Ludwig Senfl (c.1486 - c.1542-43) was a Swiss composer
of the Renaissance, active in Germany. He was the most
famous pupil of Heinrich Isaac, was music director to
the court of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and was
an influential figure in the development of the
Franco-Flemish polyphonic style in Germany. Senfl was
probably born in Basel around 1486, and lived in
Zürich from 1488 until 1496, when he joined the choir
of the Hofkapelle of Emperor Maximilian I in Augsburg.
Apart from one brief...(+)
Ludwig Senfl (c.1486 - c.1542-43) was a Swiss composer
of the Renaissance, active in Germany. He was the most
famous pupil of Heinrich Isaac, was music director to
the court of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and was
an influential figure in the development of the
Franco-Flemish polyphonic style in Germany. Senfl was
probably born in Basel around 1486, and lived in
Zürich from 1488 until 1496, when he joined the choir
of the Hofkapelle of Emperor Maximilian I in Augsburg.
Apart from one brief visit in 1504 he appears never
again to have lived in Switzerland.
In 1497 he followed the Hofkapelle to Vienna, and
between 1500 and 1504 he probably studied in Vienna for
three years, the standard practice for choirboys whose
voices had broken, as part of the normal training for
the priesthood. During this period he studied with
Heinrich Isaac, serving as his copyist by 1509; he is
known to have copied much of the older composer's
Choralis Constantinus, an enormous work which he was
later to complete after Isaac's death.
After a trip to Italy sometime between 1508 and 1510,
Senfl returned to the Hofkapelle; the Emperor appointed
him to fill Isaac's position as court composer when
Isaac died in 1517. In 1518 Senfl lost a toe in a
hunting accident; evidently the injury disabled him for
up to a year. When the Emperor died in 1519, Senfl was
out of a job, and his circumstances altered for the
worse: Charles V dismissed most of Maximilian's
musicians, and even refused to pay Senfl the annual
stipend which had been promised to him in the event of
the emperor's death. During the next few years he
traveled widely, mainly job-seeking, but he was also
active as a composer. He is known to have attended the
Diet of Worms in 1521, and, while he never officially
became a Protestant, his sympathies evidently were with
Luther, and he was later examined by the Inquisition
and voluntarily gave up his priesthood. Senfl carried
on an extensive correspondence both with Lutheran Duke
Albrecht of Prussia and with Martin Luther himself,
beginning in 1530.
Eventually Senfl acquired a post in Munich, a place
which had high musical standards, a strong need for new
music, and which was relatively tolerant of those with
Protestant sympathies; he was to remain there for the
rest of his life. By 1540 he was ill, judging from his
correspondence with Duke Albrecht, and he probably died
in early 1543.
Senfl was an eclectic composer, at home both in the
worlds of sacred and secular music, and he modeled his
style carefully on models provided by the
Franco-Flemish composers of the previous generation,
especially Josquin des Prez. In particular, he was a
gifted melodist, and his lines are warmly lyrical; his
music remained popular and influential in Germany
through the 17th century.
His sacred music includes masses, motets, vespers
settings, and a Magnificat. Technically his music has
many archaic features, such as the use of cantus firmus
technique, which was more in vogue in the 15th century;
he even occasionally employs isorhythm. However he also
has a typically Germanic liking for singable melodic
passages in parallel imperfect intervals (3rds and
6ths).
Senfl also wrote numerous German lieder, most of them
secular (the handful on sacred texts were written for
Duke Albrecht of Prussia). They vary widely in
character, from extremely simple settings of a cantus
firmus to contrapuntal tours-de-force such as elaborate
canons and quodlibets.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Senfl).
Although originally created for Chorus (SSATBB), I
created this Interpretation of the "Das Geläut zu
Speyer" (Bell-ringing at Speyer [Speyer Cathedral
Germany]) for Wind Sextet (Flute, Oboe, Bb Clarinet,
Bass Clarinet, French Horn & Bassoon).
PARTITION