansons, 00:02:43.259 --> 00:02:45.659 in the city of Lyon. Right, but even without... 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:47.960 publication, we have absolutely no idea where 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:50.240 Cadillac was actually living or working at the 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:52.099 time. None. He just suddenly exists in print. 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:54.759 He manifests out of thin air onto the page. To 00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:56.919 understand how significant that is, you have 00:02:56.919 --> 00:02:58.599 to remember what the publishing industry looked 00:02:58.599 --> 00:03:01.120 like in the late 1530s. It wasn't cheap. No, 00:03:01.180 --> 00:03:03.719 music printing was not a casual endeavor at all. 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:06.300 It was an expensive, laborious, and relatively 00:03:06.300 --> 00:03:09.840 new process. For Jacques Modern to invest the 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:12.439 resources to print Cadillac's secular songs, 00:03:12.699 --> 00:03:15.870 Cadillac didn't need a grand royal lineage or 00:03:15.870 --> 00:03:18.430 a heavily documented life. He just needed music 00:03:18.430 --> 00:03:20.849 that would sell. Precisely. He appears in the 00:03:20.849 --> 00:03:23.449 historical record solely because his work was 00:03:23.449 --> 00:03:26.090 deemed commercially viable. Which is a stark 00:03:26.090 --> 00:03:28.750 contrast to how we usually track historical figures 00:03:28.750 --> 00:03:31.710 through tax records or birth certificates. Right. 00:03:31.830 --> 00:03:35.370 And that brings us to the third clue. And honestly, 00:03:35.550 --> 00:03:37.250 this is where dealing with historical primary 00:03:37.250 --> 00:03:41.050 sources becomes incredibly frustrating. In 1551, 00:03:41.310 --> 00:03:43.530 so more than a decade after he first appears 00:03:43.530 --> 00:03:46.229 in print, we get a passing mention in a poem. 00:03:46.389 --> 00:03:49.689 A poem by a man named Bernard Dupuy. Right. And 00:03:49.689 --> 00:03:52.629 in this poem, Dupuy just casually mentions that 00:03:52.629 --> 00:03:55.370 Pierre Cadillac is residing in Auck, which was 00:03:55.370 --> 00:03:57.430 the historical capital of the Gascony region. 00:03:57.650 --> 00:03:59.710 But that's it. That is the extent of the information. 00:04:00.069 --> 00:04:02.689 The poem gives absolutely zero details about 00:04:02.689 --> 00:04:04.629 what Cadillac actually does for a living, who 00:04:04.629 --> 00:04:06.530 he is working for, or what his daily life looks 00:04:06.530 --> 00:04:09.110 like. It's nothing. It's essentially the 16th 00:04:09.110 --> 00:04:11.870 century equivalent of a friend tagging you in 00:04:11.870 --> 00:04:14.289 a social media post saying, hanging out in Auk 00:04:14.289 --> 00:04:17.050 with Pierre and providing absolutely zero context 00:04:17.050 --> 00:04:19.610 for anyone else reading it. What's fascinating 00:04:19.610 --> 00:04:22.550 here is how history preserves information. It 00:04:22.550 --> 00:04:25.529 is maddening for historians, but it perfectly 00:04:25.529 --> 00:04:27.870 illustrates the arbitrary nature of what gets 00:04:27.870 --> 00:04:30.610 saved. Totally arbitrary. Which brings us to 00:04:30.610 --> 00:04:33.649 the fourth and perhaps most concrete breadcrumb 00:04:33.649 --> 00:04:37.040 we have about his life. In 1556, we finally, 00:04:37.180 --> 00:04:40.100 unequivocally, get a job title. We know he was 00:04:40.100 --> 00:04:42.519 the choir master in Auck. Yes. But even then, 00:04:42.600 --> 00:04:44.300 the way we know this isn't from an employment 00:04:44.300 --> 00:04:46.879 contractor or a cathedral ledger. The only reason 00:04:46.879 --> 00:04:48.639 we know he was the choir master is because it 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:50.560 was printed on the title page of a publication 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:53.459 by a man named Duchemin. A completely secondary 00:04:53.459 --> 00:04:56.680 source of verification. Right. Duchemin published 00:04:56.680 --> 00:04:59.699 Cadillac's Miss Alma Redemptoris Matter, which 00:04:59.699 --> 00:05:01.959 is a setting of the mass, and he simply slapped 00:05:01.959 --> 00:05:04.220 Cadillac's title on the cover. You can literally 00:05:04.220 --> 00:05:06.459 count the facts of this man's life on one hand. 00:05:06.759 --> 00:05:10.180 Pyrenees Origins, a publication in 1538, a brief 00:05:10.180 --> 00:05:13.220 poetic shout out in 1551, and a choir master 00:05:13.220 --> 00:05:16.319 title on a piece of sheet music in 1556. That's 00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:19.060 his entire verified biography. That is it. But 00:05:19.060 --> 00:05:21.079 the contrast here is what makes this story so 00:05:21.079 --> 00:05:23.740 compelling. Because we have this near total void 00:05:23.740 --> 00:05:27.060 of biographical data, yet we have a surprisingly 00:05:27.060 --> 00:05:30.639 robust, meticulously preserved record of his 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:33.139 actual music. A huge amount of music. We still 00:05:33.139 --> 00:05:40.030 have 11 of his secular chansons, 24 motets. But 00:05:40.030 --> 00:05:43.189 is that really so unusual for the 16th century? 00:05:43.509 --> 00:05:45.730 How do you mean? Well, I imagine personal letters 00:05:45.730 --> 00:05:47.889 and paper records degrade naturally over time, 00:05:48.110 --> 00:05:50.550 right? But music that gets distributed, sung 00:05:50.550 --> 00:05:53.709 every Sunday, and copied by other musicians has 00:05:53.709 --> 00:05:56.329 a built -in survival mechanism. History completely 00:05:56.329 --> 00:05:59.449 forgot the man, but the musical ecosystem fiercely 00:05:59.449 --> 00:06:01.769 protected his sheet music. That's a very fair 00:06:01.769 --> 00:06:04.870 point. The utility of the music ensured its survival. 00:06:05.370 --> 00:06:07.230 And for you listening, it really begs the question, 00:06:07.389 --> 00:06:10.430 if he was just a regular choir master in Gascony 00:06:10.430 --> 00:06:13.230 with a seemingly quiet life, why did the musical 00:06:13.230 --> 00:06:15.850 ecosystem bother saving and distributing all 00:06:15.850 --> 00:06:17.810 this music? That is the big question. Here's 00:06:17.810 --> 00:06:19.430 where it gets really interesting, and it all 00:06:19.430 --> 00:06:21.329 traces back to what happened with his very early 00:06:21.329 --> 00:06:24.449 work. Exactly. To understand his impact, we have 00:06:24.449 --> 00:06:26.829 to look closely at those chansons he wrote early 00:06:26.829 --> 00:06:29.769 in his career. These were secular, everyday songs, 00:06:30.069 --> 00:06:34.009 mostly published between 1538 and 1541. And they 00:06:34.009 --> 00:06:35.750 were being pushed out by some major players. 00:06:35.970 --> 00:06:37.870 Very major. They were pushed out into the world 00:06:37.870 --> 00:06:40.889 by two major publishers of the era, Pierre Etagne 00:06:40.889 --> 00:06:43.850 in Paris and the aforementioned Jacques Modern 00:06:43.850 --> 00:06:46.910 in Lyon. And out of all these publications, one 00:06:46.910 --> 00:06:50.750 specific chanson absolutely catches fire. It 00:06:50.750 --> 00:06:53.290 becomes an extraordinary Europe -wide phenomenon. 00:06:53.569 --> 00:06:56.870 A true, undeniable smash hit. The viral hit? 00:06:56.990 --> 00:06:59.189 The song. The song is called Je Suis Des Charités, 00:06:59.410 --> 00:07:01.129 and this is where the story takes a sharp turn 00:07:01.129 --> 00:07:03.170 into pure irony, especially when you look at 00:07:03.170 --> 00:07:05.449 the lyrics. The lyrics are remarkably grounded. 00:07:05.589 --> 00:07:08.209 The song is entirely secular. It's not a hymn, 00:07:08.310 --> 00:07:10.569 it's not a high -minded philosophical trevis, 00:07:10.670 --> 00:07:12.850 and it is certainly not a prayer. Not even close. 00:07:13.009 --> 00:07:15.589 The gist of the opening stanza is highly irreverent. 00:07:16.310 --> 00:07:17.850 Translated into English, the lyrics essentially 00:07:17.850 --> 00:07:21.550 mean, I'm broke, go tell my friend. It is deeply 00:07:21.550 --> 00:07:24.110 relatable. It's a song about being disinherited, 00:07:24.149 --> 00:07:26.389 being out of cash, and being entirely out of 00:07:26.389 --> 00:07:28.629 luck. I mean, who hasn't felt like that? Right. 00:07:28.810 --> 00:07:32.610 And yet this specific, slightly cheeky, secular 00:07:32.610 --> 00:07:35.149 tune caught the attention of some of the most 00:07:35.149 --> 00:07:37.769 serious, heavy -hitting composers of the Renaissance. 00:07:38.310 --> 00:07:40.949 So weird. They took this catchy tune about being 00:07:40.949 --> 00:07:43.550 broke and used it as the foundational source 00:07:43.550 --> 00:07:46.550 material for their parody masses. Now, for you 00:07:46.550 --> 00:07:48.670 listening, you have to understand that in the 00:07:48.670 --> 00:07:51.769 16th century, a parody mass wasn't a joke or 00:07:51.769 --> 00:07:54.709 a satire. as the word parody might imply to us 00:07:54.709 --> 00:07:57.069 today. Definitely not a joke. It was the standard 00:07:57.069 --> 00:08:00.310 engine of Renaissance composition. A composer 00:08:00.310 --> 00:08:02.410 would take a pre -existing piece of music, very 00:08:02.410 --> 00:08:05.410 often a popular secular song, and weave its musical 00:08:05.410 --> 00:08:08.329 DNA into the structural foundation of the most 00:08:08.329 --> 00:08:10.470 solemn, sacred music of the Catholic Church. 00:08:10.850 --> 00:08:13.290 The mass itself. Exactly. It's the standard technique 00:08:13.290 --> 00:08:16.269 of the era, sure. But what makes this specific 00:08:16.269 --> 00:08:19.129 instance so wild is the sheer contrast between 00:08:19.129 --> 00:08:21.779 the source material and the final product. The 00:08:21.779 --> 00:08:24.420 tonal shift is massive. Just imagine sitting 00:08:24.420 --> 00:08:27.480 in St. Peter's Basilica. The incense is burning. 00:08:27.620 --> 00:08:30.740 The choir sings a majestic sweeping chord that 00:08:30.740 --> 00:08:33.200 echoes through the cathedral. And if you listen 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:36.779 closely, the underlying melody driving that sacred 00:08:36.779 --> 00:08:39.980 moment is basically the 16th century equivalent 00:08:39.980 --> 00:08:44.419 of mo' money mo' problems. It is a profound psychological 00:08:44.419 --> 00:08:47.559 contrast. And the people who were elevating this 00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:49.779 provincial tune about being broke weren't just 00:08:49.779 --> 00:08:52.519 local nobodies looking for a shortcut. No, they 00:08:52.519 --> 00:08:55.279 were the titans. The list of composers who adapted 00:08:55.279 --> 00:08:59.080 Je Suis de Charité reads like a definitive who's 00:08:59.080 --> 00:09:01.600 who of Renaissance music. Give us the heavy hitters. 00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:04.029 Well, you have Jean Maillard in France. You have 00:09:04.029 --> 00:09:05.769 Nicholas Gombert, who is an absolutely massive 00:09:05.769 --> 00:09:08.169 figure in the Habsburg Chapel and the Low Countries. 00:09:08.269 --> 00:09:11.470 You have Orlando Lasus in Bavaria. And perhaps 00:09:11.470 --> 00:09:14.610 most astonishingly, you have Palestrina in Italy. 00:09:14.769 --> 00:09:16.789 That is the part that just stops me in my tracks. 00:09:17.450 --> 00:09:20.269 Palestrina. The defining voice of the era. You 00:09:20.269 --> 00:09:22.710 have all these superstars across different borders, 00:09:22.909 --> 00:09:25.190 different chords, and different cultures who 00:09:25.190 --> 00:09:28.169 all heard Cadillac's simple tune about having 00:09:28.169 --> 00:09:31.509 empty pockets and collectively thought, Yes, 00:09:31.610 --> 00:09:34.210 this is the perfect architectural foundation 00:09:34.210 --> 00:09:38.090 for a solemn religious mass. It speaks to the 00:09:38.090 --> 00:09:40.570 sheer functionality and infectiousness of the 00:09:40.570 --> 00:09:43.269 melody. It provided a perfect canvas for them 00:09:43.269 --> 00:09:45.809 to paint their own complex theological masterworks 00:09:45.809 --> 00:09:48.250 upon. It really did. But the journey of this 00:09:48.250 --> 00:09:51.409 piece of music didn't stop in the Catholic courts 00:09:51.409 --> 00:09:53.850 of Europe. It took an even more bizarre turn, 00:09:54.029 --> 00:09:56.789 crossing not just geographical borders, but massive 00:09:56.789 --> 00:09:59.309 linguistic and religious ones as well. Right, 00:09:59.330 --> 00:10:01.570 because the absolute... Weirdest adaptation of 00:10:01.570 --> 00:10:04.509 this song wasn't even a Catholic mass. A version 00:10:04.509 --> 00:10:07.090 of Je suis de Cherté was eventually found in 00:10:07.090 --> 00:10:09.289 England. Right. But it wasn't sung in French, 00:10:09.309 --> 00:10:11.330 and it wasn't even sung in standard English. 00:10:11.529 --> 00:10:14.309 It was fitted with entirely new words in the 00:10:14.309 --> 00:10:16.990 distinct Scots language. And the text they chose 00:10:16.990 --> 00:10:19.549 to pair with this melody is staggering when you 00:10:19.549 --> 00:10:21.450 consider its origins. Completely staggering. 00:10:21.590 --> 00:10:24.330 The new lyrics were, Our Father, God Celestial. 00:10:24.750 --> 00:10:26.950 They took a French song about being broke and 00:10:26.950 --> 00:10:29.370 turned it into a direct translation of the Lord's 00:10:29.370 --> 00:10:31.590 Prayer in Scots. I mean you can't make this up. 00:10:31.730 --> 00:10:34.370 It represents a complete and total detachment 00:10:34.370 --> 00:10:37.169 of the music from its original intent. You have 00:10:37.169 --> 00:10:40.350 this secular, irreverent French song traveling 00:10:40.350 --> 00:10:43.029 all the way up to the British Isles, being stripped 00:10:43.029 --> 00:10:45.370 of its original language and being repurposed 00:10:45.370 --> 00:10:47.929 as the ultimate foundational Christian prayer. 00:10:48.090 --> 00:10:51.009 It's wild. The melody was simply so adaptable 00:10:51.009 --> 00:10:56.950 that people everywhere wanted to use it. What 00:10:56.950 --> 00:10:59.250 does this all mean? It really begs the question 00:10:59.250 --> 00:11:02.950 of how a provincial choir master achieved this 00:11:02.950 --> 00:11:05.149 level of reach. It does. If you are tracking 00:11:05.149 --> 00:11:08.389 this timeline, you have... to be asking why this 00:11:08.389 --> 00:11:10.990 song what was he doing musically that titans 00:11:10.990 --> 00:11:13.690 like gamberra lasus weren't already doing themselves 00:11:13.690 --> 00:11:16.730 why did this particular music travel from the 00:11:16.730 --> 00:11:20.210 pyrenees to paris to italy to bavaria and all 00:11:20.210 --> 00:11:22.370 the way up to scotland the answer ironically 00:11:22.370 --> 00:11:26.259 is his restraint yes Kadek had a very distinct 00:11:26.259 --> 00:11:28.940 musical style that was deeply rooted in the broader 00:11:28.940 --> 00:11:32.279 musical trends of the 1530s. Specifically, he 00:11:32.279 --> 00:11:34.460 was influenced by the Parisian chanson style, 00:11:34.679 --> 00:11:37.120 much like his contemporary Clément Jeannequin. 00:11:37.259 --> 00:11:39.799 And the defining characteristics of this style 00:11:39.799 --> 00:11:43.340 were homophony and a deliberate, almost radical 00:11:43.340 --> 00:11:45.919 simplicity. Let's focus on how he utilized that 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:48.740 homophony, because he relied heavily on parallel 00:11:48.740 --> 00:11:52.039 imperfect intervals. Right, the thirds and sixths. 00:11:52.059 --> 00:11:54.139 Meaning the voices in the choir generally... 00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:57.179 move together in thirds or sixths. To the modern 00:11:57.179 --> 00:12:00.259 ear, and certainly to the 16th century ear, that 00:12:00.259 --> 00:12:02.919 creates an inherently sweet, pleasing harmony. 00:12:03.139 --> 00:12:05.679 It's the bedrock of highly accessible choral 00:12:05.679 --> 00:12:08.789 music. Exactly. And because he leaned so heavily 00:12:08.789 --> 00:12:11.750 into strict homophony, where the different voices 00:12:11.750 --> 00:12:13.470 in the choir are moving together at the same 00:12:13.470 --> 00:12:16.350 time, singing the same syllables simultaneously, 00:12:16.730 --> 00:12:19.110 it created crystal clear diction. You can actually 00:12:19.110 --> 00:12:22.269 understand the words being sung. Yes. Kadek favored 00:12:22.269 --> 00:12:25.200 short, digestible phrases. If we connect this 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:27.200 to the bigger picture of what was happening in 00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:29.980 European music at the time, this choice of simplicity 00:12:29.980 --> 00:12:33.100 was actually a bold aesthetic philosophy. How 00:12:33.100 --> 00:12:36.940 so? Because at the exact same time, Kidiak is 00:12:36.940 --> 00:12:40.519 writing these clear, simple, short phrases. You 00:12:40.519 --> 00:12:43.720 have other composers, specifically the Netherlanders 00:12:43.720 --> 00:12:46.179 of his generation, including Nicholas Gombert, 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:47.940 who we mentioned earlier, writing incredibly 00:12:47.940 --> 00:12:50.980 dense, complex polyphony. Right. The contrast 00:12:50.980 --> 00:12:53.299 is vital to understand why Kidiak went viral. 00:12:53.580 --> 00:12:56.340 Exactly. In dense counterpoint or polyphony, 00:12:56.539 --> 00:12:59.000 you have multiple voices singing entirely different 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:01.480 melodies and often different words at the exact 00:13:01.480 --> 00:13:04.399 same time. It's a lot to process. It is a massive, 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:07.919 swirling, intellectual tapestry of sound. It 00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:10.679 is brilliant and it is an incredible flex of 00:13:10.679 --> 00:13:13.519 compositional skill. But it can be incredibly 00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:15.600 difficult for the listener to follow the text 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:19.279 or to latch on to a single memorable tune. It's 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:21.399 the musical equivalent of a crowded room. Yes. 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:23.940 Perfect analogy. The Netherlanders were writing 00:13:23.940 --> 00:13:25.899 music that sounded like a brilliant, chaotic 00:13:25.899 --> 00:13:27.980 dinner party where everyone is talking over each 00:13:27.980 --> 00:13:29.700 other in different rhythms. Everyone wants to 00:13:29.700 --> 00:13:31.559 be the smartest person in the room. Exactly. 00:13:31.559 --> 00:13:33.820 And Kediak walked into that exact same room and 00:13:33.820 --> 00:13:35.899 just had everyone sing the exact same clear, 00:13:35.980 --> 00:13:38.860 simple sentence at the exact same time. It cuts 00:13:38.860 --> 00:13:41.539 right through the noise. It does. And that clarity, 00:13:41.620 --> 00:13:44.340 that catchiness, is exactly why his music was 00:13:44.340 --> 00:13:46.940 so easy to adapt. The modularity of it. Right. 00:13:47.370 --> 00:13:50.230 If you are a palestrina in Italy or a local musician 00:13:50.230 --> 00:13:51.909 in Scotland trying to set the Lord's Prayer, 00:13:52.149 --> 00:13:54.649 you don't want a source melody that is already 00:13:54.649 --> 00:13:57.750 a tangled web of complex polyphony. No, you'd 00:13:57.750 --> 00:14:00.409 be unweaving it for days. You want a clean, sturdy, 00:14:00.730 --> 00:14:03.909 memorable, melodic line. Kadiak deliberately 00:14:03.909 --> 00:14:07.090 avoided the dense polyphony of his peers. He 00:14:07.090 --> 00:14:09.710 kept his texture simple, and in doing so, he 00:14:09.710 --> 00:14:12.580 made his music infinitely modular. And this wasn't 00:14:12.580 --> 00:14:15.080 just a fleeting phase for him either. He clearly 00:14:15.080 --> 00:14:17.580 recognized the power of this simplicity. He doubled 00:14:17.580 --> 00:14:20.259 down on it. As his career progressed, he actually 00:14:20.259 --> 00:14:22.820 shifted his focus away from the secular chansons 00:14:22.820 --> 00:14:25.120 that made him famous, and he turned primarily 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:27.940 to sacred music. But he didn't suddenly change 00:14:27.940 --> 00:14:31.100 his style to match the dense, complicated church 00:14:31.100 --> 00:14:34.279 music of his contemporaries. No, he stayed true 00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:37.620 to his stylistic core. He applied those exact 00:14:37.620 --> 00:14:40.840 same simple homophonic accessible textures to 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:43.919 his motess and his masses. Which is pretty bold 00:14:43.919 --> 00:14:46.679 when you think about it. It is. He proved that 00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:48.919 sacred music didn't need a complex theoretical 00:14:48.919 --> 00:14:52.340 explanation or a dense web of counterpoint to 00:14:52.340 --> 00:14:54.879 be effective. Which paid off massively for him 00:14:54.879 --> 00:14:57.379 in terms of reach. The geographic distribution 00:14:57.379 --> 00:15:00.399 of his sacred motess was just as extraordinary 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:03.210 as his viral chanson. Truly continent -spanning. 00:15:03.429 --> 00:15:05.710 Copies of his motets have been found in manuscripts 00:15:05.710 --> 00:15:08.049 in places that are incredibly remote from his 00:15:08.049 --> 00:15:09.990 little home base in Gascony. We're talking about 00:15:09.990 --> 00:15:12.870 his music showing up in Madrid, in Strasbourg, 00:15:12.970 --> 00:15:15.629 in Nuremberg, in Venice. Which was a major musical 00:15:15.629 --> 00:15:18.230 hub. And even as far away as Krakow in Poland. 00:15:18.450 --> 00:15:20.950 It is a profound testament to the universal appeal 00:15:20.950 --> 00:15:23.710 of his style. A beautifully constructed, simple 00:15:23.710 --> 00:15:26.330 melody sounded just as moving in a grand cathedral 00:15:26.330 --> 00:15:29.049 in Poland as it did in a small parish in France. 00:15:29.350 --> 00:15:31.350 It just worked everywhere. It transcended reality. 00:15:31.370 --> 00:15:34.289 regional musical tastes. And all of this momentum 00:15:34.289 --> 00:15:37.009 culminates in what we can look at as the grand 00:15:37.009 --> 00:15:39.870 finale of his career. Remember, we are talking 00:15:39.870 --> 00:15:43.070 about a guy whose verified life story is basically 00:15:43.070 --> 00:15:45.509 four bullet points. The man from the Pyrenees. 00:15:45.529 --> 00:15:49.690 Right. But in 1555, a massive publishing house, 00:15:49.850 --> 00:15:52.529 Leroy and Ballard, released a dedicated collection 00:15:52.529 --> 00:15:56.350 called Petricidiac Musici Excellentissima Moteta. 00:15:56.750 --> 00:15:59.950 A highly significant publication. Huge. It contained 00:15:59.950 --> 00:16:02.870 18 of his pieces, written for four to six voices. 00:16:03.309 --> 00:16:05.629 This was the biggest single print of his music 00:16:05.629 --> 00:16:07.929 during his entire lifetime. It's essentially 00:16:07.929 --> 00:16:10.769 the 16th century equivalent of dropping a massive, 00:16:10.789 --> 00:16:13.330 highly anticipated album that firmly cements 00:16:13.330 --> 00:16:15.370 your legacy, right before you completely disappear 00:16:15.370 --> 00:16:17.789 from the historical record. It truly is. And 00:16:17.789 --> 00:16:20.029 as we synthesize all these breadcrumbs and musical 00:16:20.029 --> 00:16:22.350 surviving documents, the ultimate takeaway for 00:16:22.350 --> 00:16:25.049 you listening to this is a powerful lesson about 00:16:25.049 --> 00:16:27.059 the nature of impact. Yeah, let's get into the 00:16:27.059 --> 00:16:29.580 takeaway. You don't always need complexity to 00:16:29.580 --> 00:16:32.220 make something that lasts. We live in a world, 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:34.440 and this was just as true in the 16th century 00:16:34.440 --> 00:16:37.600 as it is today, that very often equates dense, 00:16:37.879 --> 00:16:41.720 complicated, highly difficult creations with 00:16:41.720 --> 00:16:44.759 high art or lasting importance. The harder it 00:16:44.759 --> 00:16:48.210 is to understand, the better it must be. There 00:16:48.210 --> 00:16:50.870 is a pervasive trap that assumes to be taken 00:16:50.870 --> 00:16:54.450 seriously. You must be complex. But Kadiak proves 00:16:54.450 --> 00:16:57.730 the exact opposite. He does. His clear diction, 00:16:58.009 --> 00:17:00.990 his simple phrases, and his universally relatable 00:17:00.990 --> 00:17:03.870 melodies resonated across physical borders, across 00:17:03.870 --> 00:17:07.029 massive language barriers, and even across deeply 00:17:07.029 --> 00:17:09.349 entrenched religious contexts. It's amazing. 00:17:09.630 --> 00:17:12.430 He provided a clear, beautiful canvas that the 00:17:12.430 --> 00:17:14.730 rest of Europe couldn't help but use. It is a 00:17:14.730 --> 00:17:16.710 striking reminder that sometimes the most profound 00:17:16.710 --> 00:17:18.269 thing you can do can do is just keep it simple 00:17:18.269 --> 00:17:20.950 absolutely but as we wrap up this deep dive i 00:17:20.950 --> 00:17:22.529 want to leave you with something to ponder this 00:17:22.529 --> 00:17:25.009 raises an important question okay when you think 00:17:25.009 --> 00:17:28.069 about pierre kadiak a man sitting somewhere in 00:17:28.069 --> 00:17:31.490 gascony writing a simple slightly cheeky secular 00:17:31.490 --> 00:17:34.069 tune about being broke and then watching that 00:17:34.069 --> 00:17:37.630 song get transformed completely without his input 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:41.220 into the solemn Lord's Prayer in a foreign land 00:17:41.220 --> 00:17:43.559 he likely never visited. The ultimate remix. 00:17:43.900 --> 00:17:46.240 Is that the ultimate form of artistic success? 00:17:46.539 --> 00:17:49.240 The fact that your simple melody is deemed universally 00:17:49.240 --> 00:17:51.900 worthy of speaking to God? Or is it the ultimate 00:17:51.900 --> 00:17:54.700 loss of control over your own creation once it 00:17:54.700 --> 00:17:57.680 goes truly viral? Oh, that's a good point. I 00:17:57.680 --> 00:17:59.880 mean, does the song even belong to him anymore 00:17:59.880 --> 00:18:02.240 at that point once its original spirit is entirely 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:04.500 erased and replaced by the needs of the masses? 00:18:04.940 --> 00:18:07.900 It's a brilliant paradox. Something to chew on 00:18:07.900 --> 00:18:10.220 the next time you hear a simple catchy tune and 00:18:10.220 --> 00:18:12.640 wonder where its DNA might end up centuries from 00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:15.380 now. Makes you think. Thank you so much for joining 00:18:15.380 --> 00:18:17.519 us on this deep dive. It's been an absolute pleasure 00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:19.619 exploring this historical mystery with you. Thank 00:18:19.619 --> 00:18:21.740 you for listening. Keep questioning the history 00:18:21.740 --> 00:18:23.799 around you, and we will see you next time.