Julien Belin

Julien Belin was a French composer and lutenist active in the second half of the 16th century; he died after 1584. Biography The only information about his life comes from the Bibliothèque de La Croix Du Maine, in which he is said to be a Manceau, therefore a native of Le Mans or surroundings in 1584 in the Maine. His collection, published in 1556, gives René de Saint-François, archdeacon of Le Mans, as a probable protector, and shows him as a capable lutenist, developing his own style, notwithstanding the influence of lutenists Francesco Canova da Milano and Albert de Rippe. Works In 1556, he published his Premier livre contenant plusieurs motetz, chansons & fantasies reduictz en tabulature de leut by Nicolas Du Chemin in Paris with a dedication to René de Saint-François. (read online here). Modern edition by Michel Renault: Éditions du CNRS, 1976 (series Le Chœur des Muses : Corpus des luthistes français). The collection contains: *Six very ornamented songs transcribed for the lute, by Jacques Arcadelt, Pierre Certon, Roger Pathie called Rogier (2) and Pierre Sandrin (2). *A transcript of the motet Cantate Domino (Anonymous, not ornamented and probably attributable to Belin himse