Nicholas Lanier

Nicholas Lanier, painting by van Dyck, 1632 (Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna)

Nicholas Lanier (also LANIERE baptized 10. September 1588 in London ; buried 24 February 1665/1666 in Greenwich , near London) was an English composer , singer, lutenist and painter .

Life

Nicholas Lanier was likely born in Greenwich and initially tutored by his father, who played sackbut . In 1613 he composed with Giovanni Coperario for the wedding of the Count of Somerset . He also wrote for Ben Jonson's Masque of Augurs and Lovers Made Men .

Around 1615 Lanier was accepted as a lute player in the royal chapel , where, in addition to the lute, he also played and sang the viola da gamba . From 1625 he traveled several times to Italy to buy paintings for the king and became known for the new Italian music of Claudio Monteverdi . It prompted him to bring the elements of monody and recitative to England for the first time.

Lanier received the new title " Master of the King's Music " in 1626 and thus became the ancestor of the British court composers . He lived in Holland during the Commonwealth of England but returned to English service in 1660.

There is a self-portrait of Lanier owned by the music faculty at Oxford University and an oil painting by Anthonis van Dyck , which was created in 1625 on a trip to Italy in Genoa , where van Dyck was staying at the time (owned by the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien ).

literature

• MacDonald Emslie: Nicholas Lanier's Innovations in English Song . In: Music and Letters , 41, 1960, ISSN  0027-4224 , pp. 13-27.
• F. Lanier Graham: The Earlier Life and Work of Nicholas Lanier, 1588-1666. Collector of Paintings and Drawings . Masters thesis. Columbia University, Art History, New York NY 1967.
• Michael I. Wilson: Nicholas Lanier. Master of the King's Music . Scolar Press, Aldershot 1994, ISBN 0-85967-999-3 .

Web links

• Sheet music and audio files by Nicholas Lanier in the International Music Score Library Project