Raselius (Raesel), Andreas

Raselius (Raesel), Andreas , eminent German music theorist and composer; b. Hahnbach, near Amberg, Upper Palatinate, c. 1563; d. Heidelberg, Jan. 6, 1602. He was the son of a Lutheran preacher, and studied at the Univ. of Heidelberg (M.A., 1584). After teaching at the Heidelberg Academy (1583–84), he was compelled for religious reasons to leave the city and went to Regensburg as asst. master and Kantor at the Gymnasium Poeticum. He then returned to Heidelberg as Hofkapellmeister to the Elector Palatine Friedrich IV (1600). Raselius greatly distinguished himself as a music theorist and composer.

Works

Cantionale (1587–88); Psalmen und geistliche Lieder for 5 Voices (1591); Teutscher Sprüche auss den sontäglichen Evangeliis durchs gantze Jar for 5 Voices (Nuremberg, 1594); Erercitationes musicae…et aliae cantiones for 4 to 6 and 8 Voices, festivitatibus nuptialibus amicorum (1594); Teutscher Sprüche auff die fürnemsten järlichen Fest und Aposteltage… for 5, 6, and 8 to 9 Voices, auff die 12 modos dodecachordi (Nuremberg, 1598); Regenspurgischer Kirchenkontrapunkt, allerley…geistlichen Psalmen und Lieder, D. M. Lutheri…also gesetzt, dass jedermann…ungehindert wol mit singen kann for 5 Voices (Regensburg, 1599); Cantica sacro pro nova paochia: geistliche Psalmen und Lieder for 5 Voices (1599); Lateinische und deutsche Lieder (1605).

Writings

Dodechachordi vivi, in quo 12 modorum musicorum exempla duodena for 4 to 6 Voices (1589); Hexachordum seu Questiones musicae practicac…in welcehm viva exempla Dodechachordi Glareani in utraque scala gefunden werden (Nuremberg, 1591).

Bibliography

J. Auer, M.A. R. (Leipzig, 1892); L. Roselius, A. R. als Motettenkomponist (Berlin, 1924).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire