Virdung, Sebastian

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Virdung, Sebastian

Virdung, Sebastian, German music theorist and composer; b. Amberg, Jan. 19 or 20, c. 1465; d. place and date unknown. He was educated at the Univ. of Heidelberg, and also studied with Johannes von Soest at the chapel of the Palatine court in Heidelberg, where he was an alto and Kapellmeister. After being ordained, he also served as chaplain. He was a singer at the Wurttemberg court chapel in Stuttgart (1506-7), then was one of the nine succentors at Konstanz Cathedral (1507-8). He wrote a work of importance for the history of musical instruments, Musica getutscht und auszgezogen durch Sebastianum Virdung, Priesters von Amberg, und alles Gesang ausz den Noten in die Tabulaturen diser benannten dryer Instrumenten, der Orgeln, der Lauten und der Flöten transferieren zu lernen kurtzlich gemacht (Basel, 1511; facsimile reprint in Eitner’s Publikationen Alterer Praktischer und Theoretischer Musikwerke,vol. 11, 1882; also by L. Schrade, Kassel, 1931, and by K. Niemoller, Kassel, 1970; Eng. tr. by B. Bullard, Cambridge, 1993). Virdung’s method was violently attacked by Arnolt Schlick in his Tabulatur etlicher Lobgesänge (1512). Four of Virdung’s songs are in Schöffer’s Teutsche Lieder mit 4 Stimmen (1513).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire