Unusually for a Renaissance composer, more is known of his earlier life than his later; indeed nothing at all is known of him after 1520. He was probably born in 1501, since his age is given as 14 in a document of 1515, and he was probably born near
Poitiers. He served as a singer in the papal chapel from 1514, when he arrived there in the care of
Carpentras, until 1520 when he left never to return. Since much of his music was published in the 1530s and later, he may have still been alive then and working elsewhere; presumably had he been still working in association with the papal chapel, there would be records of his employment. Penet is most famous as the composer of
Descendit angelus Domini, a four-voice
motet which was used both by
Palestrina and
Costanzo Porta as source material for
mass composition. The motet circulated widely in Europe and apparently was quite popular; Penet can be seen as a kind of Renaissance
one-hit wonder on the strength and popularity of this refined, elegant composition. He also wrote two settings of the
Magnificat which have survived, another motet (
Virgo prudentissima), as well as a handful of secular
chansons, all of which are settings of current popular tunes. == References and further reading ==