Otmar Nachtgall

Otmar Nachtgall (1480-1537), also known as Othmar and Luscinius, was a priest, organist, and Humanist of the early Renaissance. His arrangement of the popular song "Ein fröhlich Wesen" survives, ornamented, in the tablature of Leonhard Kleber, along with two other compositions, "In patientia vestra" and a "Fortuna" setting.

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Biography

Luscinius was born in Strasbourg, then a free imperial city, and studied various arts in Heidelberg, Leuven, and Vienna. After finishing his studies, being ordained a priest, and travelling to the former Greek empire, he returned to Strasbourg in 1514 and soon achieved several noteworthy positions in local churches. Having earned a doctorate in law at Padua, he moved to Augsburg in 1523, and again to Freiburg im Breisgau in 1529. He died at the local Carthusian monastery.

Works related to music

Aside from the aforementioned compositions, Luscinius had two musical treatises published: the first, Institutiones musicae from 1515, contains lectures he previously gave at the university of Vienna, while the latter, Musurgia seu praxis musicae (written in 1518 and published in 1536), includes a Latin version of Virdung's Musica getutscht. In the first book, the author gives extensive praise to his contemporary, organist Paul Hofhaimer.

References

Niemöller, K. W. (2001). Luscinius [Nachtgall], Othmar. in: Grove Music Online.

Fox, Ch. W. (1937). Ein Fröhlich Wesen: The career of a German song in the sixteenth century. University of California Press.