(b Wendelstein, 10 Jan 1479; d Breslau, 10 Jan 1552). German theologian, historian, humanist, music theorist and pedagogue. After studies with Heinrich Grieninger in Nuremberg, Cochlaeus entered the University of Cologne in 1504. A year later he had already gained the baccalaureate degree and in 1507 the MA. During these years his first treatise, Musica, was printed in three editions. He also became the music teacher of Heinrich Glarean, who, greatly admiring him, later included in his Dodecachordon three pedagogical compositions from his Musica. In 1510 on the recommendation of Willibald Pirckheimer, he became the rector of St Lorenz school in Nuremberg. There he organized a humanistically orientated curriculum and wrote the Tetrachordum musices (1511), his most valuable music treatise. In 1517 he earned a doctorate in theology at Ferrara and was ordained to the priesthood in Rome. In succeeding years he acquired a reputation as a fierce and unremitting opponent of Lutheranism and Calvinism. In an encounter with Luther at Worms in 1521, he challenged the reformer and tried to persuade him to recant, but failed. Cochlaeus held church positions in various cities, including Dresden (1528–35), Meissen (1535–9) and Breslau (1545–52). He was buried in Breslau Cathedral.
His musical significance rests primarily on Tetrachordum musices, written as a textbook for the schoolboys of St Lorenz. Its dialogue format and clear, concise organization made it a very popular treatise that quickly went through seven editions. It is based on the Musica of 1507, a university textbook whose three sections (not four, as is sometimes stated) were enlarged by Cochlaeus into four parts: book 1 on the elements of music and musical instruments; book 2 on plainsong and solmization; book 3 on modes; and book 4 on mensural music and counterpoint. Cochlaeus cited many early authorities, such as Aristotle, Jerome, Richard of St Victor, Isadore, Guido of Arezzo and Jean Gerson. But contemporary theorists are not acknowledged, although he relied heavily on them, particularly Franchinus Gaffurius, Adam von Fulda, and Wollick and Schanppecher in their Opus aureum. For example, the seven hexachord exercises and the modal differentiae in Tetrachordum musices come from Opus aureum, and three of the counterpoint examples are identical with those in Gaffurius's Practica musice (1496).
The particular value of Tetrachordum musices consists in Cochlaeus's own contributions, which include four-voice examples of psalmody, settings of hymns and classical poetry, and chapters on musical instruments. As an aid in teaching psalm tones he composed pieces in plainsong notation in chordal style, with the psalm tone melody either in the tenor or the discant. Influenced by Tritonius's Melopoiae (1507) he applied the same procedure to hymns and classical odes, but he put the complete text in the discant. Many kinds of instruments are discussed, and frequently they are identified by both Latin and German names. Cochlaeus played the harp, the favourite instrument of musical humanists. His choir at St Lorenz church was frequently joined by Johann Neuschel, the renowned player and maker of brass instruments.
for non-musical works see Spahn, pp.341–72
Musica (n.p., c1504) [in A-Wn; the treatise consists of 15 folios; plainsong notes are hand drawn on printed staves; anon. in source]; (n.p., enlarged 2/c1505) [in D-LEu; anon. in source; repr. ed. H. Riemann, MMg, xxix (1897), 147; xxx (1898), 1]; (Cologne, 3/1507; abridged 4/1515) [The 1507 edn, consisting of 28 folios, is the most complete version; it consists of 3 parts: 1 on plainsong, 2 on mensural music, 3 on composition and counterpoint.]
Tetrachordum musices (Nuremberg, 1511, 7/1526; Eng. trans., MSD, xxiii, 1970)
M. Spahn: Johannes Cochlaeus (Berlin, 1898/R)
J. Mantuani: ‘Eine unbekanntes Druckwerk’, Mitteilungen des österreichischen Verein für Bibliothekswesen, vi (1902), 7–19
E. Praetorius: Mensuraltheorie des Franchinus Gafurius und der folgenden Zeit bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1905)
L. Schrade: ‘Johannes Cochlaeus, Musiktheoretiker in Köln’, Studien zur Musikgeschichte des Rheinlands: Festschrift zum 80. Geburtstag von Ludwig Schiedermair, ed. W. Kahl, H. Lemacher and J. Schmidt-Görg (Cologne, 1956), 124–32
E. Schroeder: ‘The Stroke Comes Full Circle: and C in Writings on Music, ca. 1450–1540’, MD, xxxvi (1982), 119–48
K. Berger: Musica ficta (Cambridge, 1987)
A.M. Busse Berger: Mensuration and Proportion Signs: Origins and Evolution (Oxford, 1993)
CLEMENT A. MILLER/R