Arnolt Schlick
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
, lutenist and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
of the Renaissance
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...
. He is grouped among the composers known as the Colorists. He was most probably born in Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
and by 1482 established himself as court organist for the Electoral Palatinate. Highly regarded by his superiors and colleagues alike, Schlick played at important historical events, such as the election of Maximilian I
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I , the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky...
as King of the Romans
King of the Romans
King of the Romans was the title used by the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire following his election to the office by the princes of the Kingdom of Germany...
, and was widely sought after as organ consultant throughout his career. The last known references to him are from 1521; the circumstances of his death are unknown.
Schlick was blind for much of his life, possibly from birth. However, that did not stop him from publishing his work. He is best known for Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten (1511), the first German treatise on building and playing organs. This work, highly influential during the 16th century, was republished in 1869 and is regarded today as one of the most important books of its kind. Schlick's surviving compositions include Tabulaturen etlicher lobgesang (1512), a collection of organ and lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
music, and a few pieces in manuscript. The lute pieces—mostly settings of popular songs—are among the earliest published; but Schlick's organ music is even more historically important. It features sophisticated cantus firmus
Cantus firmus
In music, a cantus firmus is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.The plural of this Latin term is , though the corrupt form canti firmi is also attested...
techniques, multiple truly independent lines (up to five—and, in one case, ten—voices), and extensive use of imitation. Thus, it predates the advances of Baroque music
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
era by about a hundred years, making Schlick one of the most important composers in the history of keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
music.
Early life
Records of Schlick's early life are sparse: he lived and worked at HeidelbergHeidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, which was almost completely destroyed during the War of the Grand Alliance, so almost no records survive from the time Shlick was born. Nevertheless, linguistic analysis of his writings has shown that Schlick was most likely from the area around Heidelberg, and recent research showed that Schlick was most probably born into a family of a Heidelberg butcher, whose family name may have been Slicksupp. If Schlick's parents followed the contemporary German custom to name children after the saint on whose day they were born, Schlick must have been born on July 18, St. Arnold
Arnulf of Metz
Saint Arnulf of Metz was a Frankish bishop of Metz and advisor to the Merovingian court of Austrasia, who retired to the Abbey of Remiremont....
's day. As for the year of birth, since Schlick married in 1482 and described himself as "an old man" by 1520, he was probably born in 1455–60. Schlick was blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
for much of his life, and may have been born blind.
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Johannes von Soest
Johannes Steinwert von Soest was a German composer, theorist and poet. Most biographical details about his life survive in Soest's rhymed autobiography. He was born in Unna and brought up in the nearby town of Soest. As a child, he sang at St. Patroclus Cathedral in Soest...
and an otherwise unknown "Petrus Organista de Oppenheim" could be his teachers, as could Conrad Paumann
Conrad Paumann
Conrad Paumann was a German organist, lutenist and composer of the early Renaissance. Even though he was born blind, he was one of the most talented musicians of the 15th century, and his performances created a sensation wherever he went...
, if only for a brief time when he (possibly) visited Heidelberg in 1472. The earliest mention of Schlick's place of employment is in his marriage contract: in 1482 he married Barbara Struplerin, a servant of Elector Philip
Philip, Elector Palatine
Philip the Upright, Elector Palatine of the Rhine was an Elector Palatine of the Rhine from the house of Wittelsbach from 1476 to 1508....
's sons, and the contract lists him as a court organist. Schlick and his family lived in a house on the Burgweg, a path that led to the Heidelberg Castle
Heidelberg Castle
The Heidelberg Castle is a famous ruin in Germany and landmark of Heidelberg. The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps....
(although by 1482 Schlick had already inherited his father's house in Heidelberg).
Career
Schlick was apparently held in very high regard by his superiors. By 1509 he was the highest-paid musician at the court with a salary almost twice higher than that of the next-highest musician, and comparable to the salary of the court treasurerTreasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
. Evidently, this position was already established by 1486, when Schlick performed at the election of Archduke Maximilian
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I , the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky...
as King of the Romans
King of the Romans
King of the Romans was the title used by the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire following his election to the office by the princes of the Kingdom of Germany...
at Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, on February 16 (Schlick may also have performed at Maximilian's coronation six weeks later). It was at this election that Schlick must have first met Paul Hofhaimer
Paul Hofhaimer
Paul Hofhaimer was an Austrian organist and composer. He was particularly gifted at improvisation, and was regarded as the finest organist of his age by many writers, including Vadian and Paracelsus; in addition he was one of only two German-speaking composers of the time who had a reputation in...
. In 1489 or 1490 Schlick travelled to the Netherlands
Seventeen Provinces
The Seventeen Provinces were a personal union of states in the Low Countries in the 15th century and 16th century, roughly covering the current Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, a good part of the North of France , and a small part of Western Germany.The Seventeen Provinces were originally held by...
: he alludes to the journey in his preface to Tabulaturen etlicher lobgesang, but his reasons remain obscure. Recent scholarship unearthed evidence of payments to other Palatinate musicians, made by Utrecht
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
authorities, and although no mention of the court travelling to Utrecht in 1489–1490 has been found, it is entirely possible that it did happen. An older version of Schlick's motives was that he went to the Low Countries to escape from the plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
which was then ravaging the Heidelberg area.
In October 1503 Philip I of Castile
Philip I of Castile
Philip I , known as Philip the Handsome or the Fair, was the first Habsburg King of Castile...
visited Heidelberg, bringing with him a large enoutrage that included the composers Pierre de la Rue
Pierre de La Rue
Pierre de la Rue , called Piersson, was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the Renaissance. A member of the same generation as Josquin des Prez, and a long associate of the Habsburg-Burgundian musical chapel, he ranks with Agricola, Brumel, Compère, Isaac, Obrecht, and Weerbeke as one of the...
and Alexander Agricola
Alexander Agricola
Alexander Agricola was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. A prominent member of the Grande chapelle, the Habsburg musical establishment, he was a renowned composer in the years around 1500, and his music was widely distributed throughout Europe...
, and organist Henry Bredemers
Henry Bredemers
Henry Bredemers was a South Netherlandish organist and music teacher...
. Schlick almost certainly met them, and probably played the organ at the performance of the Mass that took place during Philip's visit. The next known contemporary report that mentions Schlick is from February 23, 1511, when he played at the wedding of Louis V, Elector Palatine
Louis V, Elector Palatine
Louis V, Count Palatine of the Rhine ; a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty was prince elector of the Palatinate....
and Sibylle of Bavaria. Nothing certain is known about Schlick's other performances. We know that he was present at one the diets
Reichstag (Holy Roman Empire)
The Imperial Diet was the Diet, or general assembly, of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire.During the period of the Empire, which lasted formally until 1806, the Diet was not a parliament in today's sense; instead, it was an assembly of the various estates of the realm...
at Worms
Worms, Germany
Worms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts, who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over the title of "Oldest City in Germany." Worms is the only...
, either in 1509 or at the famous diet of 1495
Imperial Reform
In 1495, an attempt was made at an Imperial Diet in the City of Worms to give the disintegrating Holy Roman Empire a new structure, commonly referred to as Imperial Reform ....
. The presence of an unnamed Heidelberg court lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
nist in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
in 1509 is documented, and as Schlick was an accomplished lutenist, it may have been him. In 1516, Schlick visited Torgau
Torgau
Torgau is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen.Outside Germany, the town is most well known as the place where during the Second World War, United States Army forces coming from the west met with forces of the Soviet Union...
for unknown reasons; he may have played the organ there, and must have met Hofaimer again, since the latter was court organist at Torgau at the time.
Speyer
Speyer is a city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located beside the river Rhine, Speyer is 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Founded by the Romans, it is one of Germany's oldest cities...
; it is the first known German treatise on organ building and performance, and was apparently very influential in Germany. Also in 1511, Schlick's son Arnolt the Younger pleaded to his father to publish at least some of his music; the father complied and published Tabulaturen etlicher lobgesang und lidlein uff die orgeln un lauten ("Tablature
Tablature
Tablature is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches....
s of [Several] Canticle
Canticle
A canticle is a hymn taken from the Bible. The term is often expanded to include ancient non-biblical hymns such as the Te Deum and certain psalms used liturgically.-Roman Catholic Church:From the Old Testament, the Roman Breviary takes seven canticles for use at Lauds, as follows:*...
s and Songs for Organ and Lute") the next year, a collection of organ and lute music. A few of the biographical details are found in the preface to the latter work (which consists of Arnolt the Younger's letter to his father) and Schlick's reply. Schlick writes, for instance, about his journey to the Low Countries, and about the row he had with Sebastian Virdung
Sebastian Virdung
Sebastian Virdung was a German composer and theorist on musical instruments. He is grouped among the composers known as the Colorists. He studied in Heidelberg as a scholar of Johannes von Soest at the chapel of the ducal court. After being ordained, he became chaplain at the court in Heidelberg....
in either 1495 or 1509. Schlick apparently met Virdung in Worms in 1495 or 1509 and helped him in some way. Some years later, in his treatise Musica getutscht (1511) Virdung ridiculed Schlick's adherence to the view that the black keys should be considered musica ficta
Musica ficta
Musica ficta was a term used in European music theory from the late 12th century to about 1600 to describe any pitches, whether notated or to be added by performers in accordance with their training, that lie outside the system of musica recta or musica vera as defined by the hexachord system of...
, and made rude remarks about the composer's blindness. In the preface to Tabulaturen etlicher lobgesang Schlick retorts with mentions of Virdung's numerous mistakes in the musical examples from Musica getutscht, and condemns Virdung's ingratitude. Schlick also mentions his plans to publish another book of music, but no trace of such publication is known.
Throughout his life, Schlick was in high demand as an organ consultant. The earliest record of his activity in this field is from 1491, when he inspected the instrument of the Strasbourg Cathedral
Strasbourg Cathedral
Strasbourg Cathedral or the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Strasbourg, France. Although considerable parts of it are still in Romanesque architecture, it is widely consideredSusan Bernstein: , The Johns Hopkins University Press to be among the finest...
. Twelve more reports survive about such trips: among others, Schlick passed judgements on organs at St. George's Church, Haguenau
St. George's Church, Haguenau
The Roman Catholic parish church St. George's Church is the most important religious building of the city of Haguenau in Alsace, France.- Building history and description :...
, Speyer Cathedral
Speyer Cathedral
The Speyer Cathedral, officially the Imperial Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption and St Stephen, in Latin: Domus sanctae Mariae Spirae in Speyer, Germany, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Speyer and is suffragan to the Archdiocese of Bamberg. The cathedral, which is dedicated to St...
, and Stiftskirche, Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße is a town located in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 53,892 inhabitants as of 2002, it is the largest town called Neustadt.-Etymology:...
. The last reference to Schlick is from 1521, when he examined an organ at St. George, Haguenau. This job was apparently carried out during December 1520–January 1521, and a letter survives from about the same time, from Schlick to Bernardo Clesio
Bernardo Clesio
Bernardo III Clesio was an Italian cardinal, bishop, prince, diplomat, humanist and botanist.Born in Cles, Trentino, he graduated from the University of Bologna, and later became Prince-bishop of Trento , bishop of Brixen , cardinal, and chancellor for the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I.He was a...
, Bishop of Trent
Bishopric of Trent
The Bishopric of Trent is a former ecclesiastical territory roughly corresponding to the present-day Northern Italian autonomous province of Trentino. It was created in 1027 and existed until 1802, when it was secularised and absorbed into the County of Tyrol held by the House of Habsburg...
; Schlick sent Clesio two sets of chorale settings. After this, Schlick disappears from history. In 1524 another organist was employed in his place.
Writings
Speyer
Speyer is a city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located beside the river Rhine, Speyer is 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Founded by the Romans, it is one of Germany's oldest cities...
by Peter Drach. Only two copies survive to this day, but the book has long been recognized as one of the most important of its kind. The Spiegel is the earliest German organ treatise, and also the first book on musical matters to enjoy an imperial privilege (issued by Emperor Maximilian to protect Schlick's rights). It was widely influential in Maximilian's empire, but became obsolete towards the 17th century because of the advances in organ building. After years of oblivion, the Spiegel was republished in 1869, and interest in it has been growing ever since: a summary of its contents in modern language was available in 1870, a complete translation into modern German appeared in 1931, a partial English translation first became available in Organ Institute Quarterly, published between 1957–1960, and a complete English translation followed in 1980. Facsimile editions of the treatise appeared as early as 1959.
Schlick's book begins with a preface in three parts: the composer first thanks his patrons, then briefly discusses the nature of music, and finally describes the purpose of the Spiegel: it was not intended for organists and/or organ builders, as it may seem from the title, but for those church and monastery authorities who wanted to buy an organ, or had one entrusted to their care. Schlick's remarks about the nature of music are similar to those in other musical treatises of the time: he quotes, like numerous other authors of the period, the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
, Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, commonly called Boethius was a philosopher of the early 6th century. He was born in Rome to an ancient and important family which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many consuls. His father, Flavius Manlius Boethius, was consul in 487 after...
, Asclepiades of Bithynia
Asclepiades of Bithynia
Asclepiades was a Greek physician born at Prusa in Bithynia in Asia Minor and flourished at Rome, where he established Greek medicine near the end of the 2nd century BCE. He attempted to build a new theory of disease, based on the flow of atoms through pores in the body...
and Guido of Arezzo
Guido of Arezzo
Guido of Arezzo or Guido Aretinus or Guido da Arezzo or Guido Monaco or Guido d'Arezzo was a music theorist of the Medieval era...
. Quotations from these sources support Schlick's own views: that music has a profound effect on the listeners, and can heal both the body and the spirit. Schlick also praises the organ as the best musical instrument, his argument being that extensive polyphony with as many as six or seven parts can be executed by a single person on the organ.
The preface is followed by ten chapters which cover practically every aspect of organ-building: tuning, keyboard construction, making of chests, bellows, stops, etc.; even the instrument's position in the church and its decorations are discussed (Schlick's point of view being that excessive decorations are undesirable). Among other things, Schlick describes his "ideal" organ, which is a two-manual instrument with eight to ten stops for the Hauptwerk, four for the Rückpositiv, and four in the pedal
Pedalboard
A pedalboard is a keyboard played with the feet that is usually used to produce the low-pitched bass line of a piece of music...
:
| Hauptwerk | Rückpositiv |
| 2- or more rank Principal | Principal (wood pipes) |
| "long Octave" | small Gemshorn |
| "wide Gemshorn", an octave above the Principals | small Mixture |
| Zimbel | Zimbel without Tierce |
| large chorus mixture | |
| reed stop "imitating a shawm Shawm The shawm was a medieval and Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family made in Europe from the 12th century until the 17th century. It was developed from the oriental zurna and is the predecessor of the modern oboe. The body of the shawm was usually turned from a single piece of wood,... " |
Pedal |
| hůltze gletcher | Principal (from the Hauptwerk) |
| Zink or Cornett | Octaff |
| Flageolet, ? of 2' | Octave and Mixture (from the Hauptwerk) |
| Regal stop | Trompete or Posaune |
He emphasizes that each stop should have a distinct sound, easily distinguishable from all others, and that performers should make good use of contrasting registrations. Some of the stops Schlick mentions are difficult to identify precisely, due to the age of the treatise and the changes that took place in organ-building since the 16th century. Perhaps the most mysterious is the hůltze gletcher, a stop with a percussive sound which Schlick admired and compared to "a bowl that idle journeymen hit with spoons."
The most discussed part of the Spiegel is its second chapter, which concerns organ pitch
Pitch (music)
Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
. To illustrate how an organ should be tuned, Schlick indicates the length of a pipe speaking F
F (musical note)
F is a musical note, the fourth above C. It is also known as fa in fixed-do solfège.When calculated in equal temperament with a reference of A above middle C as 440 Hz, the frequency of Middle F is approximately 349.228 Hz. See pitch for a discussion of historical variations in...
, the bottom note of his compass. To this end, a line is printed in the margin, and the length of the pipe is given as being 16 times the length of that line. Numerous estimates have been suggested in the past, and some scholars (most notably Arthur Mendel) actually doubted whether the length of the line in question was rendered correctly during printing. Today, most scholars agree that the pipe would produce a sound slightly more than a whole tone below the present-day F. The temperament
Musical temperament
In musical tuning, a temperament is a system of tuning which slightly compromises the pure intervals of just intonation in order to meet other requirements of the system. Most instruments in modern Western music are tuned in the equal temperament system...
Schlick advocates is an irregular one, close to meantone
Meantone temperament
Meantone temperament is a musical temperament, which is a system of musical tuning. In general, a meantone is constructed the same way as Pythagorean tuning, as a stack of perfect fifths, but in meantone, each fifth is narrow compared to the ratio 27/12:1 in 12 equal temperament, the opposite of...
; the major third
Major third
In classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the major third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. It is qualified as major because it is the largest of the two: the major third spans four semitones, the minor third three...
s are slightly wider than pure. Interestingly, Schlick rejected keyboards with split accidentals
Accidental (music)
In music, an accidental is a note whose pitch is not a member of a scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the symbols used to mark such notes, sharps , flats , and naturals , may also be called accidentals...
.
Organ music
Salve Regina
The "Salve Regina", also known as the Hail Holy Queen, is a Marian hymn and one of four Marian antiphons sung at different seasons within the Christian liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. The Salve Regina is traditionally sung at Compline in the time from the Saturday before Trinity...
(five verses), Pete quid vis, Hoe losteleck, Benedictus, Primi toni, Maria zart, Christe, and three settings of Da pacem. Of these, only Salve Regina and the Da pacem settings are fully authentic. Much of the other music is stylistically indistinguishable from contemporary vocal works by other composers; consequently, some of the pieces may be intabulation
Intabulation
Intabulation, from the Italian word intavolatura, refers to an arrangement of a vocal or ensemble piece for keyboard, lute, or other plucked string instrument, written in tablature. It was a common practice in 14th-16th century keyboard and lute music...
s of other composers' works. However, as of 2009, no models are known for any of the pieces, and so Schlick's authorship remains undisputed.
The Salve Regina setting is among the most important of Schlick's works. Unlike most preceding and contemporary organ composers, Schlick tends to use four voices rather than three, and in the first verse there are instances of two voices in the pedal
Pedalboard
A pedalboard is a keyboard played with the feet that is usually used to produce the low-pitched bass line of a piece of music...
, a technique unheard of at the time. Schlick's setting also sets itself apart by relying heavily on imitation, sequence and fragmentation of motives, techniques seldom employed so consistently in organ music of the day. The first movement begins with an imitative exposition of an original theme with an unusually wide (for a theme used imitatively) range of a twelfth and proceeds to free counterpoint with instances of fragments of the original theme. Movements 2 and 3 (Ad te clamamus and Eya ergo) begin by treating the cantus firmus
Cantus firmus
In music, a cantus firmus is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.The plural of this Latin term is , though the corrupt form canti firmi is also attested...
imitatively, and the opening of Eya ergo constitutes one of the earliest examples of fore-imitation:
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck was a Dutch composer, organist, and pedagogue whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras. He was among the first major keyboard composers of Europe, and his work as a teacher helped establish the north German organ...
. Early music scholar Willi Apel, who authored the earliest comprehensive analysis of Schlick's keyboard music, writes:
Schlick's Salve is one of the truly great masterpieces of organ art, perhaps the first one to deserve to be so ranked. It still breathes the strict spirit of the Middle Ages, which brought forth so many wonderful works, but new forces are already at work that lend this composition a novel fulness of expression and sound.
Schlick's three Da pacem settings also look to the future, because, although Schlick does not refer to them as a cycle anywhere in Tabulaturen, the placement of cantus firmus suggests that the three settings are part of a large plan. The antiphon is in the discantus in the first setting, in the tenor in the second, and in the bass in the third. Similar plans are observed in Sweelinck's and later composers' chorale variations. Technically, Schlick's settings exhibit a contrapuntal technique similar to that of Salve Regina.
Schlick's Benedictus and Christe are three-voice settings of mass
Mass (music)
The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
movements. The former has been called "the first organ ricercar
Ricercar
A ricercar is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term means to search out, and many ricercars serve a preludial function to "search out" the key or mode of a following piece...
" because of its use of imitation in a truly fugal
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
manner, but it remains unclear whether the composition is an original piece by Schlick or an intabulation of a vocal work by another composer. The piece is in three sections, the first of which begins with a fugal exposition, and the second is a canon
Canon (music)
In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...
between the outer voices. Schlick's Christe is more loosely constructed: although imitation is used throughout, there are no fugal expositions or canonic techniques employed. The piece begins with a long two-voice section. Other organ pieces in Tabulaturen employ a variety of methods, most relying on imitation (with the notable exception of Primi toni, which is also unusual for its title, which merely indicates the tone, but not the cantus firmus). For example, Schlick's setting of Maria zart (a German song famously used by Jacob Obrecht
Jacob Obrecht
Jacob Obrecht was a Flemish composer of the Renaissance. He was the most famous composer of masses in Europe in the late 15th century, being eclipsed by only Josquin des Prez after his death.-Life:...
for Missa Maria zart, one of the longest polyphonic settings of the mass Ordinary ever written) splits the melody into thirteen fragments, treated imitatively one by one. A similar procedure, only with longer fragments of the melody used, is employed in Hoe losteleck, a piece based on a song which may have had secular character. Pete quid vis, a piece of unknown origins and function, consists of a large variety of different treatments of a single theme, either treated imitatively itself, or accompanied by independently conceived imitative passages.
Sequence (poetry)
A sequence is a chant or hymn sung or recited during the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, before the proclamation of the Gospel. By the time of the Council of Trent there were sequences for many feasts in the Church's year.The sequence has always been sung...
verse Gaude Dei genitrix (from the Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
sequence Natus ante saecula) and a set of two settings of the Ascension antiphon Ascendo ad Patrem meum. Both sets have didactic purposes. Gaude Dei genitrix settings establish various ways of reinforcing a two-voice setting, in which the chant is accompanied by moderately ornamented counterpoint, by duplicating both lines in parallel thirds, fourths, or sixths. The pieces, which may have been intended for voices rather than the organ, range from three- to five-voice settings. Schlick himself noted the didactic aspect, writing that he "found and made a separate rule for each setting, which are so clear that it will be easy to set all chants in the same manner." His Ascendo ad Patrem meum settings serve a different purpose, but also are a miniature encyclopaedia: the first setting is in two voices (and so the most basic of all possible settings), whereas the second is in ten voices (and so the most advanced of all possible settings). The ten-voice work is unique in organ repertoire, both for the polyphonic scope and the pedal technique.
Lute settings
Ottaviano Petrucci
Ottaviano Petrucci was an Italian printer. His Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, a collection of chansons printed in 1501, is commonly misidentified as the first book of sheet music printed from movable type. Actually that distinction belongs to the Roman printer Ulrich Han's Missale Romanum of 1476...
's Harmonice Musices Odhecaton
Harmonice Musices Odhecaton
The Harmonice Musices Odhecaton was an anthology of secular songs published by Ottaviano Petrucci in 1501 in Venice...
. This would imply that Schlick borrowed the idea to apply for an imperial privilege for Spiegel and Tabulaturen from Petrucci. The second exception is All Ding mit radt, which is different from every other piece in Tabulaturen: it relies not on the phrase structure of the song, like other settings, but rather on motivic and harmonic principles. Also, unlike other lute settings, it does not use bar form
Bar form
Bar form is a musical form of the pattern AAB.-Original Use:The term comes from the rigorous terminology of the Meistersinger guilds of the 15th to 18th century who used it to describe their songs and the songs of the predecessors, the minnesingers of the 12th to 14th century...
.
Mensural notation
Mensural notation is the musical notation system which was used in European music from the later part of the 13th century until about 1600."Mensural" refers to the ability of this system to notate complex rhythms with great exactness and flexibility...
, while the lower parts are given in tablature. The practice was rarely used in Germany at the time, but it appears in many contemporary French and Italian sources, such as collections of frottola
Frottola
The frottola was the predominant type of Italian popular, secular song of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. It was the most important and widespread predecessor to the madrigal...
s by Franciscus Bossinensis
Franciscus Bossinensis
Franciscus Bossinensis was a lutenist-composer active in Italy in the 15th century. Although his name suggests a Bosnian origin, this is a point of historical debate. Some experts consider him a Croat and some that he was Bosniak. He lived and worked in Venice...
(1509–11) or Marchetto Cara
Marchetto Cara
Marchetto Cara was an Italian composer, lutenist and singer of the Renaissance. He was mainly active in Mantua, was well-connected with the Gonzaga and Medici families, and along with Bartolomeo Tromboncino, was well known as a composer of frottolas.-Life:Next to nothing is known of his early life...
(c.1520), and Pierre Attaingnant
Pierre Attaingnant
Pierre Attaingnant was a French music printer, active in Paris.-Life:Attaingnant is considered to be first large-scale publisher of single-impression movable type for music-printing, thus making it possible to print faster and cheaper than predecessors such as Ottaviano Petrucci...
's publications (late 1520s). Another important deviation from the German norm is Schlick's tendency to put the cantus firmus in the highest part, the discantus, whereas the norm for German Lieder was cantus firmus in the tenor.
As is usual for lute intabulation
Intabulation
Intabulation, from the Italian word intavolatura, refers to an arrangement of a vocal or ensemble piece for keyboard, lute, or other plucked string instrument, written in tablature. It was a common practice in 14th-16th century keyboard and lute music...
s, none of Schlick's settings are completely faithful to their models. The changes range from addition of modest ornaments, as in Nach lust or Vil hinderlist, to insertions of new material, as in Mein M. ich hab and Weg wart dein art. One particularly important change occurs in Schlick's intabulation of Hertzliebstels pild, in which Schlick attempts a type of word painting
Word painting
Word painting is the musical technique of writing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song. For example, ascending scales would accompany lyrics about going up; slow, dark music would accompany lyrics about death.Tone painting of words goes at least as far back as Gregorian chant...
: the words "mit reichem Schall" ("with rich sound/splendor") are illustrated by an increase in rhythmic activity. The three solo lute settings are all in three voices, and present three distinct ways of three-voice intabulation. All Ding mit radt contains numerous passages in two voices, and so serves as an introduction to playing three-voice music. Wer gnad durch klaff is one of Schlick's most straightforward intabulations, using most of the original material unchanged. Finally, Weg wart dein art is a free intabulation, with numerous ornaments, figuration and other embellishments. The vast majority of Schlick's lute pieces are not exceptionally virtuosic, and are somewhat easier to perform than near-contemporary lute music by Hans Neusidler
Hans Neusidler
Hans Neusidler , was a German composer and lutenist of the Renaissance.-Life:...
and Hans Judenkönig
Hans Judenkönig
Hans Judenkönig was a German lutenist of the Renaissance. He was born in Schwäbisch Gmünd and died in Vienna....
; however, the works in Tabulaturen cannot be used as a basis to judge Schlick's technique, since the book had a didactic aspect, and Schlick planned a second volume with more complex and difficult music.
Influence
Schlick was of the utmost importance in the early history of organ music in Germany. He was a much sought-after organ consultant, and while his blindness prevented him from doing much of the construction he was closely associated with organ-builders as an advisor; he tested new organs, performed widely, and was a strong influence among other composers at the time. His method of weaving contrapuntalCounterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
lines around a cantus firmus
Cantus firmus
In music, a cantus firmus is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.The plural of this Latin term is , though the corrupt form canti firmi is also attested...
, derived from a chorale
Chorale
A chorale was originally a hymn sung by a Christian congregation. In certain modern usage, this term may also include classical settings of such hymns and works of a similar character....
tune, can be seen as foreshadowing the development of the chorale prelude
Chorale prelude
In music, a chorale prelude is a short liturgical composition for organ using a chorale tune as its basis. It was a predominant style of the German Baroque era and reached its culmination in the works of J.S. Bach, who wrote 46 examples of the form in his Orgelbüchlein.-Function:The liturgical...
in a later age. Schlick can be seen as the first figure in a long line of development which culminated in the music of J.S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
more than two hundred years later.
Music
- Tabulaturen etlicher lobgesang und lidlein uff die orgeln un lauten ("Tablatures of Several Canticles and Songs for the Organ and Lute", Mainz, 1512):
- Organ works: Salve Regina, Ad te clamamus, Eya ergo advocata, O pia, O dulcis Maria, Pete quid vis, Hoe losteleck, Benedictus, Primi toni, Maria zart, Christe, Da pacem (1), Da pacem (2), Da pacem (3).
- Works for lute: Mein M. ich hab, Cupido hat, Hertzliebstes pild, Nach lust hab ich, Vil hinderlist, Möcht es gesein, Mein lieb ist weg, Ich schrei und rüeff, Metzkin Isaack, Philips zwölffpot, Nun hab ich all mein tag gehört, Maria zart, All Ding mit radt, Wer gnad durch klaff, Weg wart dein art.
- Letter to Bernardo Clesio (late 1520–early 1521):
- Ascendo ad Patrem meum a 2, for organ
- Ascendo ad Patrem meum a 10, for organ
- Gaude Dei genitrix, 8 settings a 3–5, for organ
- 2 songs, 4vv
- Mi-mi, fragment, possibly from a lost mass setting (only soprano and bass parts survive from a 3- (or more) voice setting)
Writings
- Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten ("Mirror of Organ Makers and Organ Players", Speyer, 1511)