Melchior Franck

Melchior Franck ( * ca 1580 in Zittau, † June 1, 1639 in Coburg ) was a Protestant German composer on the change of style from the late Renaissance to the early Baroque.

Life

Little is known about Melchior Franck's life circumstances. There are no picture and no discount received, and it's just been handed a single manuscript. He attended high school in Augsburg, was a pupil of Hans Leo Hassler and went with him to Nuremberg. There he was in 1602 for a year working as an assistant teacher at St. Egidien. Even if you know nothing about his education, he may have been a pupil of Christopher Demantius, but his works show a thorough knowledge of the " Dutch style" of the Lasso school. Unlike some of his contemporaries, such as Heinrich Schütz, Franck did not have the possibility of a study trip to Italy. The then new Italian style, the seconda pratica, Melchior Franck has probably learned by Hans Leo Hassler. 1603 Melchior Franck joined the place of a court Kapellmeister to Duke Johann Casimir in Coburg, which he held for life.

After many vicissitudes, such as the death of his children and his wife, the distress of the Thirty Years' War and the death of Duke Johann Casimir, died Franck in 1639 in poverty.

Works

Melchior Franck is on the change of style of the late Renaissance ( for example, represented by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Thomas Tallis and Orlando di Lasso ) to the early Baroque. He belongs to the music inspired by Michael Praetorius, Melchior Vulpius and Leonhard Lechner. Claudio Monteverdi and Heinrich Schütz among his contemporaries. He created an extensive compositional work, which mostly appeared in print and was tailored to the musical needs of a baroque princely court.

Franck's works include sacred music in German and Latin, primarily for use in Protestant worship. Many motets, psalm settings and other church music have survived. The four-part gemmules evangeliorum are known, for example (also published as German Gospels Proverbs for the church year ) of 1623, some chorales ( in the Protestant hymn book there are the melodies ascended to Skyward is [ EC 119 ] and Jerusalem, the highly built city [ EC 150 ] ) and the Da Pacem Domine canon ( originally a guest book entry ).

Franck composed equally secular vocal music. His numerous secular songbooks have concerning the texts ( Mountain series, Reuterliedlein, quodlibets, Love and other folk songs or songs by Italian patterns ) literary meaning. He also created instrumental music, such as dance movements. The folk song "Oh Tannenbaum", an original version of the love song O Christmas tree, which was rewritten to the popular Christmas carol O Tannenbaum later is attributed to him.

Effect

Franck was appreciated by contemporaries such as Johann Staden and Valentin Dretzel as " berümbter master." His instrumental works were for the development of the orchestral suite of importance.

One hundred years after his death Franck was forgotten. His work was rediscovered in the late 19th century and in the 20th century. As before, a large part of his work only specialists are known.

Special contributions to the maintenance of the heritage of the Franck- Melchior Franck- Coburg district has earned. Early Music ensembles perform Franck's music on a regular basis, such as the Ensemble Alte Musik Dresden.