Martin Agricola

(b Schwiebus, 6 Jan 1486; d Magdeburg, 10 June 1556). German music theorist and composer. He claimed to be self-taught in music. He taught in Magdeburg from c1519, and from 1525 or 1527 until his death he was choirmaster of the Lateinschule there. An enthusiastic Lutheran, he wrote treatises for scholars and amateurs, notably Musica instrumentalis deudsch (1532), on instruments. His Sangbüchlein (1541) is one of the earliest collections of German Protestant songs; he also composed Latin motets and instrumental pieces.

Agricola, Martin (Schwiebus, 1486-1556, Magdeburg), a German musician and cantor in Magdeburg, wrote a collection of hymns entitled Deutsche Musica (1560). He also wrote on theory, and his verse Musica instrumentalis, deudsch (1528 or 1529), with examples in musical notation, is a valuable document of musical history.

See Agricola for several other people of the same name.

Martin Agricola (6 January 1486 – 10 June 1556) was a German composer of Renaissance music and a music theorist.

He was born in Schwiebus in Lower Silesia.^[1] His German name was Sohr or Sore.

From 1524 until his death he lived at Magdeburg, where he occupied the post of teacher or cantor in the Protestant school. The senator and music-printer Rhau, of Wittenberg, was a close friend of Agricola, whose theoretical works, providing valuable material concerning the change from the old to the new system of notation, he published.

Among Agricola's other theoretical works is Musica instrumentalis deudsch (1529), a study of musical instruments, and one of the most important works in early organology; and one of the earliest books on the Rudiments of music.

Agricola was also the first to harmonize in four parts Martin Luther's chorale, Ein' feste Burg.

References

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Agricola, Martin.

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Classical Composers Database

1. ^ Lutheran Cyclopedia entry on Agricola, Martin.

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