• Born 1450 in Flanders
• Died March 26, 1517 in Florence, Italy
• Period: Renaissance (1450-1599)
• Country: Netherlands
• Genres: Vocal, Choral

Biography

While Josquin Desprez is unquestionably the major figure of the middle Renaissance period, there are many other outstanding names that deserve attention. Above all, the music of Heinrich Isaac -- another exceptionally versatile composer of the Franco-Flemish school -- stands out from this particularly rich period of musical composition.

Born some ten years after Josquin, Isaac (ca. 1450-1517) is likewise a composer whose early life remains obscure. After 1480 he is known to have been in Florence in the service of Lorenzo the Magnificent, a member of the powerful ruling Medici family; Lorenzo was responsible for Isaac's appointment as organist of the cathedral. Following the fall of the Medicis in 1497, he was appointed court composer to the Emperor Maximilian I in Vienna and Innsbruck, but his heart remained in Florence, to where he made frequent return journeys before finally settling there three years before his death in 1517.

Isaac was typical of his time in his travels to and from Italy, and his large body of compositions reflects to an unusual degree the cosmopolitan nature of the international Franco-Flemish school of the age; his secular works show him to have been equally at ease with German, Italian or French song. The Italian songs are strongly influenced by the frottola, a kind of simple, light song that largely avoided polyphony in favor of catchy dance rhythms. Many of them were doubtless composed for the frequent Florentine carnivals; their relatively small number is likely due to the religious fanatic Savonarola's wholesale destruction of "profane" repertoire in the aftermath of the downfall of the Medicis. One such Isaac song, "Ne più bella di queste," celebrates the city that held such an inescapable fascination for him; it ends with the words, "all the earth sings and laughs in Florence and says Florence is paradise." Among Isaac's German songs, "Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen" is perhaps the best known; it too is simple in style, with predominantly homophonic writing and an elegant melancholy that looks forward to the era of the madrigal.

Depending on which authority one consults, Isaac is said to have composed anything between ten and thirty masses, a discrepancy that significantly illustrates just how little attention has so far been devoted to this aspect of his work. In contrast to those of most of his contemporaries, many of Isaac's sacred works employ a rich six-part palette, a format he adopted in the Missa de Apostolis. This is one of the masses composed during Isaac's service at Maximilian's court, and, in common with Austrian practice at the time, it omits a polyphonic setting of the Credo, and alternates polyphony with plainsong in the remaining sections of the Ordinary. Despite such telescoping it is an expansive work, amply demonstrating the composer's love of contrasting sonorities, long melodic lines, and -- when compared with Josquin -- less tightly organized polyphony. During a sojourn in Konstanz around 1507, Isaac began the composition of a huge cycle of Mass Propers; these appear in the monumental three-volume Choralis Constantinus, the first known integral set of music for the propers for the whole ecclesiastical year. On Isaac's death his student Ludwig Senfl set about completing it; it was not published until 1555.

~ Brian Robins, All Music Guide

(b Flanders, c 1450; d Florence, 26 March 1517). Flemish composer. Though he was born in Flanders, no references to him there are known; the earliest (1484) concerns an apparent journey south, through Innsbruck, to Italy. Serving the Medici in Florence, 1485-93, he sang at the cathedral and probably taught Lorenzo the Magnificent's children. From 1496 he worked intermittently in Vienna, Torgau, Konstanz and Florence, notably as court composer to the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I. From 1514 he remained in Florence, holding both a Medici pension and a diplomatic post under Maximilian.

Isaac's works reflect his knowledge of the distinctions among Netherlands, Italian and German musical practices; he adapted well to local tradition wherever he found himself. Half his nearly 40 settings of the Mass Ordinary, for example, use ‘foreign’ borrowed material (e.g. secular songs) and imaginative cyclic structures in accordance with Netherlands-Italian practice, while the other half (dating from after 1496) use plainchant and more conservative, self-contained structures, often with unison sections. The German style is found above all in his nearly 100 settings of the Proper, especially in the posthumous three-volume collection Choralis constantinus, written for the Habsburg court chapel and for Konstanz. His secular works include imitative chansons and homophonic frottolas as well as German Tenorlieder (Isbruck, ich muss dich lassen is famous for the lyricism of its polyphony). In quality and scope Isaac's works stand beside those of Obrecht, Compère, Agricola and La Rue as some of the finest of the Josquin period; his influence, through his music and his pupil Senfl, was particularly important in Germany.

works:
Sacred music

• 36 masses
• 15 mass movts 99 cycles of mass Propers
• over 30 other mass Propers
• over 40 free motets

Secular music

• c 80 songs: German lieder, incl. Isbruck, ich muss dich lessen
• French chansons
• Italian frottolas

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Heinrich Isaac (ca. 1450-1517) was a versatile and prolific Flemish composer of both secular and church music. He was one of the greatest masters of High Renaissance music.

Little is known of the early life of Heinrich Isaac. He asserted that he came from Flanders. His birth date is believed to be within a few years of the mid-15th century. He was undoubtedly trained in the Low Countries and remained there until 1484, when Lorenzo de' Medici, impressed by his reputation, invited Isaac to Florence. For 10 years he worked at the principal churches of the city as composer, singer, and choir director.

Isaac was also a composer for the Medici household and taught music to Lorenzo's children. During this decade he composed many carnival songs (now lost) to the poems of his wealthy patron. With the fall of the Medici and their expulsion from Florence (1494), Isaac lost his posts and was obliged to seek employment with the Hapsburgs at Vienna and Innsbruck. He did, however, maintain a house in Florence until his death, partly because he loved the city and partly in deference to his Florentine wife.

In 1496 Emperor Maximilian of Austria appointed Isaac imperial court composer at Vienna, a title he retained for the rest of his life. His church music for the German liturgy as well as his German songs all probably date from this time. As court composer he was required only to furnish the court and chapel with musical compositions; continuous attendance on the monarch was not required, so the composer lived far from Vienna for many years. Maximilian also seems not to have objected to Isaac's composing for other rulers or civic authorities while on the imperial payroll. Isaac received payments from the Elector of Saxony (1497-1500) and wrote music for the Duke of Ferrara (1503-1505). A commission from the German city of Constance in 1508 produced a monumental series of polyphonic Mass Propers (Introits, Alleluias, Sequences, Communions) for feast days celebrated in the city. These pieces, together with other Mass Propers by Isaac, were published posthumously in three volumes as the Choralis Constantinus (1550-1555).

In 1512 the Medici returned to Florence, and a year later Giovanni de' Medici, Isaac's former student, ascended the papal throne as Leo X. Isaac thereupon requested papal assistance for reinstatement to his former positions at Florence. When these negotiations were successfully completed in 1514, Isaac journeyed north for release from further obligations to his imperial master. With characteristic magnanimity Emperor Maximilian permitted the composer to return to Florence without loss of salary and, in effect, gave him a pension to enjoy his last days in Italy. Several months after drawing up his final (third) last will and testament, Isaac died in Florence on March 26, 1517.

Isaac's music owes much to the Netherlandish style he learned in his homeland. Among his more conservative traits is a persistent allegiance to the traditional cantus firmus. He wrote fewer pieces without a borrowed tune than many contemporaries who were then moving more toward free composition. Among the progressive features of his style is his use of imitation and melodic and rhythmic equality of voice parts. Intricate canons and notational artifices are occasionally found in the Masses, but they almost always serve a musical purpose. Similarly, Isaac's melodic lines may sometimes look intricate and fussy, but they never sound so to the exclusion of their musical interest. That he was a great melodist is shown by his song Innsbruck ich muss dich lassen, a tune destined to have a strong influence on the later German song.

Unlike some of his contemporaries, Isaac was equally adept at writing religious and secular music: German, French, and Italian songs; instrumental pieces; Masses for four to six voices and Propers for the entire church year; separate Credos; and motets. He had the rare ability to assimilate different national styles and yet preserve his own idiom.

Further Reading

Isaac's music is discussed in Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance (1954; rev. ed. 1959), and J. A. Westrup and others, eds., The New Oxford History of Music, vol. 3 (1960). For a summary of music in the Renaissance see Paul Henry Lang, Music in Western Civilization (1941).

For more information on Heinrich Isaac, visit Britannica.com.

(hīn'rĭkh ē'zäk) , c.1450–1517, Flemish composer. Isaac, a prolific and versatile composer, traveled widely in Europe, serving at the courts of Lorenzo de' Medici and Emperor Maximilian I. Among his best-known works is the collection of 99 four-part settings of the proper chants of the mass known as Choralis Constantinus, a monumental collection of Gregorian liturgical music. He also wrote many motets, masses, hymns, and secular songs.

Bibliography

See A. Einstein, The Italian Madrigal (3 vol., 1949, repr. 1971).

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