Nucius (Nucis, Nux), Johannes

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Nucius (Nucis, Nux), Johannes

Nucius (Nucis, Nux), Johannes, German composer and music theorist; b. Görlitz, c. 1556; d. Himmelwitz, March 25, 1620. He studied music with Johannes Winckler, the cantor of the Görlitz Gymnasium, and in c. 1586 he took Holy Orders at the monastery of Rauden. In 1591 he was made abbot of the monastery of Himmelwitz in Silesia. He publ. 50 Modulations sacrae modis musicis for 5 and 6 Voices (Prague, 1591; 2nd ed., 1609, as Cantionum sacrarum liber primus), 52 Cantionum sacrarum diversarum vocum, liber secundus, some for 7, others for 8, Voices (Liegnitz, 1609), and a theoretical work, Musices poeticae sive De compositione cantum praeceptiones ultissimae (Neisse, 1613). A selected ed. of his motets was brought out by J. Kendermann in Das Erbe Deutscher Musik, 2nd series, V (1968).

Bibliography

B. Widmann,J. N., Abt von Himmelwitz (Bregenz, 1921); E. Kirsch, Von der Personlichkeit und dem Stil des schlesischen Zisterzienser-Komponisten J. N. (Breslau, 1926).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire