Abraham Megerle

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Abraham Megerle, engraving by Matthäus Küsel

Abraham Megerle (born February 9, 1607 in Wasserburg am Inn ; † May 29, 1680 in Altötting ) was a Catholic priest, church composer and church musician, as well as an apostolic protonotary . His nephew, the preacher Abraham a Sancta Clara (Johann Ulrich Megerle), was promoted by him and named himself after him.

Life

Abraham Megerle was born in 1607 in Wasserburg am Inn in Upper Bavaria, where a street is named after him today. In 1617 the boy was accepted as a singer in the chapel of Archduchess Anna Katharina of Innsbruck , where he studied and received musical lessons from Johann Stadlmayr . From 1621 he served as a treble and later as an organist in the court chapel of Archduke Leopold V of Tyrol .

In 1634, Bishop Johann IV von Waldburg appointed the young man, who had meanwhile also become a priest, to be the cathedral music director in Constance . Megerle worked there in this capacity until he went to Salzburg in 1640 as the Archbishop's Kapellmeister . There, as before in Constance, he took on the organization and promotion of church music in the diocese.

In 1651 Abraham Megerle retired as a canon to the Altötting collegiate monastery . His elevation to the nobility in 1652 by Emperor Ferdinand III. and the appointment as Apostolic Protonotary by Pope Alexander VII. in 1662 prove a contemporary, supraregional fame and appreciation.

In 1654 Megerle gave his favorite monastery, the Dominican convent of Zoffingen in Konstanz , which he later also made his universal heir, a copy of the miraculous image of Altötting, which has since been venerated there as the “Mother of Holy Hope”.

Abraham Megerle was the sponsor of his nephew Johann Ulrich Megerle, who, under the name Abraham a Sancta Clara, is one of the most famous preachers of the German language. The uncle financed the nephew's studies at the University of Ingolstadt and supported him wherever he could. At the death of his father, Abraham a Sancta Clara left the entire inheritance of 150 guilders to his uncle, because he had already “turned so much expense to him”. He also took the religious name Abraham a Sancta Clara in his honor.

The composing clergyman died in 1680 as a canon in the Augustinian canons collegiate monastery in Altötting.

plant

The sacred works handed down under his name, mainly motets , proprium chants , hymns, but also entire masses, have largely only survived in fragments, including the two individual prints Ara musica 1647 and Psalmodia Jesu et Mariae sacra 1657. Around 150 compositions are confirmed works Megerles, of which only a part is completely available or can be reconstructed. According to the Austrian Music Encyclopedia , they have "a broad stylistic spectrum, ranging from the monody to the four- and five-part Stile Antico movement to the large multi-choir system based on the model of the so-called Roman colossal style".

In 1647 he dedicated his composition collection Ara musica with 108 sacred works to the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg.

In 1672 he published his Speculum musico-mortuale (Musicalischer Todtenspiegel) , a devotional book on the visualization of death, with self-composed prayers, biblical quotations, medical images and representations of contemporary musical instruments. There are autobiographical references in it.

Various compositions have recently been published under the title Abraham Megerle - Geistliche Werke . Recently there have been more and more performances of his long-forgotten works and CD recordings of them.

In 2010 the music days “Early Music in Wasserburg” with numerous events under the motto The Music of the Wasserburg artist Abraham Megerle .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ To Archduchess Anna Katharina and her Innsbruck chapel
  2. ^ The Zoffingen Monastery in Constance
  3. ↑ The "Mother of Holy Hope in Constance", a foundation by Abraham Megerle.
  4. ↑ To the Altötting Collegiate Foundation, in the House of Bavarian History portal ( Memento from May 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Illustrated website about the Speculum musico-mortuale
  6. ↑ Abraham Megerle - Spiritual Works
  7. ^ Program for the series of events The Music of the Wasserburgers Abraham Megerle
personal data
SURNAME Megerle, Abraham
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and church musician
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1607
PLACE OF BIRTH Wasserburg am Inn
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1680
Place of death Altötting