Spiess, Meinrad

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Spiess, Meinrad

Spiess, Meinrad, German music theorist and composer; b. Honsolgen, Aug. 24, 1683; d. Irsee, June 12, 1761. In 1701 he entered the Irsee Benedictine abbey, where he was ordained a priest in 1708. After music training with Giuseppe Antonio Bernabei in Munich (1708–12), he returned to the abbey as music director (until 1749); later served as its prior. In 1743 he was made a member of Mizler’s Societat der musikalischen Wissenschaften in Leipzig. He wrote mainly sacred music, much of which is lost. He remains best known for his treatise Tractatus musicus compositorio-pradicus. Das ist, musicalischer Tractat, in welchem alle gute und sichere Fundamenta zur musicalischen Composition aus denen alt- und neuesten besten Autoribus herausgezogen, zusammen getragen, gegen einander gehalten, erklaret, und mit untersetzten Exemplen dermassen klar und deutlich erläutert werden (Augsburg, 1745).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire