Gerle, Hans

views updated

Gerle, Hans

Gerle, Hans, German lutenist; b. Nuremberg, c. 1500; d. there, 1570. He was well known in his time, both as a performer on the lute and as a manufacturer of viols and lutes. His works in tablature are of considerable historic value: Musica Teusch auf die Instrument der grossen unnd kleinen Gey gen, auch Lautten (Nuremberg, 1532; 2nd ed., 1537; 3rd ed., under the title Musica und Tabulatur, 1546), Tabulatur auff die Laudten (Nuremberg, 1533), and Ein newes sehr kiinstlichs Lautenbuch (Nuremberg, 1552; with pieces by Francesco da Milano, A. Rotta, Joan da Crema, Rosseto, and Gintzler). Reprints of his works have been ed. by W. Tappert in Sang und Klang aus alter Zeit (1906) and by H.D. Bruger in Schule des Lautenspiels, 1/2, and Alte Lautenkunst I.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire