Neusidler Family - Oxford Music Online

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Neusidler family [Newsidler, Neusydler, Neysidler, Neusiedler]

Hans Radke, revised by Wolfgang Boetticher and Christian Meyer

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.19795
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001

German family of lutenists and composers. The first two discussed below are among the leading figures
in 16th-century German lute music.

(1) Hans Neusidler

(b Pressburg [now Bratislava], c1508–9; d Nuremberg, Feb 2, 1563). Composer, lutenist, intabulator
and lute maker. He arrived at Nuremberg early in 1530; on 21 February he received from the city
council a residence permit for one year, on 13 September he married a Nuremberg girl, and on 17
April 1531 he took the oath as a citizen. His finances apparently improved as a result of his marriage,
for he was soon in a position to purchase a house with a courtyard on the Zotenberg behind the fruit
market. He was highly regarded as a lute teacher and between 1536 and 1549 published eight books of
lute music. In judicial records of 1550 he was twice described as a lute maker. He and his wife had 13
children, which caused him such financial embarrassment that he was forced to appeal to the city
council for help and eventually to sell his house. His wife died in January 1556, and no doubt because
of his many small children he remarried on 4 May; he had four more children by his second marriage,
and his second wife died in August 1562.

Together with Hans Judenkünig and Hans Gerle, Hans Neusidler was one of the principal figures in the
early history of lute music in Germany. His lutebooks contain a rich and varied repertory, embracing
arrangements of German songs, chansons, Italian madrigals, motets, German and Italian dances and
free, improvisatory preludes. The pieces vary in difficulty, but apart from the two-part (tenor and bass)
arrangements for beginners, reduced from fuller vocal originals, three-part works (descant, tenor,
bass) are in the majority; four-part pieces appear only in the third of the 1544 books and in that of
1549. In the second 1536 book, explicitly intended for experienced players, the vocal originals are
transformed into instrumental works by means of virtuoso passage-work. Favourite pieces from the
earlier books reappear in later ones, usually with modifications.

The first 1536 book, intended for beginners, contains an important introduction on lute playing (Eng.
trans. in M. Southard and S. Cooper: ‘A Translation of Hans Newsider: Ein newgeordnet küenstlich
Lautenbuch … (1536)’, Journal of the Lute Society of America, xi, 1978, pp.5–25ff). Neusidler’s method,
designed for use without a teacher, was the first to give exercises marked with fingering for the left
hand, thus facilitating the playing of polyphonic music. The placing of one to four dots above each
letter of the tablature indicates the stopping finger; one dot indicates the forefinger, two dots the
middle finger, and so on. Neusidler also set great store by legato playing; he used a cross (+) beside a
letter to indicate a sustained note. He demanded that runs be struck by alternating thumb and first
finger, the latter being indicated by a dot, and he considered the correct use of this technique to be the
greatest art of lute playing. No particular directions are given for the playing of chords by the right
hand. The opening, fundamental pieces in the first 1536 book are marked ‘Kleines Fundament’ and
‘Grosses Fundament’. The ensuing two- and three-part pieces are supplied in part with fingering for

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the left hand, in part with fingering for the right hand. The last 30 pieces, which are the most heavily
ornamented, have no fingerings; nor do the contents of the second 1536 book. Neusidler did not
develop his method in his later books but reproduced it more or less complete.

Intabulations

Editions

Österreichische Lauten-Musik im 16. Jahrhundert, ed. A. Koczirz, DTÖ, xxxvii,


Jg.xviii/2 (1911/R) [K]

Das deutsche Gesellschaftslied in Österreich von 1480–1550, ed. L. Nowak and A.


Koczirz, DTÖ, lxxii, Jg.xxxvii/2 (1930/R) [N]

all for lute; all published in Nuremberg

Ein newgeordent künstlich Lautenbuch in zwen Theyl getheylt: der erst für die
anfahenden Schuler (1536¹²/R1974)

12 ed. O. Chilesotti, Lautenspieler des 16. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1891)

4 ed. in DTÖ, xxviii, Jg.xiv/1 (1907/R)

9 in K; 18 in N; 20 ed. H. Mönkemeyer, Die Tabulatur, i (Hofheim am Taunus, 1965)

Der ander Theil des Lautenbuchs: darin sind begriffen vil ausserlesner kunstreycher
Stuck von Fantaseyen, Preambeln, Psalmen, und Muteten … auff die Lauten
dargeben (1536¹³/R1976)

2 ed. in DTÖ, xxviii, Jg.xiv/1 (1907/R)

4 in K; 4 in N; 9 ed. H. Mönkemeyer, Die Tabulatur, ix (Hofheim am Taunus, 1966)

Ein newes Lautenbüchlein mit vil schonen Liedern (1540²³)

7 in K; 2 in N

Das erst Buch

ein newes Lautenbüchlein mit vil feiner lieblichen Liedern für die jungen Schuler
24
(1544 )

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1 in K; 2 in N

Das ander Buch

ein new künstlich Lautten Buch für die anfahenden Schuler (1544²³)

11 in K; 1 in N

Das dritt Buch

ein new kunstlich Lauten Buch darin vil trefflicher … Kunst Stück von Psalmen und
25
Muteten (1544 )

Das erst Buch

ein newes Lautenbüchlein mit vil feiner lieblichen Liedern, für die jungen Schuler
26
(1547 )

Das ander Buch

ein new künstlich Lauten Buch erst yetzo von newem gemacht für junge und alte
4
Schüler (1549 ¹)

(2) Melchior Neusidler

(b Nuremberg, 1531; d Augsburg, 1590). Intabulator, composer and lutenist, eldest son of (1) Hans
Neusidler (not his brother as Koczirz suggested). His date of birth and relationship to his father can be
deduced from his portrait at the age of 43 in his Teütsch Lautenbuch (1574; see illustration) and the
date of his father’s marriage (see above). In 1551 he applied to the German emperor for a ten-year
privilege for the printing of his works. He soon moved to Augsburg, acquired a citizen’s rights there
and on 31 December 1552 relinquished his Nuremberg citizenship. He was the leader of the so-called
‘stille musica’, a group of musicians hired to play on festive occasions in the houses of prominent
citizens; he also played with the civic musicians in public festivities. In October 1561 he visited
Nuremberg, and because of his father’s financial straits he undertook to bring up his three youngest

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brothers. In 1565 he went to Italy, published two lutebooks at Venice in 1566 and returned to Germany
in the same year. In 1574 he supervised the printing of his other lutebook at Strasbourg. He applied
unsuccessfully for a post at the Stuttgart court in 1576. On 23 December 1577 he sent Duke Wilhelm V
of Bavaria ‘some very good dances’. From September 1580 to May 1581 he was employed as a lutenist
by Archduke Ferdinand II at Innsbruck. He numbered among his patrons Octavian II Fugger (a
member of the leading Augsburg family), in whose house he often played in 1583 and from whom he
received alms when he was old and plagued with gout. Tomaso Garzoni mentioned him as a famous
lutenist in the 34th discourse of his Piazza universale (1587).

Melchior Neusidler: portrait from his ‘Teütsch Lautenbuch’ (Strasbourg: Jobin, 1574)

Melchior Neusidler’s two lutebooks of 1566, which are in Italian tablature, contain arrangements of
madrigals, motets, chansons and Italian dances, as well as some mostly imitative ricercares, called
fantasias by Phalèse in his French tablature versions (1571) and by Neusidler himself in his Teütsch
Lautenbuch (1574). The first book includes two dance suites, each consisting of a passamezzo, a
saltarello derived from it and then a ripresa. In the Teütsch Lautenbuch this repertory is augmented by
German songs and dances. In making his intabulations Neusidler kept wherever possible to the same
number of parts as in the vocal originals and enlivened them with diminutions. In a preface to the 1574

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book he described the customary six-course lute as inadequate, for ‘now that music has risen to such
heights of artistic beauty [one] cannot achieve the full range of pleasing harmonies or fingerings on
such a lute’. One could do so, he maintained, only on a seven-course instrument, and he thought it
more practical to tune the seventh course only a major 2nd – not a 4th – below the sixth course, which
was tuned Gg.

Intabulations
all for lute

Il primo libro intabolatura di liuto di … Neysidler … ove sono madrigali, canzon


29
francesi, pass’emezi, saltarelli & alcuni suoi ricercari (Venice, 1566 ; some repr.
16 25
1571 ; all transcr. in Ger. lute tablature by B. de Drusina, 1573 )

30
Il secondo libro intabolatura di liuto di … Neysidler (Venice, 1566 ; some repr.
16 25
1571 ; all transcr. in Ger. lute tablature, 1573 )

Teütsch Lautenbuch, darinnenn kunstliche Muteten, liebliche italianische,


frantzösische, teütsche Stuck (Strasbourg, 1574¹³)

1 ed. in DTÖ, lxxii, Jg.xxxvii/2 (1930/R), 1 in G. Adler, Handbuch der Musikgeschichte


(Berlin, rev. 2/1930/R1961)

Ricercare super Susanne un jour, fantasia super Anchor che col partire, 6 other
ricercares, 15 other fantasias, 10 Ger. sacred songs, 8 passamezzi, 7 galliards, 14
intabulations and dances, CH-Bu, D-DEl, DO, Mbs, W, PL-Kj

(3) Conrad Neusidler

(b Nuremberg, bap. Feb 13, 1541; d Augsburg, after 1603). Lutenist and composer, son of (1) Hans
Neusidler and younger brother of (2) Melchior Neusidler. In 1562 he moved to Augsburg and on 26
January 1564 renounced his Nuremberg citizenship. He still appeared in the Augsburg tax records in
1604. A subsequent report from the master builders to the city council mentioned that ‘the late’
Conrad Neusidler used to play his lute for weddings and similar festivities. His only extant music
consists of some German dances, two intradas and intabulations of 14 German sacred songs, all in the
D-
same lute manuscript (W Aug.fol.18.7 and 18.8), and two intabulations of motets by Lassus and
Johann Eckart (DO G.I.4). A manuscript appendix to the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek copy (now lost) of
25
Rudolf Wyssenbach’s Tabulaturbuch uff die Lutten (1550 ) contained lute versions of two dances, two
chorales and a chanson by him.

Bibliography
BrownI

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MGG1 (K. Dorfmüller)

E. Radecke: ‘Das deutsche weltliche Lied in der Lautenmusik des 16. Jahrhunderts’,VMw, 7 (1891), 285–336

O. Chilesotti: ‘Di Hans Newsidler e di un’antica intavolatura tedesca di liuto’, RMI, 1 (1894), 48–59

O. Körte: Laute und Lautenmusik bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1901/R)

A. Sandberger: Introduction to DTB, viii, Jg.v/1 (1904/R)

A. Koczirz: Introduction to DTÖ, xxxvii, Jg.xviii/2 (1911/R)

J. Dieckmann: Die in deutscher Lautentabulatur überlieferten Tänze des 16. Jahrhunderts (Kassel,
1931)

H.-P. Kosack: Geschichte der Laute und Lautenmusik in Preussen (Kassel, 1935)

W. Boetticher: Studien zur solistischen Lautenpraxis des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1943),
317–20, 328, 346, 351–420

A. Layer: ‘Melchior Neusiedler’, Lebensbilder aus dem bayerischen Schwaben, ed. G.F. von Pölnitz and
others, 5 (1956), 180

K. Dorfmüller: Studien zur Lautenmusik in der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts (Tutzing, 1967)

A.J. Ness: ‘A Letter from Melchior Newsidler’, Music and Context: Essays for John M. Ward, ed. A.D.
Shapiro (Cambridge, MA, 1985), 352–69

H. Minamino: Sixteenth-Century Lute Treatises with Emphasis on Process and Techniques of


Intabulation (diss., U. of Chicago, 1988)

C. Meyer: Sources manuscrites en tablature: luth et théorbe, catalogue descriptif, 1–2 (Baden-
Baden, 1991)

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