Hans Buchner (composer)

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Beginning of an organ movement from the “Fundamentum” , tablature and transcription with original fingering

Hans Buchner (born October 27, 1483 in Ravensburg , † February 1538 probably in Konstanz ) was a German composer , organist and music theorist of the Renaissance .

Live and act

Hans Buchner (also Johannes Buchner) was the son of the Ravensburg organist Hans Buchner the Elder. In the history of music he is considered the most important student of Paul Hofhaimer . He was possibly in the service of Emperor Maximilian I for a short time before he was appointed cathedral organist at the Cathedral of Our Lady in Constance on June 19, 1506 . In the service contract handed down, it was laid down in great detail on which holidays and occasions the organ was to be played. At that time, Konstanz was one of the centers of musical life in Germany, where Buchner also met Sebastian Virdung and Sixt Dietrich . The liturgical cultivation of music at the cathedral was particularly high; the cathedral choir comprised nine succentors , to which Virdung and Dietrich also belonged, and eight choir boys . Heinrich Isaac stayed in Constance from 1507 to 1508 and composed an official cycle for the cathedral choir .

The cathedral chapter of the Constance Minster decided to build a new organ around 1515, and Buchner was commissioned to negotiate with the organ builder Hans Schentzer in Strasbourg ; he played an important role as a consultant in the award of the contract and in the construction of the instrument. The organ was completed in 1521 and had about 31 registers on three manuals and pedal ; at that time it was one of the most important organs in Germany. It was divided into works: the upper and lower halves of each manual could be registered separately.

When the Reformation was introduced in Constance , the bishop, the cathedral chapter and the clergy left Constance in 1526 and went to Meersburg ; the Konstanz cathedral monastery services took place in the parish church in Überlingen until 1542 . Here Buchner continued his duties as an organist, but kept his residence in Konstanz. In 1529 the composer applied for the position of organist at Speyer Cathedral , but no contract was concluded due to his high financial demands. Hans Buchner's circle of friends and acquaintances included the composer Ludwig Senfl and Joachim Vadian , humanist and reformer from St. Gallen . The composer's pupils included his son Hans Conrad Buchner (1510–1540), later Münster organist in Freiburg , as well as Fridolin Safe , author of an organ tablature book and the St. Gallen organist Melchior Högger. Buchner was also in demand as an organ expert: in 1507 he was invited to Zurich for an organ rehearsal, in 1511 he was probably in Freiburg because of the cathedral organ there, in 1529 he advised the cathedral chapter in Speyer on organ issues, and in 1537 he came to Heidelberg for an organ rehearsal . A portrait of Hans Buchner has been preserved in the Konstanz Minster.

meaning

Buchner's Fundamentum sive ratio vera , which is considered to be the earliest known organ school, is of outstanding musical history . In it, the organ playing tradition of the Hofhaimer School is passed down as comprehensively as it is unique. It is divided into three parts. The first part is about the art of playing ( via ludendi ), in which fingering rules are introduced, the keyboard is explained and the essence of the tablature is introduced. The second part offers instructions for intabulation , i.e. for converting a composition for singing voices into a movement for keyboard instruments. The differences in the notation for voices and those for keyboards are also described here, whereby the author shows a keen sense of the peculiarity of the organ movement. The third part provides the theoretical basis for the multi-part organ-like arrangement of liturgical chorales and, with its rules for counterpoint and diminution, provides elementary instructions for composition and improvisation . This also includes the exemplary representation of how a bass voice can be found for an existing voice and the description of the use of decorations ( colores ), which lead to organ-typical playing figures, which are finally summarized in tabular form.

Following these three parts, the Fundamentum contains a total of 120 exemplary movements from the ordinarium , proprium and office area as well as hymns that represent what was previously taught in a practical way on a high musical level. About half of these pieces are three-part, others are four- to six-part. The cantus firmus sounds as a structural model alternating in treble , tenor or bass and wanders through the individual voices in fugues or sections. This also come canon , narrowness , homophonic passages, in blocks repetitions and corresponding mixed forms. Pedal play is also highly developed; Occasionally there is also a double pedal (two-part pedals). "Overall, the variety of types of movements and the great artistic demands of the compositions specially designed for the organ show the high level of southern German organ art in the first quarter of the 16th century" (Manfred Schuler in the MGG source).

Works

  • Fundamentum sive ratio vera, quae docet quemvis cantum planum, sive (ut vocant) choralem redigere ad justas diversarum vocum symphonias , 1st version with 120 organ movements, handwritten in the Zurich City Library and the Basel University Library
  • Fundamentum , 2nd version with German translation, with 50 organ movements
  • 3 tabulations
  • 2 song sets
  • 2 more organ sets
  • several more intabulations
  • 1 set of songs in the Trium vocum carmina collection (Nuremberg 1538)

Literature (selection)

  • C. Paesler: Foundation book by Hans von Constanz. a contribution to the history of organ playing in the 16th century. In: Vierteljahrsschrift für Musikwissenschaft No. 5, 1889, pages 1–192
  • Gotthold Frotscher: History of organ playing and organ composition , Volume 1, Berlin 1935, 3rd edition 1966
  • Gustav Lenzinger: Cathedral organist Hans Buchner. A study on the history of music in Konstanz. In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 63rd year 1936, pages 55–114 ( digitized version )
  • Wolfgang Rehm: Buchner, Hans. In: Neue Deutsche Biografie (NDB), Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , page 107
  • JH Schmidt: Johannes Buchner. Life and work. A contribution to the history of liturgical organ music in the late Middle Ages , dissertation at the University of Freiburg / Breisgau 1957
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz : Buchner, Hans. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL), Volume 1, Bautz, 2nd edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , column 793.
  • Manfred Schuler: On the art of organ at the court of Emperor Maximilian I .. In: Music and dance at the time of Maximilian I, edited by W. Salmen, Innsbruck 1992, pages 123-130 (= Innsbruck contributions to musicology no. 15)

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ The Music in Past and Present (MGG), Person Part Volume 3, Bärenreiter and Metzler, Kassel and Basel 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1112-8
  2. ↑ Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): The great lexicon of music. Volume 1: A - Byzantine chant. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 1978, ISBN 3-451-18051-0 .
  3. ↑ Lexicon of the Organ, edited by Hermann Josef Busch and Matthias Geuting, 2nd edition, Laaber 2008, ISBN 978-3-89007-508-2
personal data
SURNAME Buchner, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Buchner, Johannes; Hans von Constanz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and organist of the Renaissance
DATE OF BIRTH October 27, 1483
PLACE OF BIRTH Ravensburg
DATE OF DEATH February 1538
Place of death uncertain: constancy