Jacobus Florius

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jacobus Florius (* around 1552 possibly in Maastricht ; † after 1599) was a Franco-Flemish composer , singer and conductor of the Renaissance .

Live and act

Jacobus Florius was a son of Franciscus Florius . No information has come down to us about his early years or his apprenticeship. After his father worked at the ducal Bavarian court in Munich during the years in question , the music researcher EF Schmid (1962) assumed that Jacobus had received his training as a choirboy there; But there is no evidence for this. In 1571 Jacobus Florius applied for the position of bass singer at the ducal court in Stuttgart . There is evidence that he was in Aquileia in 1572 and in Venice the following year . Somewhat older information says that from 1572 to 1574 he worked as a bass singer for the Marienbruderschaft in 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands . His name was entered as a singer in the lists of the Innsbruck court orchestra for 1573 and 1574. In 1574 he dedicated a mass composed by himself to Emperor Maximilian II , probably as an application for a position in Vienna , but received only 20 guilders in allowance. 1575, the composer apparently wanted to Flanders withdraw why Orlando di Lasso at William V (then Prince) has asked for a letter of recommendation for Jacobus Florius. His actual stay after that is not recorded, but it is certain that he returned to Innsbruck for a short time in 1581 and applied again for a position at the Stuttgart court, but without success.

In 1581 Jacobus got a position as singer and vice conductor at the court of Eitel Friedrich IV. In Hechingen , which he kept until 1583. Together with two other singers, he was loaned to Innsbruck this year, because they were “not singing the best” there. In the fall of 1583 the composer apparently resigned from the service in Hechingen because the new director of the local choir, Leonhard Lechner , had to find a replacement for the vice conductor . There is no information about where Jacobus Florius turned in the following seven years and where he worked. Not until 1590 is there evidence of his work as Kapellmeister in the service of the Austrian Archduke Matthias . There he tried in 1594 to change to Emperor Rudolf II's choir as bass singer , and he also dedicated a mass to him, but apparently remained unsuccessful. In 1596 he got the position of court music director in Salzburg with Prince-Bishop Wolf Dietrich von Raithenau (1587-1612). To this he dedicated his “Cantiones sacrae quinque vocum” (published in Munich 1599). However, the bishop rejected the dedication and dismissed Jacobus Florius. After that his track is lost; some music historians assume that he returned to the Netherlands.

meaning

At the beginning of the foreword to his collection “Modulorum aliquot tam sacrorum quam profanorum” Jacobus Florius introduces himself with a Latin text:
Cum recte moneat proverbium “Quam quisquis didicit artem, in hac se exerceat”, visus sum facere non inconsulto si in id studium curas, tempus, operam & industriam conferrem, in quo ab ineunte inde usque aetate & a teneris (ut aiunt) unguiculus quasi cum matris lacte enutritus essem, idque sub eo praeceptore, qui citra controversiam omnimu superiorum aetatum musicorum possi facile princeps haber, Orlando di Lasso, musicae harmoniae apud illustrissimum Bavariae ducem praefecto & doctore .
(As the saying “May everyone practice the art he has taught others” rightly admonishes, I have probably not acted badly advised whenever I devoted my attention, time, effort and diligence to the art, In which from the beginning of my life I was ceaselessly (so they say) nourished with mother's milk; and that under that teacher who is undoubtedly the best of all musicians, Orlando di Lasso, conductor and master of vocal music with the illustrious Duke of Bavaria).

The three-part collection "Modulorum aliquot", published in 1573 by the Löwen-based publisher Pierre Phalèse , contains 9 Latin motets in particular 24 Dutch songs, 15 of which have "wise" and biblical themes (sacred songs), 6 love songs and 3 burlesque songs, which Tell extravagant stories. With this Florius can be counted among the most fertile composers of that time about music to Dutch texts. He seems to have borrowed eight of these texts from the chansons of Noé Faignient . This is definitely chamber music, which was intended for an audience of domestic music amateurs. Outside of this source, no other songs by Jacobus Florius have come down to us.

Works

  • “Modulorum aliquot tam sacrorum quam prophanorum cum tribus vocibus” with three voices, Löwen 1573
  • Motet "In illo tempore" with seven parts, in Corollarium cantionum sacrarum , Nuremberg 1590
  • Missa "Sù, sù, sù nonb più dormir" with six voices, 1592 (also attributed to Georg Florius)
  • “Cantiones sacrae quinque vocum” with five voices, Munich 1999, including 13 motets and 8 magnificats
  • Magnificat quarti toni to six votes
  • Missa “Deus in nomine tuo salvum me fac” with four voices, Munich 1599
  • Missa "Lyram, lyram pulsent" for four voices

Literature (selection)

  • G. Bossert: The Hofkantorei under Duke Ludwig (1568–1593) , in: Württembergische Vierteljahreshefte zur Landesgeschichte No. 9, 1900
  • H. Spies: The art of music in Salzburg in the reign of Prince and Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raithenau 1587–1612 , in: Communications of the Society for Salzburg Regional Studies No. 71, 931, page 9 and following
  • Alfred Einstein: Italian music and Italian musicians at the imperial court and at the ducal courts in Innsbruck and Graz , in: Studies on musicology (supplements of the DTÖ) No. 21, 1934, pages 38–52
  • EF Schmid: Music at the Swabian Zollernhöfe of the Renaissance , Kassel 1962
  • W. Boetticher: From Orlando di Lasso's sphere of activity , Kassel 1963
  • Franz Körndle: The "daily service" of the Munich court orchestra in the 16th century , in: Trossinger Jahrbuch für Renaissancemusik 2001, Kassel 2001, dissertation

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ The Music in Past and Present (MGG), Person Part Volume 6, Bärenreiter and Metzler, Kassel and Basel 2001, ISBN 3-7618-1116-0
  2. ^ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , edited by Stanley Sadie, 2nd Edition, Volume 9, McMillan, London 2001, ISBN 0-333-60800-3
  3. ↑ Jan Willem Bonda: De meerstemmige Nederlandse liederen van de vijftiende en zestiende eeuw , Verloren, Hilversum 1996, ISBN 90-6550-545-8
personal data
SURNAME Florius, Jacobus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Flori, Jacob; Florii, Jacobus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Franco-Flemish composer, bandmaster and singer of the Renaissance
DATE OF BIRTH around 1552
PLACE OF BIRTH uncertain: Maastricht
DATE OF DEATH after 1599