Thomas Stoltzer

Biography

Thomas Stoltzer, also Stolczer, Scholczer (c.1480–1526) was a German composer of the Renaissance.

Life

Nothing is known of Stoltzer's early life, though he is thought to have come from the same family as Clemens Stoltzer, who was a town clerk in Schweidnitz, and to have been born in Schweidnitz, Silesia. Stoltzer may have studied with Heinrich Finck; while no concrete evidence of this association exists, he was at the least intimately familiar with Finck's work since he quotes from Finck's music copiously.
He served as a priest in Breslau from 1519, and was a supporter of the Reformation, though he never made public his sentiments. Louis II appointed him magister capellae in Ofen at the Hungarian court on May 8, 1522. Ludwig's wife, Mary, asked him to set Martin Luther's translations of psalms xii, xiii, xxxviii and lxxxvi, which he did between 1524 and 1526. One personal letter of Stoltzer's is still extant, dated February 23, 1526 and addressed to Albert, Duke of Prussia in Königsberg; in this letter Stoltzer relates the news of a recently completed psalm setting and intimates that he would like to join Albrecht's court. On this letter, there is additional writing, dated March 1526, which refers to him as "the late Thomas". It was previously thought that he had died at the Battle of Mohács in August 1526, but this is erroneous. He is thought to have died near Znaim, Moravia.

Editions

Newe deudsche geistliche Gesenge (1544), ed. J. Wolf, Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst, 1908
Das deutsche Gesellschaftslied in Österreich von 1480–1550, ed. L. Nowak, Denkmaler der Tonkunst im Österreich, 1930
Thomas Stoltzer: Sämtliche lateinische Hymnen und Psalmen, ed. H. Albrecht and O. Gombosi, Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst, 1931
Thomas Stoltzer: Ausgewählte Werke, vol. i ed. H. Albrecht, Das Erbe deutscher Musik, 1942; vols. ii-iii ed. L. Hoffmann-Erbrecht, 1969, 1983
Georg Forster: Frische teutsche Liedlein (1539–1556) ed. Kurt Gudewill, Das Erbe deutscher Musik, 1942
Georg Rhau: Sacrorum hymnorum liber primus, ed. R. Gerber, Das Erbe deutscher Musik, 1942–43
Georg Rhau: Vesperarum precum officia, ed. H.J. Moser, Musikdrucke aus den Jahren 1538 bis 1545 in praktischer Neuausgabe, 1960