Francis Sales

This article is about the Franco-Flemish composer and singer. For more meanings of the name, see Franz Sales (disambiguation)

Franz Sales (* around 1540 in Namur ; † July 15, 1599 in Prague ) was a Franco-Flemish composer , singer and conductor of the late Renaissance .

Live and act

The origin of Franz Sales can be found in the preface to his edition of the Officiae , published in Munich in 1589, where he claims to have left his homeland "Belgia nostro" because of a religious war. No information has been passed on about his family of origin or his training time. In 1579 and 1580 he tried to get permanent employment at the Stuttgart court orchestra, but without success. In 1580 he temporarily accepted a position as tenor singer in Hechingen and in the same year switched to the Munich court orchestra for a short time as a singer. Finally, on November 1, 1580, he got a job at the court orchestra in Innsbruck , where he stayed for about seven years. In between, the composer stayed in Munich in 1586. His employer in Innsbruck, Archduke Ferdinand , wrote a letter of recommendation for Franz Sales to his sister Magdalena on April 13, 1587 , who had founded a women's monastery in Hall am Inn ; there he got the position of Kapellmeister shortly afterwards. From May 1, 1591, the composer was hired as tenor singer by Philippe de Monte , the conductor of the Imperial Habsburg court orchestra in Prague. Francis Sales remained in this position until his death.

His brother Nikolaus Sales (* before 1550 in Namur; † April 5, 1606 in Stuttgart) has also emerged as a composer. From the end of 1565 he was a singer at the court in Stuttgart and in the meantime, from May to September 1581, at the court orchestra in Innsbruck. He wrote the piece “Composition of the song against the Turks”, which has not been preserved.

meaning

Francis Sales wrote mainly sacred works. In addition to masses and motets, there are also a number of propriums by him, i.e. for the changing parts of a mass such as introit , alleluia and communion . Within his predominantly contrapuntal- linear notation, he often uses an expressive interpretation of words, a deliberate change in the measure of time and, in the tenor register, a well-developed rhythm that is based on Orlando di Lasso . His best-known work is the mass “Exultandi tempus est”, which can be considered an early forerunner of the pastoral mass. Here he uses the catchy Christmas melody Resonet in laudibus and creates a high-contrast and impressive sound effect through the use of different music groups. In his Easter sequence “Victimae paschalis laudes” the multi-choir music-making is reminiscent of the popular tradition of the Easter play. In his secular works, Sales shows a natural mastery of the various musical forms of his time.

Works

• Spiritual works
  • "Patrocinium musices. Missarum solenniorum […] primus tomus ”with five to six voices, Munich 1589
  • "Officia quaedam Domini Nostro Jesu Christi necnon Beatae Virginis Mariae et aliquorum sanctorum" with five to six votes, Munich 1589
  • “Sacrarum cantionum […] liber primus” with five to six voices, Prague 1593
  • "Tripertiti operis officiorum missalium, quibus introitus, alleluja et communiones [...] liber primus", Prague 1596
  • “Officiorum missalium […] liber secundus” with five to six voices, Prague 1594
  • “Officiorum missalium […] liber tertius et ultimus” with five to six votes, Prague 1596
  • "Patrocinium musices. In natalem domini Jesu Christi […] mutetum quinque vocum & missa ad eius imitationem composita “, Munich 1598
  • “Dialogism 8. vocum de amore Christi sponsi”, Prague 1598
  • “Oratio ad Sanctissima Beatam Virginem Mariam […]” with six voices, Prague 1598
  • 1 further composition in the Rosetum Marianum for five voices, Dillingen 1604
  • 6 different other works in manuscripts
• Secular works
  • "Canzonette, vilanelle et neapolitane, per cantar 'et sonare con il liuto et altri simili istromenti" with three voices, Prague 1598
  • 1 further composition in Sdegnosi ardori for five voices, Munich 1585

Literature (selection)

• W. Lipphardt: The history of the polyphonic Proprium Missae , Heidelberg 1950
• P. Moret: On the subject of musicien namurois François Sales (v. 1540–1599). In: Bulletin de la Société liégeoise de musicologie No. 25, 1979, pages 1-9
• W. Boetticher: Orlando di Lasso und seine Zeit (1532–1594) , Volume 1, Wilhelmshaven 1999 (= source catalog for the history of music No. 27, reprint of the 1958 edition with new literature)
• D. Golly-Becker: The Stuttgart court orchestra under Duke Ludwig III., 1554–1593 , Stuttgart / Weimar 1999 (= sources and studies on music in Baden-Württemberg No. 4)

Web links

• Works by and about Franz Sales in the catalog of the German National Library
• Scores by Sales, in the archives of the Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum Innsbruck (can be viewed with the Scorch plug-in)

swell

1. ↑ Jörg Bölling :  Sales, Franz. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 14 (Riccati - Schönstein). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2005, ISBN 3-7618-1134-9  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
2. ↑ Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): The great lexicon of music. Volume 7: Randhartinger - Stewart. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 1982, ISBN 3-451-18057-X .