Digital ACT Reading Practice Question #1718

The primary focus of the passage is on how Josquin des Prez: Passage Excerpt (Humanities): In the late fifteenth century, European choral composition was dominated by dense mathematical polyphony where voice parts wove complex counterpoint that obscured the Latin liturgy. The Franco-Flemish master Josquin des Prez transformed this tradition by introducing expressive text-painting and transparent imitative textures. Rather than treating poetry as scaffolding for abstract counterpoint, Josquin tailored musical gestures to illuminate semantic meaning: falling melodies underscored lamentation, while sudden homophonic blocks emphasized moments of theological solemnity. Musicologist Dr. Henriette Moreau points out that Josquin's motet Ave Maria achieves an equilibrium between structural rigor and emotional poignancy that led commentators to dub him the "Michelangelo of music." His innovation was making counterpoint serve the human voice.