Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83



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Forster, Georg


(b Amberg, Upper Palatinate, c1510; d Nuremberg, 12 Nov 1568). German editor and composer. While a chorister at Elector Ludwig V’s court in Heidelberg around 1521, he began to study ancient languages at the university, receiving the BA in 1528. Together with his colleagues in the electoral choir, Caspar Othmayr, Jobst vom Brandt and Stephan Zirler, he received instruction in composition from the Kapellmeister Lorenz Lemlin. Forster’s years in Heidelberg were decisive, for during this time he started to collect songs.

He moved to Ingolstadt in 1531 where he studied medicine. From 1534 until 1539 he continued his studies at Wittenberg. He pursued his interest in literature under Philipp Melancthon’s tutelage. Luther included him among his dinner-table companions and encouraged him to compose settings of biblical texts. It is very likely that in selecting pieces for the first and second parts of the Frische teutsche Liedlein, Forster followed Luther’s wishes. Furthermore, Forster may have had a close relationship with the Wittenberg printer Georg Rhau, who published most of his 18 sacred compositions.

In 1539 Forster began to practise medicine in Amberg. At the same time he began his work as an editor, publishing the first two parts of the Frische teutsche Liedlein (1539–40) and a collection of motets (1540). He transferred his medical practice to Würzburg in 1541 and in 1542 entered the service of the Count Palatine Wolfgang in Heidelberg, whom he accompanied as personal physician on a French campaign. After taking the doctor’s degree at Tübingen in September 1544, he returned to Amberg and from early 1545 to Easter 1547 served as the city physician. Finally he moved to Nuremberg, where he remained until his death.

Forster was highly esteemed as a physician, scholar and musician. In the preface to the second edition of his treatise, De arte canendi (1540), Haiden referred to him as ‘Vir ut literarum et Medicinae ita et Musicae peritissimus’. His personal library, numbering about 100 volumes, shows the broadness of his interests and learning.

In music, his secondary field of interest, he was a collector, editor, composer, arranger and writer of texts. All these capabilities combine to give the Frische teutsche Liedlein, Forster’s single most important contribution, its particular character. The largest work of its kind in the 16th century, it contains 382 songs mainly for four voices, covering the course of the German Tenorlied from the late 15th century to the end of its flowering in the middle of the 16th. Among the approximately 50 composers represented are Isaac, Hofhaimer, Senfl, Othmayr and Brandt. It is also very important because it includes the works of many lesser masters in a wide range of genres and compositional styles. The work enjoyed great popularity: the first part was reprinted four times, the second three and the third twice. The melodies used for tenors and occasionally discants were taken predominantly from highly cultivated Hofweisen (court songs) and Gesellschaftslieder. Nevertheless, the number of folksongs and folklike tunes is relatively large, particularly in the second part; several survive only because they were included in this collection. Forster was concerned to provide the possibility for a completely vocal performance. This is specially true of the first part, which contains primarily earlier works, originally with text only in the tenor. Forster texted subordinate voices, constantly improved underlay and composed his own texts for pieces whose texts were lacking or unsuitable. The second part contains mostly pieces which Forster himself performed during his student years at Amberg and Wittenberg. The majority of his own 36 secular songs and the compositions of his Heidelberg friends are found in the last three parts. The greatest number of pieces (51) was written by Jobst vom Brandt, followed by Forster himself and Ludwig Senfl.

Forster’s talents as a composer far exceed the level of a dilettante, but in general he was quite conservative. In some pieces he adhered strictly to cantus firmus technique and used a moderate amount of imitation. In his songs he paired voices only occasionally, which distinguishes him from his more progressive contemporary Othmayr.



The importance of Forster’s work as an editor and collector extended far beyond his own lifetime. Numerous composers used his Frische teutsche Liedlein well into the 17th century as a textual source for German lieder.

EDITIONS


Ein Ausszug guter alter und newer teutscher Liedlein, einer rechten teutschen Art (Nuremberg, 153927); ed. in EDM, xx (1942)

Der ander Theil, kurtzweiliger guter frischer teutscher Liedlein (Nuremberg, 154021); ed. in EDM, lx (1969)

Der dritte Teyl, schöner, lieblicher, alter, und newer teutscher Liedlein (Nuremberg, 154937); ed. in EDM, lxi (1976)

Der vierdt Theyl schöner frölicher frischer alter und newer teutscher Liedlein (Nuremberg, 155628); ed. in EDM, lxii (1987)

Der fünffte Theil schöner frölicher frischer alter und newer teutscher Liedlein (Nuremberg, 155629); ed. in EDM, lxiii (1997)

Selectissimarum mutetarum, 4–5vv, tomus primus (Nuremberg, 15406)

Tomus tertius psalmorum selectorum (Nuremberg, 15426)

 

Some songs ed. in Cw, lxiii (1957)

WORKS


16 sacred works in 15388, 153914, 15405, 15428, 154421, 15456

36 German songs in 153927, 154021, 154937, 155628, 155629

 

Some sacred works ed. in DDT, xxxiv (1908/R) and in G. Rhau: Musikdrucke aus den Jahren 1538–1545, iii–iv, ed. H. Albrecht (Kassel, 1955); for edns. of songs see Editions

BIBLIOGRAPHY


MGG1 (K. Gudewill)

E. Marriage, ed.: Georg Forsters Frische teutsche Liedlein in fünf Teilen, Neudrucke deutscher Litteraturwerke des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, nos.203–6 (Halle, 1903) [incl. complete edn. of texts]

H. Kallenbach: Georg Forsters Frische teutsche Liedlein (diss., U. of Giessen, 1931)

C.P. Reinhardt: Die Heidelberger Liedmeister des 16. Jahrhunderts (Kassel, 1939)

K. Gudewill: ‘Bemerkungen zur Herausgebertätigkeit Georg Forsters’, Musik und Verlag: Karl Vötterle zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. R. Baum and W. Rehm (Kassel, 1968), 299–305

S. Keyl: ‘Tenorlied, Discantlied, Polyphonic Lied: Voices and Instruments in German Secular Polyphony of the Renaissance’, EMc, xx (1992), 434–45

A. Wendel: Eine studentische Musiksammlung der Reformationszeit: die Handschrift Misc.236a–d der Schermar-Bibliothek in Ulm (Baden-Baden, 1993)

KURT GUDEWILL/R



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