Hans Leo Hassler [Haßler] (1564 – 1612) was a German
composer and organist of the late Renaissance and early
Baroque eras, elder brother of composer Jakob Hassler.
He was born in Nuremberg and died in Frankfurt am Main.
He was born in Nuremberg and baptized on 26 October
1564, receiving his first instruction in music from his
father, the organist Isaak Hassler. In 1584, Hassler
became the first of many German composers of the time
who went to Italy to continue their studies; he arrived
in Ven...(+)
Hans Leo Hassler [Haßler] (1564 – 1612) was a German
composer and organist of the late Renaissance and early
Baroque eras, elder brother of composer Jakob Hassler.
He was born in Nuremberg and died in Frankfurt am Main.
He was born in Nuremberg and baptized on 26 October
1564, receiving his first instruction in music from his
father, the organist Isaak Hassler. In 1584, Hassler
became the first of many German composers of the time
who went to Italy to continue their studies; he arrived
in Venice during the peak of activity of the Venetian
school, the composers who wrote in the resplendent
polychoral style, which was soon to become popular
outside its native city. Hassler was already familiar
with some of this music, as numerous prints had
circulated in Germany due to the interest of Leonhard
Lechner, who was associated with Orlandus Lassus in
Munich.
While in Venice, Hassler became friends with Giovanni
Gabrieli, with whom he composed a wedding motet for
Georg Gruber, a Nuremberg merchant living in Venice, in
1600. Together they studied with Andrea Gabrieli,
Giovanni's uncle. Under Andrea, Hassler received
instruction in composition and organ playing.
Following Andrea Gabrieli's death, Hassler returned to
Germany in the latter part of 1585, moving to Augsburg
where he served as an organist to Octavian II Fugger, a
nobleman there. The Augsburg years were extremely
creative for him; in addition he became well known as a
composer and organist at this time, though his
influence was limited because he was a Protestant in an
area which was still heavily Catholic.
Hassler was not only a composer, but also an active
organist and a consultant to organ builders. In 1596,
Hassler, along with 53 other organists, was given the
opportunity to examine a new instrument with 59 stops
at the Schlosskirche, Groningen. Hassler was
continually recognized for his expertise in organ
design, and was often called upon as the examiner of
new instruments. Using his extensive organ background,
Hassler stepped into the world of mechanical instrument
construction and developed a clockwork organ that was
later sold to Emperor Rudolf II.
In 1602, Hassler returned to Nuremberg where he became
the Kapellmeister, or director of town music. While
there, he was appointed Kaiserlicher Hofdiener in the
court of Rudolf II. In 1604, he took a leave of absence
and traveled to Ulm, where he was wed to Cordula Claus.
Four years later, Hassler moved to Dresden where he
served as the electoral chamber organist to the Elector
Christian II of Saxony, and eventually as
Kapellmeister. By this time, Hassler had already
developed the tuberculosis that would claim his life in
June 1612. After he died, Michael Praetorius and
Heinrich Schütz were appointed in his place.
Hassler was one of the first to bring the innovations
of the Venetian style across the Alps. Through his
songs, “in the manner of foreign madrigal and
canzonets,” and the Lustgarten, Hassler brought to
Germany the villanelle, canzonette, and dance songs of
Gastoldi and Orazio Vecchi. As the first great German
composer to undertake an “Italian Journey,”
Hassler's influence was one of the reasons for the
Italian domination over German music and for the common
trend of German musicians finishing their education in
Italy. While musicians of the stature of Lassus had
been working in Germany for years, they represented the
older school, the prima pratica, the fully developed
and refined Renaissance style of polyphony; in Italy
new trends were emerging which were to define what was
later called the Baroque era. Musicians such as
Hassler, and later Schütz, carried the concertato
style, the polychoral idea, and the freely emotional
expression of the Venetians into the German culture,
creating the first and most important Baroque
development outside of Italy.
Though Hassler was Protestant, he wrote many masses and
directed the music for Catholic services in Augsburg.
While in the service of Octavian Fugger, Hassler
dedicated both his Cantiones sacrae and a book of
masses for four to eight voices to him. Due to the
demands of the Catholic patrons, and his own Protestant
beliefs, Hassler's compositions represented a skillful
blend of both religions’ music styles that allowed
his compositions to function in both contexts. Thus,
many of Hassler's works could be used both in the Roman
Catholic Church and the Lutheran. During his time in
Augsburg, Hassler only produced two works that were
specifically meant for the Lutheran church. Under the
commission of the free city of Nuremberg, the Psalmen
simpliciter was composed in 1608, and was dedicated to
the city. Hassler also produced the Psalmen und
christliche Gesänge, mit vier Stimmen auf die
Melodeien fugweis komponiert in 1607 and dedicated it
to Elector Christian II of Saxony. Stylistically,
Hassler's early works exhibit reflections of the
influence of Lassus, while his later works are marked
by the impressions left on him by his studies in Italy.
After returning from Italy, Hassler incorporated
polychoral techniques, textural contrasts and
occasional chromaticism in his compositions. His later
masses were characterized by light melodies juxtaposed
with the grace and fluidity of the madrigalian dance
songs; thus creating a charming sacred style that was
more sonorous than it was profound. His secular
music—madrigals, canzonette, and songs among the
vocal, and ricercars, canzonas, introits and toccatas
among the instrumental—show many of the advanced
techniques of the Gabrielis in Italy, but with a
somewhat more restrained character, and always
attentive to craftsmanship and beauty of sound.
However, Hassler's greatest success in combining the
German and Italian compositional styles existed in his
lieder. In 1590, Hassler released his first
publication, a set of twenty-four, four-part
canzonette. The Lustgarten neuer teutscher Gesang,
Balletti, Galliarden und Intraden, which contains
thirty-nine vocal and eleven instrumental pieces, is
Hassler's most renowned collection of lieder. Within
this work, Hassler published dance collections for
four, five, or six string or wind instruments with
voice and without continuo. He also composed Mein
G'müt ist mir verwirret, a five-part piece. Its melody
was later combined with the text O Haupt voll Blut und
Wunden of Paul Gerhardt, in which form it was used by
Bach in his St Matthew Passion. Bach also employed the
melody as a counterpoint to the Aria, "Komm,Du Susse
Todesstunde", in Cantata BWV 161 and used it once again
as the final chorale melody in that same cantata.
Along with many of his contemporaries, Hassler sought
to blend the Italian virtuoso style with the
traditional style prevalent in Germany. This was
accomplished in the chorale motet by employing the
thorough bass continuo and including instrumental and
solo ornamentation. Hassler's motets exhibit this blend
of the old and the new in the way they reflect both the
influence of Lassus and the two four-part chorus style
of the Gabrielis.
Hassler is considered to be one of the most important
German composers of all time. His use of the innovative
Italian techniques, coupled with traditional,
conservative German techniques allowed his compositions
to be fresh without the modern affective tone. His
songs presented a combined vocal and instrumental
literature that did not make use of the continuo, or
only provided it as an option, and his sacred music
introduced the Italian polychoral structures that would
later influence many composers leading into the Baroque
era.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Leo_Hassler).
Although originally composed for Chorus (SATB), I
created this Interpretation of the Missa Super "Dixit
Maria" for Double-Reed Quartet (Oboe, English Horn,
Bassoon & Contrabassoon).
SHEET MUSIC