(Jean, Jehan de), great Flemish composer; b. c. 1410;d. probably in Tours, Feb. 6, 1497. He may have been a pupil of GILLES BINCHOIS, the Flemish MADRIGAL composer. Ockeghem is first listed among the vicaires-chanteurs (vicar-singers) at Notre Dame in Antwerp in 1443 and served there until 1444. By 1446 he was in the service of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon, in Moulins, remaining there until at least 1448.

By 1452 Ockeghem was in the service of Charles VII of France as first among the singer-chaplains who were non-priests, and by 1454 he was premier chapelain. He subsequently served Louis XI and Charles VIII, who, in 1459, made him treasurer of the Church of St. Martin-de-Tours. Under Louis XI, he also was a canon at Notre Dame in Paris from 1463 to 1470. He likewise was a chaplain at St. Benoit. In January 1470 he traveled to Spain at the King's expense. In 1484 he journeyed to Bruges and Dammes.

With his contemporaries GUILLAUME DUFAY and JOSQUIN DES PREZ, Ockeghem ranks among the foremost masters of the Franco-Flemish style of composition in the second half of the 15th century. Among his settings of the MASS is the earliest surviving POLYPHONIC REQUIEM. The inventiveness displayed in his Masses is only excelled in his superb MOTETS. His achievements in the art of imitative COUNTERPOINT unquestionably make his music a milestone on the way to the A CAPPELLA style of future generations.