(b Naumburg, c1530; d Leipzig, bur. 29 Jan 1597). German organist and keyboard music arranger. In the foreword of his 1571 tablature Ammerbach stated that he had ‘from childhood on, even from birth, a singular desire and love, charm and inclination’ towards music so that he ‘proceeded to eminent masters in foreign lands, to probe, bear, and endure much for it’. He enrolled for half a year at the University of Leipzig in 1548–9. From 1 January 1561 to April 1595 Ammerbach served as organist at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. The civic records during his long tenure testify to an easy-going attitude (perhaps even resignation) to his financial difficulties and the death of his first two wives. His third wife and five children survived him.
In his first publication Ammerbach introduced what has since been called new German organ tablature in which pitches are expressed in letter notation with rhythm-signs above them. The decoration of vocal pieces when played on instruments, however, is a technique that undoubtedly predates even the earliest known written instrumental music. Ammerbach’s first tablature is also the first printed German organ music. ‘Instrument’ in the title, according to Ammerbach, includes ‘positive, regal, virginal, clavichord, clavicembalo, harpsichord and the like’. Ammerbach arranged the contents of this book, Orgel oder Instrument Tabulatur (1571), into five progressively more difficult categories. Little or no coloration occurs in the first group of 44 German songs in four voices (for nos.37 and 38 see illustration). The composers of many are unknown; some pieces have been borrowed from Le Maistre, Forster, Buchner, Senfl, Isaac and others. A group of 27 dances, several of them paired, follows. These employ repeated chords and a minimum of decoration, except in the passamezzos of the third section, where the varied top voice requires considerable decoration. In the fourth section (12 four-part vocal works) and in the fifth (seven five-part vocal works) lavish coloration occurs on every line. The sacred and secular vocal models are by Clemens non Papa, Zirler, Senfl (2), Heintz, Hofhaimer, Buchner, Lassus (4), Scandello and Ivo de Vento. The bass range extends to C, the treble to a''. (In the tablature of 1583 Ammerbach extended the treble to c'''.)
Ein new künstlich Tabulaturbuch (1575) includes 40 vocal intabulations and one praeambulum. The 26 sacred works, with one exception, have Latin titles; the remaining secular works have German titles. Identified composers of the sacred repertory include Lassus (10), Clemens non Papa (3), Formellis (2), Meiland (2), Arcadelt, Berchem, Crecquillon, Dressler, Gastritz, Ville Font (1 each). The secular songs were composed by Lassus (7), Scandello (5) and Ivo de Vento (2). Five-part settings outnumber six-part settings, with even fewer four-part settings. These pieces, more than the ones in the first book, come from the popular international repertory. All lines carry profuse ornamentation.
In 1583 Ammerbach revised and expanded his 1571 publication. He added more works with German titles than with French and Italian. Composers new to this edition include Meiland, Regnart, Josquin, Sandrin, Rore, Crecquillon, Godard, Ferrabosco, Berchem and Arcadelt. In the 1583 tablature Ammerbach gave all these songs without coloration; some may in fact have been simplified for students, to whom the work is addressed. The number of dances was substantially increased, since pieces found also in instrumental publications of Gervaise, Le Roy, Phalèse and others were added.
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Orgel oder Instrument Tabulatur (Leipzig, 1571, 2/1583); ed. C. Jacobs (Oxford, 1984) |
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Ein new künstlich Tabulaturbuch (Leipzig, 1575) |
BrownI
W. Merian: Der Tanz in den deutschen Tabulaturbüchern (Leipzig,1927/R) [incl. four dances by Ammerbach]
C.W. Young: ‘Keyboard Music to 1600’, MD, xvi (1962), 115–50; xvii (1963), 163–93
E. Kraus, ed.: Cantantibus organis, xi (Regensburg, 1963) [incl. four German songs by Ammerbach]
B. Freudenberg: Studien zu den Orgeltabulaturen 1571 und 1583 des Leipziger Thomasorganisten Elias Nicolaus Ammerbach: zugleich ein Beitrag zur Intavolierungstechnik im ausgehenden 16. Jahrhundert (diss., U. of Kiel, 1990)
CLYDE WILLIAM YOUNG