Figulus (real name, Töpfer), Wolfgang
Figulus (real name, Töpfer), Wolfgang
Figulus (real name, Töpfer), Wolfgang, German composer and writer on music; b. Naumburg an der Saale, c. 1525; d. Meissen, Sept. 1589. He was cantor in Liibben, Lower Austria (1545–6) before pursuing his education at the univs. of Frankfurt an der Oder (1547) and Leipzig (1548). From 1549 to 1551 he was cantor at the Leipzig Thomaskirche, and he also taught music at the Univ. of Leipzig. He then was cantor and teacher at the Fiirstenschule and at the church of St. Afra in Meissen from 1551 to 1588.
Writings
Elementa musica (1555; aug. ed., Nuremberg, 1565 as Libri primi musicae practicae elementa brevissima); Deutsche Musica und Gesangbuchlein (Nuremberg, 1560; aug. ed. of M. Agricola’s Ein Sangbuchlein aller Sontags Evangelein, 1541); De musica practica liber primus (Nuremberg, 1565).
Works
Precationes aliquot musicis numeris for 3 Voices (Leipzig, 1553); Tricinia sacra ad voces pueriles for 3 Voices (Nuremberg, 1559); Cantionum sacrarum…primi toni decas prima for 4 to 6 and 8 Voices (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1575); Vetera nova carmina sacra et selecta de natali Domini…a diversis musicis composita for 4 Voices (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1575); Hymni sacri et scholastici cum melodiis (c. 1580; aug. ed., Leipzig, 1594; new ed., 1604).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire