William Brade (1560 – 1630) was an English composer,
violinist, and viol player of the late Renaissance and
early Baroque eras, mainly active in northern Germany.
He was the first Englishman to write a canzona, an
Italian form, and probably the first to write a piece
for solo violin.
Little is known about his early life. Around 1590 he
left England to pursue a musical career in Germany, as
did several other prominent English musicians, sensing
better job opportunities abroad. He switc...(+)
William Brade (1560 – 1630) was an English composer,
violinist, and viol player of the late Renaissance and
early Baroque eras, mainly active in northern Germany.
He was the first Englishman to write a canzona, an
Italian form, and probably the first to write a piece
for solo violin.
Little is known about his early life. Around 1590 he
left England to pursue a musical career in Germany, as
did several other prominent English musicians, sensing
better job opportunities abroad. He switched
employments often between the various courts in north
Germany and Denmark. Between his arrival in Germany,
sometime around 1590, and 1594 he worked for the
Brandenburg court; between 1594 and 1596 he worked for
Christian IV of Denmark in Copenhagen; then until 1599
he was back in Brandenburg. He returned that year to
Copenhagen, where he stayed until 1606. From 1606 to
1608 he worked at Bückeburg in Brunswick-Lüneburg.
From 1608 to 1610 he was employed in Hamburg, but he
returned to Bückeburg in 1610. Evidently by 1612 he
was again planning on switching jobs, for a letter
surviving from that year, written by the count at
Bückeburg, tells the Hamburg court pithily that he was
a "wanton, mischievous fellow" and should not be
allowed to have his way.
However, in spite of the warning by his former
employer, by 1613 he was working in Hamburg. Two years
later—he liked to swap jobs every two years—he
returned to Copenhagen, but in 1618 he moved on to
Halle where he obtained the position of kapellmeister
to the Prince of Magdeburg, Christian Wilhelm of
Brandenburg (1598-1631). By 1619 he was in Berlin, and
the next year he returned to Copenhagen yet again. Two
years later he moved to Gottorp in Schleswig-Holstein,
where he served as director of the Hofkapelle until
1625. His last years were spent in Hamburg, one of the
few refuges available within Germany from the ravages
of the Thirty Years' War. There is no evidence that he
ever returned to England.
All of Brade's surviving music is for string
instruments, and most is for dancing. The earlier
music, for example, in his collection published in 1609
in Hamburg, is based on English models, and similar to
the contemporary work of composers such as Peter
Philips and John Dowland. Later he began to work with
Italian models, writing the first known canzona by an
Englishman; in addition he began to arrange his dances
into suites, a practice which would become common
during the Baroque era. Some of the dances he wrote
were in forms previously unknown in Germany such as the
branle, maschera, and volta.
His coral, a set of variations on a ground bass, is
considered to be the earliest music written for the
solo violin by an English composer; however, its
attribution is not completely certain, for another
source dated 1684 gives the name of another
composer.
Stylistically, his music is more homophonic than much
of the music by his English contemporaries, who still
preferred a polyphonic idiom. As a performer, he was
famous for his fine technique; he was one of the most
famous early violinists, and highly regarded in
Germany. Several pieces by other composers were
published in Hamburg as tributes to him after his
death.
A Count Palatine (Latin comes palatinus), also count of
the palace or palsgrave (from German Pfalzgraf), was
originally an official attached to a royal or imperial
palace or household and later a nobleman of a rank
above that of an ordinary count. The title originated
in the late Roman Empire.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brade)
Although originally composed for period string
instruments, I created this Interpretation of the "Der
erste Mascharada des Pfalzgraffen" (The first
masquerade of the Count Palatine) for Flute Chorus (2
Piccolos, 2 Flutes & Alto Flute).
SHEET MUSIC