Petrus Alamire

Petrus Alamire (Peter Imhoff) (* around 1470 in Nuremberg ; † June 26, 1536 in Mechelen ) was a German copyist, music dealer, singer and composer of the Renaissance who worked in the Franco-Flemish region.

Live and act

Petrus Alamire, original name Peter Imhoff, comes from a Nuremberg merchant family, but came to the "Spanish Netherlands" (today's Belgium and Holland together) at a young age. His pseudonym Alamire is the usual name in the Renaissance for the tone A, which, after the tone name, contains the solmization syllables for this tone in the three hexachords on C, F and G: "la", "mi" and "re". Petrus Alamire received his earliest known commissions in 1496/97 from the Brotherhood of Our Lady in 's-Hertogenbosch , where his special skill in writing music was first valued. For the collegiate church of the same order in Antwerp , where, besides the Imhoff family, many German merchants had settled, he made a Sanckboek (hymn book) between 1498 and 1499 . It was the era in which the growth of musical creativity in the Netherlands reached its peak and this region produced more composers than the rest of Europe put together; these composers emigrated to other areas, especially to aristocratic and royal courts, which had the means for their employment.

In 1503 Antwerp is mentioned as his place of residence, where he received money for the production of ung grant libre de musicke for Philip the Fair of Burgundy ; in addition, the name Alman confirms his German ancestry. Further documents from the years 1505, 1506 and 1509, which are related to Antwerp properties and houses, confirm his stay and that of his wife Katlyne van der Meeren in this city. Here his writing workshop produced manuscripts for Emperor Maximilian I in 1511 and between 1512/13 and 1516/17 for the Antwerp Church of Our Lady and the Brotherhood established there. An Antwerp file from 1516 shows that the couple was already living in Mechlin that year. Margaret of Austria , regent of the Netherlands, resided here , whom Alamire also referred to as a singer in a letter to her father; an activity as a singer also emerges from a letter from Cuthbert Dunstal to King Henry VIII of England.

The correspondence of the English court at this time also shows the activity of Petrus Alamire as a political agent and spy for the English king. Between 1515 and 1518 it was his task, together with the Flemish trombone player Hans Nagel († 1531), above all the activities of the exiled English aspirant and rival of Henry VIII, Richard de la Pole (1480–1525), Duke of Suffolk, the was in Metz to scout out. Some time later the suspicion arose at the English court that Alamire was also conducting counter-espionage for de la Pole and the French, so that the correspondence with the English court ended.

On behalf of the Burgundian-Habsburg court, Alamire stayed several times from 1518 to 1519 at the court of Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony-Wittenberg. The aim was to win the elector's vote for the election of Charles as emperor. So some magnificent choir books came to the Saxon court as "promotional gifts". During this time, Alamire also acted as a courier between private individuals, for example between the secretary of Frederick the Wise, Georg Spalatinus, and Erasmus of Rotterdam between 1517 and 1519 . Other musical manuscripts by Alamire went to Maria of Hungary , to Charles V in Spain, to the Pope and possibly also to Wilhelm of Bavaria . Other books from his workshop were given to various brotherhoods and collegiate churches in Antwerp between 1519 and 1521 and in 's-Hertogenbosch between 1530 and 1532. Prominent private individuals have also become known as recipients of his works, such as the banker Raymund Fugger († 1535) and the Amsterdam banker Pompejus Occo , who acted as the Dutch commercial agent of the Danish king. What is striking is a payment to Valentijn Maeckelen from Mechelen and Alamire for instruction in mining. Pompejus Occo, in his role as a kapel guard of the Holy Place in Amsterdam, has given another luxurious manuscript from his workshop as a loan. Alamire's activity as an instrument dealer until the end of his life resulted from the delivery of a koker fluyten (quiver or sheath flute ) and two schalmeye pypen (shawms) to the city of Mechelen in 1533/34.

Petrus Alamire died in Mechelen on June 26th, 1536 after receiving a pension from Margaret of Hungary; his wife also died in Mechelen in the 1537/38 financial year.

meaning

Forty-eight individual manuscripts and twelve collections of separate folios and fragments have come down to us from Petrus Alamire's writing workshop , which together form an extensive complex. In addition to the usual manuscripts, there is a whole range of splendid specimens, which were intended, so to speak, for "export" and which appeal to the aesthetic imagination because of the outstanding illustration and calligraphy . Typical of Alamire's manuscripts are the attached images of grotesque men's heads, which are provided with special attributes, such as a lock on the mouth or a tuning fork on the face or the like. Research has shown that more than three clerks have worked for Alamire. However, he kept the line, made corrections and put his signature at the end. Most of his manuscripts are choral books and contain primarily sacred works by Pierre de la Rue (favorite composer of Margaret of Austria) and his contemporaries Heinrich Isaac , Jacob Obrecht , Johannes Ockeghem , Josquin Desprez , Matthaeus Pipelare , Jean Mouton , Adrian Willaert and Antoine de Févin . The importance of Alamire in music history is based on the creation of the most homogeneous and multi-layered complex of precious and valuable musical manuscripts in the Netherlands with over 850 compositions, including many unique pieces.

His only composition preserved by name, a variation of the song T'Andernaken , has survived in three places that were directly or indirectly connected to him ( Copenhagen , Vienna and Wittenberg ). However, Alamire's evident ability and experience suggest that many more anonymous works of his time can be traced back to him.

Works

• Manuscripts (summary): There are 56 manuscripts, collections and fragments from the Alamire scriptorium that are kept in European libraries, for example in the Habsburg Court Library in Vienna, in London (the Henry VIII manuscript), in the Vatican (manuscript for Pope Leo X.), also in Brussels , Munich and Jena ; the latter city keeps the court books of Frederick the Wise.
• Composition: “T'Andernaken, al op den Rijn” (To Andernach on the Rhine) for five instruments (“Krumbhörner”); this piece also exists in a version for four instruments.

Literature (selection)

• Elisabeth Th. Hilscher-Fritz: Alamire, Petrus (Van den Hove, Pieter; Imhoff, Peter). In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 1, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-7001-3043-0 .
• G. van Doorslaer: Calligraphes de Musique, à Malines, au XVIe siècle , in: Bulletin du clercle archéologique, litteraire et artistique de Malines No. 33, 1928, pages 91-102
• M. Picker: The Chanson Albums of Marguerite of Austria , Berkeley 1965
• B. Huys: An Unknown Alamire-Choirbook (“Occo-Codex”) Recently Acquired by the Royal Library of Belgium , in: Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor nederlandse muziekgeschiedenis No. 24, 1974, pages 1-19
• Derselbe / SAC Dudok van Heel: Occo-Codex (B-Br, IV.922) , Facsimile Buren 1979
• F. Warmington: A Master Calligrapher in Alamire's Workshop. Toward a Chronology of His Work , in: Congressional Report American Musicological Society Ann Arbor 1982, Philadelphia 1982, No. 21
• HM Brown: In Alamire's workshop. Notes on a Scribal Practice in the Early Sixteenth Century , in: Source studies for the music of the Renaissance II, Wiesbaden 1983, pages 15–63 (= Wolfenbütteler Forschungen No. 26)
• M. Picker: Album de Marguerite d'Autriche (B-Br 228) , facsimile with introduction, Peer 1986
• KK Forney: Music, Ritual and Patronage at the Church of Our Lady, Antwerp , in: Early Music History No. 7, 1987, pp. 1-57
• R. de Beer: Petrus Alamire, muziekschrijver en calligraaf , in: In Buscoductis, Kunst uit de tijd de 's-Hertogenbosch,' s-Gravenhage 1990, pages 505-512
• Eugeen Schreurs (Editor): An Anthology of Music Fragments from the Low Countries (Middle-Ages - Renaissance). Polyphony, Monophony and Slate Fragments in Facsimile , Leuven / Peer 1995
• Allan W. Atlas: Renaissance Music: Music in Western Europe, 1400−1600 , Verlag WW Norton & Co. New York 1998, ISBN 0-393-97169-4
• Eugeen Schreurs (editor): Illuminated Music Manuscripts from the Burgundian-Habsburg Court, 1500−1535: The Workshop of Petrus Alamire , Gent / Chicago 1999

Web links

• Petrus Alamire in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)
• KU Leuven: The Alamire Foundation (in Dutch)
• Article by María R. Montes: “Petrus Alamire. Música e intriga en el Rinacimiento flamenco "(in Spanish)

swell

1. ^ The Music in Past and Present (MGG), Person Part Volume 1, Bärenreiter Verlag Kassel and Basel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1111-X
2. ^ Herbert Kellman: Pierre Alamire , The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London 1980, ISBN 1-56159-174-2