The French composer Claude Goudimel (ca. 1514-1572) is best known for his various settings of the French Psalter. He also wrote Roman Catholic church music and French chansons.

Claude Goudimel was born in Besançon; little is known of his early training. He was living in the French capital when his first chansons were issued (1549) by the Parisian music printer Nicolas du Chemin. Additional volumes under Du Chemin's imprint followed, but the composer's conversion to Protestantism probably forced his relocation to Metz about 1557. Ten years later, because of an administration unfriendly to Huguenots, Goudimel once again had to flee, first to his native town and then to Lyons. The massacres that began in Paris on St. Bartholomew's Day reached Lyons on Aug. 28, 1572, when Goudimel fell at the hands of religious fanatics.

Goudimel's devotion to the secular song is attested by numerous French publications, beginning in 1549. The many...