Religious or Ritual Musician

(b Genoa, c1600; d after 1640). Italian theorist. A Franciscan, he was chaplain and musician to Cardinal Franz von Dietrichstein, Prince-Bishop of Olomouc and governor of Moravia. Before 1629 he probably taught music at the seminary at St Oslowan and from 1629 at the newly established Loretan seminary at Nikolsburg (now Mikulov), the cardinal’s principal residence. He returned to Italy in 1632. His treatise Regulae contrapuncti excerptae ex operibus Zerlini et aliorum ad breviorem tyronum instructionem accommodate (St Oslowan, 1629/R), which in spite of its Latin title and dedicatory letter is written in Italian, was conceived as a textbook of counterpoint for his seminarians. It is an entirely unoriginal and conservative compendium of the most elementary rules concerning the use of consonances and dissonances, derived, according to the title, ‘from the works of Zarlino and others’.

[Petrus Abailardus]

(b Le Pallet, nr Nantes, 1079; d Saint-Marcel, nr Chalon-sur-Saône, April 21, 1142). French philosopher, poet and musician of Breton origin. After studying philosophy in Paris, he taught dialectic at the cathedral school. His love affair with Heloise, the young niece of Canon Fulbert, brought him fame as a musician. However, after they had secretly married in 1118 Fulbert had Abelard castrated. Heloise became a nun and he became a monk at St Denis. His highly original scholastic method and his restless and blunt nature aroused opposition to his teaching; principal among his opponents was Bernard of Clairvaux. After condemnation by the Council of Sens in 1140, Abelard found support from Peter the Venerable, Benedictine Abbot of Cluny.

Abelard’s songs are few beside his numerous theological and philosophical writings. Heloise’s testimony suggests that his love songs must have been important from both a literary and a musical point of view. In a later letter (probably revised by Abelard) she declared that he had ‘the gift of poetry and the gift of song’; he ‘composed quite a number of metrical and rhythmic love songs. The great charm and sweetness in language and music, and a soft attractiveness of the melody obliged even the unlettered’. These songs, presumably in Latin, have all been lost: they have not been identified among the anonymous repertory....

(Schack Olufsen)

(b Brande, Jutland, April 9, 1893; d Copenhagen, Feb 17, 1949). Danish musicologist. After studying at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music (1910–13), where he graduated as an organist, he was organist and choirmaster at the Luther Church (1914–24) and head of the music division of the Copenhagen Royal Library (1916–21). As a student he attended Hammerich's lectures in music history at Copenhagen University (there was no degree course in music history until 1915) and in 1917 he became the first MA in musicology in Denmark, graduating with a dissertation on the transition from Catholic to Protestant liturgy in Denmark in the 16th and 17th centuries. During his years at the Royal Library he began to study its large collection of Latin liturgical fragments on the basis of which he tried to reconstruct the Danish medieval liturgy and to provide a demonstration of Peter Wagner’s theory of the two traditions, Roman and Germanic, of Gregorian chant. He submitted this as a doctoral dissertation to the university in ...

[Ailred, Ethelred]

(b ? Hexham, c1110; d York, 1167). English saint, theologian and historian. He was brought up in the household of David I of Scotland, and later became an officer (dapifer) there. He was professed a monk of the Cistercian house at Rievaulx in Yorkshire (1134); he became abbot of Revesby (1143), but later returned to Rievaulx as abbot (c1147). Early in his career he gained the respect and support of Bernard of Clairvaux. Music forms only a small part of his writings: the De abusu musice attributed to him by Vander Straeten (Grove3; GerbertS, i, 26) cannot be identified as his, but chapter xxiii of the second book of the Speculum caritatis, a work inspired by St Bernard, deals with the same topic. He questioned the use of organs and bells in church, unfavourably comparing the noise of the former to the human voice. His chief complaint, however, was against the use of a virtuoso, and indeed histrionic, performance style: ‘Why that contraction and effeminacy of the voice? … Now the voice is reduced, then it is broken, at one time it is forced, at another it is enlarged with a more expansive sound. … At times the entire body is agitated with gestures worthy of actors; the lips twist, the eyes roll, the shoulders play, the fingers move in response to every note’. He was a proponent of stylistic moderation in the performance of chant. Some of his words have been understood as descriptions of part-singing and hocket: ‘One voice joins us, another drops out, another voice enters higher, and yet another divides and cuts short certain intervening notes …. At times you might see a man with an open mouth, as if expiring with suffocated breath, not singing, and with a certain laughable hindering of the voice as if menacing silence’. Some of Aelred's statements resemble those of his contemporary John of Salisbury, and may provide some evidence of the cultivation and performance of complex polyphony in 12th-century England or on the Continent; yet his complaint may have been exaggerated....

(b c1580; d Siena, Jan 1642). Italian composer and theorist.

Agazzari’s parents were evidently of Sienese origin, and he himself settled in Siena as a boy and received his training there, perhaps from Francesco Bianciardi. He was organist at Siena Cathedral from 1597 to 1602, when he left to direct the music at the Collegio Germanico, Rome (1602–3). In 1604 he attended the celebrations marking the centenary of Siena’s Accademia degli Intronati. By 1606 he was maestro di cappella at the Seminario Romano, but returned to Siena in 1607 after being blacklisted by the Cappella Sistina. In the following years he was organist at Siena Cathedral on three different occasions: in 1609, 1611–17, and 1629–33; he also served for two short periods as music director at S Maria di Provenzano, Siena, 1617–19 and 1620–?1622. Not until February 1641 was he appointed maestro di cappella...

(b Schwiebus [now Świebodzin, Poland], c1486; d Magdeburg, June 10, 1556). German music theorist, teacher and composer. According to his own statements, he came from a peasant family and was largely self-taught in music. By 1520 he was in Magdeburg working as a music teacher. He became choirmaster of the Protestant Lateinschule in about 1525 and retained this position until his death.

Agricola was one of the earliest teachers of music to realize Luther's wish to incorporate music as a central component of Protestant education. His foremost aim in educating students and congregation was to present material as clearly as possible and to reach a large audience. It was for this reason that his early treatises were written in German rather than the customary Latin. His translation of the terms clavis (as Schlüssel), vox (as Stimme or Silbe) and scala (as Leiter) are still used today. His desire to relate music education to everyday life can be seen in his modernization of old-fashioned rules of harmonic and rhythmic proportions, which he related to commercial arithmetic, in particular the Rule of Three, which formed the most important component of arithmetic instruction in Latin schools. He was the only theorist to consider ...

(b ?Orzivecchi or Orzinuovi, nr Brescia, c1520; fl 1562–81). Italian theorist and Franciscan friar. He was influenced by Pietro Aaron, to whom he referred as ‘my indisputable teacher’, by Spataro and by Marchetto da Padova. His Illuminata de tutti i tuoni di canto fermo (Venice, 1562) expounds a modal theory applicable to plainchant: a mode is a form of diatonic octave divided into segments of 5th and 4th; corresponding authentic and plagal modes comprise the same segments but in reverse order, and the order of steps within the segments is also reversed, ascending in the authentic and descending in the plagal modes. There are eight regular modes (authentic and plagal) with finals on d, e, f and g, and six irregular modes with finals on a, b and c′. The treatise is largely devoted to modal identification of chants with an ambitus smaller or greater than an octave, or which use more than one mode. Identification is based primarily on the predominance of the segments of a single mode, especially those of the 5th, within a chant, and only secondarily on the final and ambitus. Aiguino’s ...

(b Swanton Morley, Norfolk, bap. Jan 15, 1571; d Amsterdam, ?1622–3). English minister and psalmodist. He attended Cambridge University from 1586 to 1591, leaving without a degree. He was expatriated as a ‘Brownist’ in 1593 and settled in Amsterdam, where he became ‘teacher’ of the Ancient Separatist Church in 1596; in 1610 he founded an Independent church, becoming minister of it himself. He took the Calvinist position on predestination. He was the author of a number of controversial religious tracts, annotations, and translations of scripture. Many consider him one of the finest Hebrew scholars of his day. His Book of Psalmes: Englished both in Prose and Metre, with Annotations (Amsterdam, 1612, 4/1644; music ed. in ISAMm, xv, Brooklyn, NY, 1981) contains all 150 psalms in a new metrical version, together with prose translations and annotations. 48 are provided with monophonic tunes (six melodies are used twice and one three times). 21 of the 40 tunes are drawn from the Continental Reformed tradition, and 16 are from English sources (including three of the newer, short variety such as ...

(b Spanish Basque region, c1755; d San Sebastián, June 23, 1831). Spanish composer and theorist. After serving as maestro de capilla in San Sebastián, he took up the same post in Logroño collegiate church during the French invasion (1795). Five years later he returned to San Sebastián as maestro de capilla at S María la Redonda, where he remained until 1829. He composed a large number of sacred works, which enjoyed great success throughout northern Spain during his lifetime, in particular masses, Vespers, the Office for the Dead, motets and villancicos, many of which survive in manuscript at the churches which he served. He also wrote some piano music (of which a sonata is edited in J. Nin’s Classiques espagnols du piano, i, 1925) and a 133-page theoretical work, Instrucción metódica, especulativa, y prática, para enseñar á cantar y tañer la música moderna y antigua...

(b Westminster, London, Jan 1648; d Oxford, Dec 14, 1710). English scholar, composer and music collector. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford (after early training in mathematics at Westminster School), in 1662, receiving the BA, MA and DD degrees in 1666, 1669 and 1682 respectively. He took holy orders and was assigned the rectorate at Wem, Shropshire, but chose to remain at Christ Church, becoming a canon in 1681 and dean (a unique position in Oxford as head of both college and cathedral) in 1689, also serving as vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, 1692–5. He was a leader of the Oxford resistance to James II's Catholic advances, and under William III he became one of the chief defenders of High Church practices, publicly opposing both the comprehension of non-Anglicans and revisions to the prayer book. He was an industrious and practically minded scholar, producing books on logic, heraldry and architecture, designing a number of Oxford buildings, serving as draftsman and engraver for the Oxford Almanacks, and producing a sizable body of compositions for the English cathedral service. His account of Greek music survives in manuscript (...

(b Évora, Dec 27, 1917). Portuguese musicologist. He studied music at the Évora Seminary and in Rome at the Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra, where he obtained the licentiate in 1951. From 1940 he taught music and conducted the choir at the Évora Seminary; he also taught at the Centro de Estudios Gregorianos, Lisbon, where in 1966 he succeeded Mario Sampayo as conductor of the Polyphonia, a choir devoted to the interpretation of early music (particularly Portuguese). In 1974 he resigned from both posts. He was made canon of the Évora Cathedral Chapter, where he was active as mestre da capela, in 1957 and was granted the honorary doctorate by the University of Évora in 1988. He has contributed to the encyclopedia Verbo and to various national journals, and has taken part in many conferences, both national and international. His publications may be divided into three fields: transcriptions of Portuguese polyphonic music, catalogues of Portuguese musical archives, and diverse writings on the history of Portuguese music, particularly in the cathedrals. His transcriptions are always extremely accurate and faithful to the originals and, at the same time, practical for choral use. His catalogues, though seldom including musical incipits, are complete, detailed and clear, and form the greatest list of musical sources in Portugal....

(b Rome, June 29, 1801; d Rome, June 12, 1863). Italian musicologist and composer. Ordained a Roman priest in 1823, his life was entirely directed towards the deliverance of liturgical music from what he saw as the debased theatrical style of contemporary composers and the neglect and incompetence of singers and organists in regard to Gregorian chant and Renaissance music. He contributed most importantly to this goal through his editions, particularly the Raccolta di musica sacra (Rome, 1841–6), the seven volumes of which provided the first large modern collection of Palestrina's music. Palestrina was Alfieri's ideal for new church music, which, according to his Ristabilimento, should be grave, succinct and suited in expression to the words, which were to be presented clearly and with few repetitions. His own compositions, many of them published at Rome, exemplified these principles.

Alfieri was also a pioneer in Italy in the historical study of Gregorian chant, which he sought to restore to its original purity, although along lines that now appear somewhat arbitrary and subjective. His early ...

(b Ballersbach, nr Herborn, March 1588; d Gyulafehérvár [Weissenburg, Transylvania; [now Alba Julia, Romania], Nov 9, 1638). German theologian, encyclopedist and music theorist. From 1608 he taught at the Calvinist academy, Herborn, where J.A. Komenský was among his pupils. Following the disruptions of the Thirty Years War, he transferred to Gyulafehérvár in Transylvania in 1629–30. His liberal strand of Calvinist thought is reflected in his theological understanding of music: he tolerated secular music (both polyphonic and instrumental) alongside strictly regulated church music as long as it was committed to the spiritual purpose of all music. Classifying music among the mathematical disciplines, he treated it briefly in a series of mathematical textbooks and most extensively in his masterwork, the largest, most comprehensive and systematic encyclopedia assembled to that time (1630). Like that of most of the 37 disciplines handled in the work, his treatment of music is derivative, and its chief importance lies in its comprehensiveness, systematic presentation, wide distribution and easy accessibility within the encyclopedia as a whole. Like Erycius Puteanus and David Mostart, he favoured seven-syllable solmization series (...

(b Trier, c340; d Milan, 397). Saint, bishop and Doctor of the Church. He was the son of the Roman prefect of Gaul, and embarked upon a successful political career, being named consular governor of Liguria and Aemilia in about 370. While yet unbaptized he was elected Bishop of Milan by popular acclaim on 7 December 374. Together with Augustine and Jerome he is acknowledged as one of the three great Latin Church Fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries. He was primarily a public figure, however, unlike Augustine, the philosopher, or Jerome, the scholar; he consolidated the position of the Church against the powerful Arian heresy and the counter-attacks of paganism.

Tradition has assigned him a musical significance exceeding that of any other early Christian leader. This purported achievement can be summarized under four headings: (1) the co-authorship with Augustine of the Te Deum; (2) an involvement in the composition and organization of the Milanese or Ambrosian chant comparable to that formerly attributed to ...

[Anglés, Higinio]

(b Maspujols, nr Tarragona, Jan 1, 1888; d Rome, Dec 8, 1969). Catalan priest and musicologist. From 1900 to 1912 he studied theology at the Seminario de Tarragona and was ordained in 1912. In 1913 he settled in Barcelona, where he studied harmony with José Cogul, harmony, counterpoint, fugue and organ with Vicente de Gibert, composition and folksong with José Barberá, and musicology with Felipe Pedrell. In 1917 he was appointed director of the music section of the Biblioteca de Catalunya in Barcelona. From 1923 to 1924 he studied with Willibald Gurlitt in Freiburg and with Friedrich Ludwig in Göttingen. In 1927 he was appointed professor at the Barcelona Conservatory, and in 1933 at the university. As a result of the Spanish Civil War he lived in Munich (1936–39). In 1941 he became a member of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans in Barcelona and in 1943 the first director of the Instituto Español de Musicología. At the same time he was elected a member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de S Fernando in Madrid. In ...

(b Roccasecca, 1226; d Fossanova, March 7, 1274). Italian Dominican priest and theologian. He was described as ‘Doctor Angelicus’. He led a life of intense study, lecturing and writing at Cologne, Paris and Naples. His works form the most profound, comprehensive and ordered scholastic synthesis of the scriptures, patristic teaching and philosophy; his philosophical work consists primarily of a judicious interpretation of Aristotle and his Greek and Arab commentators, integrated with an often neglected element of Platonist thought (mostly derived through St Augustine and neo-Platonist intermediaries). He was canonized in 1323.

Although Aquinas wrote no treatise specifically on music (the Ars musica is spurious), there are passages scattered throughout his works that suggest a musical aesthetic consistent with his whole system and predicated on his broader definitions of both the essence and the effects of beauty. This musical aesthetic, though, is austere in its Aristotelian terms of expression, but reveals nevertheless an awareness of the affective power of music. In devotional contexts this could manifest itself both positively and negatively. Thus he could approve of singing, so long as it was not done merely to provoke pleasure, since ‘vocal praise arouses the interior affection of the one praising and prompts others to praise God’ (...

[Aurelius Augustinus]

(b Thagaste, Nov 13, 354; d Hippo, Aug 28, 430). Saint, churchman, and scholar. He was perhaps the most influential figure in the history of Christian thought, rivalled only by Thomas Aquinas and possibly Origen. Born in North Africa to a pagan father and Christian mother, the sainted Monica, he studied rhetoric in Carthage where he lost his boyhood Christian faith. In 373 his reading of Cicero's Hortensius inspired him to pursue the life of a philosopher, which he experienced first as a devotee of Manicheism. He served as professor of liberal arts for several years in his native Thagaste, moving in 383 to Rome and then in 384 to Milan, as professor of rhetoric. In Milan he came under the influence of the Christian neoplatonist Simplicianus and St Ambrose. He was led gradually through Neoplatonism to Christianity and, after a period of retreat at Cassiciacum, was baptized on Easter Eve of ...

(b Rimini, c1600; d Rimini, c1678). Italian composer and author. He was a priest and maestro di cappella of Rimini Cathedral. From 1649 he was librarian of the Biblioteca Gambalunghiana, Rimini. He wrote literary and historical works; all his music dates from his early years. He had some connection with the pseudonymous composer Accademico Bizzarro Capriccioso, to each of whose opp.1 and 2 (1620–21) he contributed a madrigal, one for two voices, the other for three. As a composer he is known mainly for three volumes of sacred music written mostly in a simple style suited to the needs of a provincial maestro di cappella: 14 eight-voice psalms with organ continuo, op.1, a book of four- and five-voice concertato masses, op.2 (incomplete), and four masses and two motets with organ continuo, op.3 (all Venice, 1623). The description ‘a tre voci variate’ of op.3 refers to an unusual arrangement of partbooks – one each for the highest, middle and lowest voices....

[Bardesanes]

(b Edessa [now Urfa], July 11, 154; d Edessa, 222). Syrian hymnographer, astrologer and philosopher. Born into a pagan priestly family, he was educated by a pagan priest but baptized as a Christian, and in 179 he was ordained deacon and priest. Later denounced as a heretic and excommunicated (c216), he fled to Armenia and there taught a kind of astrological fatalism. Bardaisan has been erroneously regarded as a leader of the oriental school of gnosticism founded by Valentinus. His theology, which in fact combined Christian doctrine with astrological and philosophical speculation, is known from the works of later Christian writers such as Eusebius and Ephrem Syrus, who strongly denounced it, and from Bardaisan’s own Dialogue with Antonius concerning Destiny (or Book of the Laws of the Lands), which is the oldest surviving document in Syriac.

Bardaisan wrote many hymns (madrāshe) in Syriac, which his disciples translated into Greek. They included 150 psalms in pentasyllabic metre, reportedly modelled on those of David, through which he popularized his heretical doctrines (Bardaisan’s son Harmonius is said to have written the tunes). The stanzas of the ...

[Bernard]

(d 1350). Monk and Bishop of Gerace. Barlaam was his religious name. He was educated in Byzantine monasteries of southern Italy, and visited Constantinople in the 1330s. In 1339 the eastern emperor made him envoy to Pope Benedict XII at Avignon. He taught Greek to Petrarch, and under Petrarch’s influence became a convert to Latin Catholicism in ...