EX LIBRIS DOCTORIS AMERBACHII
Music Books of Bonifacius Amerbach

MUSIQUES SUISSES (MGB CD 6237), 2006

[reviews of this release] [audio samples]

This release introduces some of the most fascinating music from the music books that once belonged to the lawyer Bonifacius Amerbach (1495-1562), who lived in Basle during the first half of the sixteenth century.

Friend of Erasmus of Rotterdam, painted by Hans Holbein The Younger, Amerbach received thorough education which included instruction in music. He was also a passionate amateur musician on wind, plucked and keyboard instruments. Music books he collected are nowadays kept in the University Library in Basle.

The release is primarily devoted to the music of little-known composers active during the first half of the sixteenth century in the Alsace and Baden-Württemberg regions (chiefly Hans Buchner, Wolfgang Dachstein, Sixt Dietrich, Mathias Greiter, Johannes Fuchswild, Hans Kotter and Paul Wüst).

LA MORRA consists here of two contrasting groups: the 'alta' (a wind band with straight cornetto, bombard, slide trumpet and trombone) and the 'bassa' (lute, flutes, clavicytherium and Grossgeige (bass viol), joined by a female voice). All instruments used in performance were in common usage in South Germany and North Switzerland, and were described by Sebastian Virdung in his Musica getutscht - the earliest printed treatise on musical instruments, published in Basle in 1511.

 

Where to buy

[MUSIQUES SUISSES] (Switzerland/international)
[FNAC] (France)

 

IN THE UPPER-RIGHT CORNER: detail from the Portrait of Bonifacius Amerbach by Hans Holbein The Younger (Basel, Kunstmuseum).

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