name of his favorite prostitute). La Rue seems to have been appreciated and well liked by his colleagues throughout his career. Music General character La Rue wrote masses, motets, Magnificats, settings of the Lamentations, and chansons, a diverse range of compositions reflective of his status as the primary composer at one of Europe's most renowned musical institutions, surrounded by other similarly creative people. Some scholars have suggested that he only composed music for about the last 20 years of his life, mainly when he was in the imperial service; but it has proven difficult to date any of his works precisely, although it has been possible to suggest groupings based on a rough chronology. Stylistically, his works are more similar to Josquin than to any other composer working at the same time. In fact, misattribution of doubtful works has gone both ways. Yet there are some unique features to La Rue's style. He had a liking for extreme low voice ranges, descending sometimes to C or even the subterranean B flat below the bass staff; he employed more chromaticism than most of his contemporaries; and much of his work is rich in dissonance. He also broke up long, dense textures by inserting contrasting passages for two voices only, something done also by Ockeghem and Josquin. He was one of the first routinely to expand vocal forces from the standard four, to five or six. One of his masses for six voices, the Missa Ave sanctissima Maria, is a six-voice canon, a technically difficult feat reminiscent of some of the work of Ockeghem. This is also the earliest six-voice mass known to exist. Canonic writing is a particularly important feature of La Rue's style, and he has been particularly celebrated for this. He liked to write canons of considerable complexity, rather than restricting himself to simple imitation. The second of his two masses based on the L'homme armé tune begins and ends with mensuration canons, canons in which all the voices sing the same material, but at different speeds; this is yet another feat of contrapuntal virtuosity worthy of Josquin or Ockeghem; indeed La Rue sometimes seemed to be in conscious competition with the more renowned Josquin. The closing Agnus Dei of this mass is the only known mensuration canon of the entire era for four voices, with all four voices singing the same tune. La Rue wrote six pieces that