Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/143



Bernhard Schmid (organ-book, 1607); Wolf Heckel, a Strassburg lutist (book, 1556); Sebastian Ochsenkuhn (d. 1574), court-lutist at Heidelberg and author of a valuable lute-book (1558); Leonhard Lechner (d. 1604), first a choirboy under Lassus at Munich, teacher at Nuremberg from 1570, and from 1584 court-choirmaster at Hechingen and from 1587 at Stuttgart—a versatile and gifted composer (works from 1575); Melchior Schramm, another good contrapuntist, long in the court chapel at Sigmaringen, afterwards organist at Offenburg (works from 1576); Jakob Reiner (d. 1606), one of the best pupils of Lassus, music-master all his life (though not a priest) in the monastery of Weingarten, with a varied list of works (from 1579); Jakob Paix (d. c. 1590), organist at Lauingen, whose collections of organ-pieces and motets (from 1583), with some original masses and a history of sacred music (1589), are important; and Lucas Osiander (d. 1604), the son of the distinguished Nuremberg theologian, himself early noted as a Protestant leader in Württemberg and finally abbot at Adelsberg, with an important Choralbuch (1586) having the melodies in the treble (as by Le Maistre in 1566 and by David Wolkenstein in 1583).

65. France and Spain.—The 16th century was a stormy period in French history, made so at first by the craving of successive kings to widen their boundaries in the face of strong rivals, and later by the bitter contests between Catholics and Huguenots. What notable musical life there was appeared in the Royal Chapel at Paris, to the advancement of which the ambitious Francis I. devoted special attention. The styles there most cultivated were those of the Netherland masters, with gradually more and more chansons and lute music. Originality in composition was almost wholly confined to writers born in the Netherlands.

The chief kings (House of Valois) were Louis XII. (1498-1515), Francis I. (1515-47), who was the rival of Charles V., Henry II. (1547-59), Charles IX. (1560-74) and Henry III. (1574-89). The latter's successor, Henry IV. (1589-1610), the first of the Bourbons, was of Huguenot sympathies.

The information about most of the musicians in the Royal Chapel is scanty, but the following should be named:—

Jean Mouton (d. 1522), born near Metz, studied with Des Près, early entered the service of Louis XII., continuing under Francis I., and became canon of St. Quentin, where he died. His many works exhibit not only the utmost polyphonic facility, but an expressiveness singularly like his master's. They include some masses, many motets and chansons (from 1505). He was Willaert's teacher, and thus a link with the Venetian school.

Antoine de Riche [Divitis], a singer first at Bruges, then in the Burgundian Chapel, before 1515 in the Royal Chapel at Paris, is favorably known by a few works (from 1514). Claude de Sermisy (d. 1562) is still more famous as