Wolfgang Figulus

Wolfgang Figulus (* around 1525 in Naumburg (Saale) as Wolfgang Töpfer ; † 1589 in Meißen ) was a German composer , cantor and music theorist.

Live and act

In the foreword to Precationes aliquot (1553) he writes that he has been interested in music since he was a teenager . There he names the professors Jakob Jockisch (around 1497–1586) and Wolfgang Just (also Jobst, 1521–1575) in Frankfurt (Oder) and Johann Barthram as special sponsors of his training. Presumably he attended school in Frankfurt (Oder) between 1540 and 1545. Around 1545 he became cantor in Lübben and in the autumn of 1547 he matriculated at the Viadrina University in Frankfurt (Oder) in order to move to the University of Leipzig in the winter of 1547/48 , where he also gave music lectures in 1549. From 1549 to 1551 he worked as Thomaskantor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig . From 1551 until his retirement in 1588 he was cantor and teacher at the Princely School in Meißen . He taught the subjects music, Latin and religion and took care of the musical arrangement of the services in the Afra Church .

In addition to theoretical writings, he published several polyphonic church music works and, in 1571, the collection of Christmas carols Vetera nova carmina sacra et selecta de natali Domini nostri Iesu Christi (Frankfurt an der Oder 1575), which also contained ten of his own compositions, and around 20 sentences in Hymni sacri et scholastici cum melodiis et numeris musicis, aniversaria vice in libellum denuo collecti & aucti studio et opera M. Friderici Birck (Leipzig 1594, reprint 1604).

On December 27, 1551 he married Anna Schönfelder, with whom he had four sons and five daughters. His wife and three sons and three daughters died of the plague in the winter of 1576/77 . In his second marriage, Anna Specht, daughter of the pastor St. Afra Nicolaus Picus (also: Specht; * Pribus; † September 18, 1565 in Meißen), widow of the pastor in Nossen Jacob Geier. This marriage remained childless. The son Peter Figulus began training at the electoral Saxon state school in Pforta on June 2, 1568. The daughter Anna Figulus married in 1571 with the pastor in Hirschfeld near Meißen Mag. Phil. Jesaias Oswald (* ± 1524/26; † December 7, 1580 in Arnsdorf) The daughter Catharina Figulus married on November 11, 1588 in Großenhain with the later cantor at the Princely School in Grimma Mag. Phil. Friedrich Birck (around 1563–1621).

Works

Music prints

• Precationes aliquot musicis numeris compositae. Leipzig 1553
• Tricinia sacra ad voces pueriles. Nuremberg 1559
• Cantionarum Sacratum […] primi tomi decas prima. Frankfurt on the Oder 1575
• Sacrum nuptiale in honorem coniugii […] Johannis Michael. Wittenberg 1582 (incomplete)
• Precatio pro tranquilitate ecclesiae et reip [ublicae]. Wittenberg 1586 (incomplete)
• The hundred and eleven psalm. Wittenberg 1586; newly published by Andreas Weber as: The 111th Psalm with 5 voices. Meissen 2006, ISMN M-700254-04-9
• Amorum filii Dei, hymni sacri, de natali Domini nostri Iesu Christi, decadis III. Wittenberg 1587 (incomplete)

Fonts

• Elementa musicae brevissima. Leipzig 1555
• as editor: Martin Agricola : Deutsche Musica und Gesangbüchlin, the Sunday Gospels. Nuremberg 1560
• Libri primi musicae practicae elementa brevissima. Nuremberg 1565 (revision of Elementa musicae brevissima. Leipzig 1555)
• De musica practica liber primvs. Nuremberg 1565

literature

• Moritz Fürstenau :  Figulus, Wolfgang . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 8.
• Wilfried Brennecke :  Figulus, Wolfgang. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 144 ( digitized version ).
• Peter Krause: Figulus, Wolfgang . In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present. 2nd edition, person part, volume 6, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2001, columns 1143–1146.

Web links

• Publications by and about Wolfgang Figulus in VD 17 .