Gallus Dreßler

Gallus Dreßler (also Dressler, Dresslerus, Dresler ; born October 16, 1533 in Nebra , † April 14, 1581 in Zerbst ) was a German cantor and composer .

Life

His career can no longer be followed exactly, his preference for Clemens non Papa points to an apprenticeship with a Dutch master. In 1557 he attended the University of Jena , where Victorin and Johann Strigel won him over for the Philippists' religious beliefs . In 1558 he became the successor of Martin Agricola Cantor at the Latin School in Magdeburg.

There he got into disputes with the Gnesiolutheran and in the meantime went to the University of Wittenberg , where he obtained the academic degree of a master's degree in 1570 . After the Philippists were expelled from Saxony under Elector August von Sachsen in 1574 , Dressler went to the St. Nikolai Church in Zerbst as a deacon in 1575 , in which office he died.

Connected musically to Agricola, he treated the modified keys of the Musica Poetica independently and opened up a new perspective. The Musica practica was given a central position. In the theory of composition he used the view of the Renaissance and supplemented it with the new art of expression of the Musica reservata . 134 compositions by him are known, consisting mainly of sacred, Latin and German psalms, but also of secular vocal music. In these compositions, motets that were created from the text predominate . He also wrote works on music theory.

Selection of works

• Cantiones sacrae 4, 5 et plurium vocum , Wittenberg 1565, 1568, Magdeburg 1569, 1570, 1577, Nuremberg 1575, 1580
• Musicae practicae elementa in usum scholae Magdeburgensis , Magdeburg 1571, 1584
• Practica modorum explicatio , Jena 1561
• Toes of German psalms , Jena 1562
• Praecepta musicae poeticae , 1563
• XC cantiones ... , Magdeburg 1570
• Musicae practicae elementa , Magdeburg 1571
• Magnificat octo tonorum ... , Magdeburg 1571
• Ausserlesene teutsche Lieder ... , Nuremberg 1575

see also: Music in the past and present . Volume 3, p. 801

literature

• Arrey von Dommer:  Dressler, Gallus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 397.
• Wilhelm Martin Luther:  Dressler, Gallus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 113 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Dreslerus, Gallus. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 7, Leipzig 1734, column 1425.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Dressler, Gallus. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 1380.
• Luther, Wilhelm Martin: Gallus Dressler, a contribution to the history of the Protestant school cantorate in the 16th century , Kassel, Bärenreiter, 1941
• Hermann Graf: Anhaltinisches Pfarrerbuch. The evangelical pastors since the Reformation. Regional Church Council of the Evangelical Church in Anhalt. Dessau, 1996, p. 236