Othmayr, Caspar

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Othmayr, Caspar

Othmayr, Caspar, celebrated German composer; b. Amberg, March 12, 1515; d. Nuremberg, Feb. 4, 1553. He was a choirboy at the courts in Neumarkt and Amberg, and matriculated at the Univ. of Heidelberg (1533), subsequently receiving the degrees of Bachelor, Licentiate, and Master of Arts there. He became Rektor of the Lateinschule at Heilbronn’s Cistercian monastery (1545) and then provost of the St. Gumbertus monastery in Ansbach (1547). He was greatly esteemed not only for his sacred works but also for his ingenious polyphonic settings of secular songs. See H. Albrecht, ed., Caspar Othmayr: Ausgewähtle Werke, Das Erbe Deutscher Musik, 1st series, XVI (1941) and XXVI (1956).

Works

(all pubi, in Nuremberg): (10) Cantilena aliquot elegantes ac piae for 4 to 5 Voices (1546); (2) Epitaphium D. Martini Lutheri for 5 Voices (1546); (34) Symbola illustrissimorum principum, nobilium, aliorumque...virorum for 5 Voices (1547); (41) Bicinia sacra (1547); (30) Tricinia (1549); (50) Reutterische und jegerische Liedlein for 4 to 5 Voices (1549); other songs and motets in various contemporary collections.

Bibliography

H. Albrecht, C. O.: Leben und Werk (Kassel, 1950).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire