Heinrich Isaac

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Illuminated chansonnier by Heinrich Isaac, showing the beginning of his four-voice motet Palle, palle; probably written in Florence in the 1480s and copied during that period. Palle (Italian for "balls") is a reference to the coat-of arms of the Medici family, his employers at the time.

Heinrich Isaac (also known as Ysaac, Henricus, Arrigo d'Ugo, and Arrigo il Tedesco – Tedesco meaning "Flemish" or "German" in Italian) (around 1450-55 – March 26, 1517) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, of south Netherlandish origin. He is regarded as one of the most significant contemporaries of Josquin des Prez, and had an especially large influence on the subsequent development of music in Germany. He was first claimed for Germany by Glarean who dubbed him "Henricus Isaac Germanus" but in his will he calls himself "Ugonis de Flandria"; Milanese [Revista critica della literatura italiana June 1886] speculated that this 'Hugo' might be connected to 'Huygens' and discovered the name "Isaacke" in the town archives of Bruges.

[edit] Early life

Little is known about Isaac's early life (or indeed his real name), but it is probable that he was born in Flanders, likely in Brabant. During the late 15th century, standards of music education in the region were excellent, and he likely was educated in his homeland, although the location is not known.^[1][2]

[edit] Career

It is known that he was writing music by the mid 1470s, and the first documentary reference to him is from 1484, when he was court composer at Innsbruck for Duke Sigismund of Austria, of the House of Habsburg. The following year, he entered the service of Lorenzo de' Medici at Florence, where he served first as a singer in the church of San Giovanni. Previously Isaac had been identified as an organist to Lorenzo; however, the Isaac who served at this post is now known to have been Isaac Argyropoulos.^[3] Isaac later became part of the informal collection of musicians which Lorenzo maintained as part of his household, and he was likely the teacher to Lorenzo's children; he assumed this post on the death of Antonio Squarcialupi. One of his students in Florence was the future Pope Leo X. When Lorenzo died in 1492, his son Piero became Isaac's employer. Piero took his musicians, including Isaac, to Rome in September 1492, to perform for Pope Alexander VI on the occasion of his coronation.^[4] In 1494, the Medici were banished from Florence; the era of Savonarola was beginning, and Isaac was left to find employment elsewhere. However, he had married a Florentine, Bartolomea Bello, a marriage probably arranged by Lorenzo himself. The couple apparently had no children.^[5]

Isaac moved to Vienna in 1496.^[6] By November of that year, Isaac was in the employ of Emperor Maximilian I^[7]. Isaac was the court composer for Maximilian at his new chapel in Vienna April 3, 1497^[8] He travelled widely in Germany, to Augsburg, Wels, Innsbruck, and Nurembergand is credited with having a big influence on German composers of the time.^[9] Isaac was a singer at Ss. Annunziata until 1493.^[10] In 1502, he returned to Italy, going to Florence and then Ferrara at the Este court of Ferrara, where he competed with Josquin for employment: a famous letter from the agent of the Este family compared the two composers, saying that "Isaac is of a better nature than Josquin, and while it is true that Josquin is a better composer, he only composes when he wants to, and not when asked; Isaac will compose when you want him to." In 1507 he was in Konstanz for the crowning of Maximilian as the Holy Roman Emperor and wrote two ceremonial motets for the occasion. ^[11]

Isaac returned to Florence in 1514. By December 1516, he had become ill and died not long after, on 26 March 1517 in Florence.^[12]

[edit] Compositions

Isaac was one of the most prolific composers of the time, producing an extraordinarily diverse output, including almost all the forms and styles current at the time; only Lassus, at the end of the 16th century, had a wider overall range.^[13] Music composed by Isaac included masses, motets, songs in French, German, and Italian, as well as instrumental music. His best known work may be the lied Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen, of which he made at least two versions. It is possible, however, that the melody itself is not by Isaac, and only the setting is original.^[14] The same melody was later used as the theme for the Lutheran chorale O Welt, ich muss dich lassen, which was the basis of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Johannes Brahms.

Of his settings of the ordinary of the mass, 36 survive; others are believed to have been lost. Numerous individual movements of masses survive as well. But it is composition of music for the Proper of the Mass – the portion of the liturgy which changed on different days, unlike the ordinary, which remained constant – which gave him his greatest fame. The huge cycle of motets which he wrote for the mass Proper, the Choralis Constantinus, and which he left incomplete at his death, would have supplied music for 100 separate days of the year.^[15]

Isaac is held in high regard for his Choralis Constantinus. It is a huge anthology of over 450 chant-based polyphonic motets for the Proper of the Mass. It had its origins in a commission that Isaac received from the Cathedral in Konstanz, Germany in April of 1508 to set many of the Propers unique to the local liturgy. Isaac was in Konstanz because Maximilian had called a meeting of the Reichstag (German Parliament of nobles) there and Isaac was on hand to provide music for the Imperial court chapel choir. After the deaths of both Maximilian and Isaac, Ludwig Senfl, who had been Isaac's pupil as a member of the Imperial court choir, gathered all the Isaac settings of the Proper and placed them into liturgical order for the church year. But the anthology was not published until 1555, after Senfl's death by which time the reforms of the Council of Trent had made many of the texts obsolete. The motets remain some of the finest examples of chant-based Renaissance polyphony in existence.

Isaac composed a 6-voice motet Angeli Archangeli for the Feast of All Saint’s Day, honoring angels, archangels, and all other saints.^[16] Another famous motet by Isaac is Optime pastor (Optime divino), written for the accession to the papacy of Medici pope Leo X.^[17] This motet rather ironically compares the Pope to a shepherd capable of soothing all of his flock and binding them together; Martin Luther was to commence the Protestant Reformation several years after its composition.

While in the service of the Medici in Florence, Isaac wrote a lament on the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, Quis dabit capiti meo aquam (1492), which set words by Lorenzo's favorite poet, Angelo Poliziano.^[18]

[edit] Influence

The influence of Isaac was especially pronounced in Germany, due to the connection he maintained with the Habsburg court. He was the first significant master of the Franco-Flemish polyphonic style who both lived in German-speaking areas, and whose music was widely distributed there. It was through him that the polyphonic style of the Netherlanders became widely accepted in Germany, making possible the further development of contrapuntal music there.

[edit] Media

Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen (help·info)

[edit] Recordings

Margaretha-Maximilian I, Capilla Flamenca together with La Caccia, Schola Cantorum Cantate Domino, Schola Gregoriana Lovaniensis and Joris Verdin, 2001 (Orf CD 265). Contains proper chants from the Choralis Constantinus along with several pieces of secular music.

[edit] References

• Reinhard Strohm: "Heinrich Isaac", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed December 9, 2007), (subscription access)
• Martin Staehelin: "Heinrich Isaac," The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
• James D. Feiszli: "Performance Editions from Heinrich Isaac's 'Choralis Constantinus'." D.M.A. dissertation, Arizona State University, 1983.
• Burn, David J. What Did Isaac Write for Constance? The Journal of Musicology: A Quarterly Review of Music History, Criticism, Analysis, and Performance Practice. Winter 2003. United States. Vol 20. p 45-72.
• Picker, Martin. Isaac in Flanders: The Early Works of Henricus Isaac. From Ciconia to Sweelinck: Donum natalicium Willem Elders. 1994. Vol 28. p 153-165.
• Rothenberg, David J. Angels, Archangels, and a Woman in Distress: The Meaning of Isaac’s Angeli archangeli. The Journal of Musicology: A Quarterly Review of Music History, Criticism, Analysis, and Performance Practice. Fall 2004. United States. Vol 21. p 514-578.
• Slonimsky, Nicolas. ed. Kassel, Richard M. Baker’s Dictionary of Music. 1997. Prentice Hall International, London, England. Vol. 31.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Free scores by Heinrich Isaac in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Listen to a free recording of song from Umeå Akademiska Kör.