Janequin was one of the few important Renaissance composers who did not hold an important position with either the church or a court during his life. He was recognized, however, toward the end of his life as an honorary chaplain to the Duc de Guise and in the 1550s as a "chantre ordinaire du roi" and eventually "compositeur ordinaire du roi." Janequin was also the holder of minor prebends, and, for a brief time was the master of the chapel at Angers Cathedral. A composer of one motet and two masses the dominant genre he employed was the chansons as well as the spiritual chanson (two hundred and fifty of the former and one hundred and fifty of the latter). Janequin was able to create very bright and articulate story pieces with the use of musical onomatopoeia. Musically he used short phrases placing one musical fragment over another in a continuous or mosaic effect. Harmonically the music was of little interest as it did not move. Janequin's musical motions and dynamics occurred through his use of rhythms and fragment layering. ~ Keith Johnson, Rovi