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Hieronymus Prätorius (d. 1629), born at Hamburg in 1560, studied there and at Cologne, was cantor at Erfurt in 1580-2, and then returned to Hamburg to succeed his father as organist at the Jacobikirche. His masterly style resembles that of the best Venetian contrapuntists, passing to the use of as many as 20 voices (works from 1599). The earlier Christoph Prätorius (d. 1609) was cantor at Lüneburg in 1562-82 (works from 1560).

63. The Imperial Chapel.—The musical importance of Austria at this time arose from its relation to the Holy Roman Empire, which was the inheritor of the prestige and romantic interest of the ancient imperial idea, combined with the mediæval idea of Catholic unity. From 1438 the Emperors were all of the Hapsburg line, and the imperial capital was usually Prague or Vienna. The dignity of the court required the maintenance of a musical establishment or Chapel, which naturally came to have international significance. The close relations of the Empire with the Papacy brought their musical activities into the same class. During the 16th century most of the leading imperial musicians were Netherlanders. Yet with these were others who illustrated the native genius once shown by the Minnesinger and again to become famous in the 18th century. While most of these composers devoted themselves to the current Catholic types of composition, many of them were so successful in simpler part-writing of the German type that their works were often adopted into Protestant use.

The list of emperors for the period includes Maximilian I. (1493-1519), Charles V. (1519-56), Ferdinand I. (1556-64, also sole ruler of Austria from 1522), Maximilian II. (1564-76), and Rudolf II. (1576-1612).

Among the musicians in the imperial service were the following:—

Heinrich Isaac (d.c. 1517), who was born in Flanders before 1450, but won his first fame in Italy, especially as organist and choirmaster at Florence in 1477-89. From 1497 he was court-musician to Maximilian I. at Innsbruck. From him we have many important masses, motets and part-songs (from 1506), the former in the older Netherland style, the latter akin to the early Protestant music. Among his pupils was Senfl.

Paul Hofheimer (d. 1537) was born near Salzburg in 1459. From about 1480 he was imperial organist and composer, first at Innsbruck, from 1496 at Vienna. About 1515 he was made a noble and received other honors, being held as the foremost German musician of his time. He returned to Salzburg after 1520, perhaps by way of Augsburg. As a player he was unrivaled, but of his compositions little remains.

Jakob Clemens (d. 1558?) was a Netherlander who is usually supposed to have been imperial choirmaster under Charles V., but of his career nothing