Pierre Passereau is a little-known composer who worked in the shadow of the contemporary composers’ fame like Clément Janequin and Claudin de Sermisy. He was also underrated because we only know little things about him. Moreover, the sheet music is only composed of one song of church music and 25 songs and several of them were uncertainly attributed to him. “Unde veniet auxilium mihi” is one of the most famous songs of the choral repertoire. It was already famous in the 16th century. It was published by Pierre Attaignant in 1534 and was republished many times in France and abroad until 1571. They were also many arrangements for keyboards and lute. The melody is sung by four voices in a binary mensuration, which are two characteristics of the Parisian song. The text is divided into two verses separated by three choruses written on the dorian mode. The first verse is very short and the second one is the climax of the song and the expression of the satirical aspect with the repetition of “bon.”
