Editing Jacobus Gallus

{{Short description|Slovene Renaissance composer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
[[Image:Jakob Petelin Gallus 1590.jpg|thumb|250px|Jacobus Gallus, a woodcut portrait from 1590]]
'''Jacobus Gallus''' (a.k.a. '''Jacob(us) Handl''', '''Jacob(us) Händl'''; between 15 April and 31 July 1550{{spnd}}18 July 1591) was a late-[[Renaissance music|Renaissance]] composer of presumed [[Slovenes|Slovene]] ethnicity.<ref name="Skei/Pokorn, Grove online">Skei/Pokorn, Grove online</ref>  Born in [[Carniola]], which at the time was one of the [[Habsburg]] lands in the [[Holy Roman Empire]], he lived and worked in [[Moravia]] and [[Bohemia]] during the last decade of his life.

== Life ==
Gallus's name has been Slovenianized as ''Jakob Petelin''<ref>Reese, p. 736</ref> (''petelin'' means 'rooster'; ''Handl'' and ''gallus'' mean the same in German and Latin, respectively).<ref>Skei/Pokorn:  Grove online</ref> However, Gallus never used the name ''Petelin''.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Jacobus Gallus |encyclopedia=Enciklopedija Slovenije |date=1989 |last=Cvetko |first=Dragotin |publisher=Mladinska knjiga |volume=3 |location=Ljubljana |page=177  |quote=Slov. različice ''Petelin'' ni G. nikoli uporabil.}}</ref> He was probably born in Reifnitz (now [[Ribnica, Ribnica|Ribnica]], southern [[Slovenia]]), although Slovene folk tradition also claims his birthplace to be at [[Šentviška Gora]] in the [[Slovenian Littoral]].<ref>Savnik, Roman, ed. 1968. ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'', vol. 1. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije. p. 424.</ref> He used the [[Latin]] form of his name, to which he often added the adjective ''Carniolus'', thus giving credit to his homeland [[Carniola]].
[[File:HARMONIARVM MORALIUM.gif|thumb|250px|''Harmoniae morales'' from printer [[Jiří Nigrin]], 1589]]
Gallus most likely was educated at the Cistercian [[Stična Abbey]] in Carniola. He left Carniola sometime between 1564 and 1566, traveling first to Austria, and later to [[Bohemia]], [[Moravia]] and [[Silesia]]. For some time he lived at the [[Benedictine]] [[Melk Abbey]] in Lower Austria. He was a member of the [[Vienna|Viennese]] court chapel in 1574, and was choirmaster (''Kapellmeister'') to the [[bishop of Olomouc]] between 1579 (or 1580) and 1585. From 1585 to his death he worked in [[Prague]] as [[organist]] to the [[Church of St. John on the Balustrade]] ({{langx|cs|Sv. Jan na Zábradlí}}). Gallus died on 18 July 1591 in Prague.<ref name="Skei/Pokorn, Grove online"/>

== Work ==
Gallus represented the [[Counter-Reformation]] in Bohemia, mixing the polyphonic style of the High Renaissance [[Franco-Flemish School]] with the style of the [[Venetian School (music)|Venetian School]].  His output was both sacred and secular, and hugely prolific:  over 500 works have been attributed to him.  Some are for large forces, with multiple choirs of up to 24 independent parts.<ref name="Skei/Pokorn, Grove online"/><ref>Reese, pp. 736–738</ref>
[[File:Ecce quomodo Gallus tenor voice.jpg|thumb|250px|Tenor voice part of Gallus' ''[[Ecce quomodo moritur iustus]]'', published in his Opus Musicum II (1587).<ref>Jacobus Gallus. [http://www.fischer-download.de/Search.aspx?ISBNID=be05399c-12e1-4ecc-8373-5bb170e4ca01&Aufruf=UeberUrl&SucheTyp=Katalog#Ergebnisse Opus Musicum II] (Secvndvs Tomvs. Mvsici Operis, Harmoniarvm Qvatvor, Qvinqve, Sex, Octo Et Plvrivm Vocvm : Qvae Ex Sancto Catholicae Ecclesiae Vsv Ita Svnt Dispositae, vt omni tempore inseruire queant. Ad Dei Opt: Max: laudem, et Ecclesiae sanctae decus / Avthore Iacobo Hándl / Pragae, Typis Nigrinianis. Anno M.D.LXXXVII). Prague : Nigrinianis, 1587.</ref>]]
His most notable work is the four-part ''Opus musicum'' (1586–1590), a collection of 374 [[motet]]s that cover the liturgical needs of the entire ecclesiastical year. The motets were printed in the Prague printing house of [[Georgius Nigrinus]], which also published 16 of his 20 extant [[mass (liturgy)|mass]]es. The motet ''O magnum mysterium'' comes from the first volume (printed in 1586), which covers the period from the first Sunday of [[Advent]] to the [[Septuagesima]]. His motets show evidence of influence by the [[Venetian polychoral style]], with their use of the ''[[coro spezzato]]'' technique.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cvetko |first1=Dragotin |title=Jacobus Gallus Carniolus and His Music |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |date=1953 |volume=31 |issue=77 |page=499 |jstor=4204465 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4204465 |access-date=27 April 2022}}</ref>

His wide-ranging, eclectic style blended archaism and modernity. He rarely used the ''[[cantus firmus]]'' technique, preferring the then-new Venetian polychoral manner, yet he was equally conversant with earlier imitative techniques. Some of his [[chromaticism|chromatic]] transitions foreshadowed the breakup of [[musical mode|modality]]; his five-voice motet ''Mirabile mysterium'' contains chromaticism worthy of [[Carlo Gesualdo]]. He enjoyed [[word painting]] in the style of the [[madrigal (music)|madrigal]], yet he could write the simple ''[[Ecce quomodo moritur justus (Gallus)|Ecce quomodo moritur justus]]''<ref>Jeż 2007, p. 40</ref> later used by [[George Frideric Handel]] in his funeral anthem ''[[The ways of Zion do mourn / Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline|The Ways of Zion Do Mourn]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burrows |first=Donald |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/65287478 |title=Handel and the English Chapel Royal |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=1-4237-6532-X |location=Oxford |pages=372 |oclc=65287478}}</ref>

His secular output, about 100 short pieces, was published in the collections ''Harmoniae morales'' (Prague 1589 and 1590) and ''Moralia'' ([[Nuremberg]] 1596).  Some of these works were madrigals in Latin, an unusual language for the form (most madrigals were in Italian); others were songs in German, and others were compositions in Latin.<ref name="Skei/Pokorn, Grove online"/>

Critical editions of Gallus works have been prepared by [[Edo Škulj]] and published by the [[Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts|Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRCSAZU)]].

==Commemoration==
[[File:Ljubljana - Gallusovo nabrežje in Ljubljanica - 2011-02-02.jpg|thumb|250px|Gallus Embankment in [[Ljubljana]]]]
Gallus has been commemorated with the naming of the central hall in the [[Cankar Centre]] ''Gallus Hall'' ({{lang|sl|Gallusova dvorana}}). Part of the right embankment of the river [[Ljubljanica]] in [[Ljubljana]], stretching from [[St. James's Bridge]] to the [[Cobbler's Bridge]], has the name ''[[Gallus Embankment]]'' ({{lang|sl|Gallusovo nabrežje}}). This is also the name of the left embankment of the river [[Bistrica (Ribnica)|Bistrica]] in the town of Ribnica, his birthplace.<ref name=Ribnica24>{{cite web |url=http://www.ribnica24.eu/utrip-casa/jakob-petelin-gallus-carniolus-25-7-1550-18-7-1591/ |title=Jakob Petelin Gallus Carniolus (25.7.1550 – 18.7.1591) |website=Ribnica 24 |language=sl}}{{unreliable source|date=June 2019}}</ref> A monument with a [[bronze]] head of the composer, work by the architect [[Jože Plečnik]] and the sculptor [[Lojze Dolinar]] from 1932, as well as a stone plaque from 1973 also commemorate him there. The plaque was originally installed already in 1933 but destroyed during World War II.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://giskd2s.situla.org/rkd/Opis.asp?Esd=9636 |title=Ljubljana – Spomenik Jakobu Petelinu Gallusu |publisher=Republic of Slovenia Ministry of Culture |language=sl}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://giskd2s.situla.org/rkd/Opis.asp?Esd=22493 |title=Ribnica – Spominska plošča Jakobu Petelinu Gallusu|publisher=Republic of Slovenia Ministry of Culture |language=sl}}</ref> The Slovenian [[Public Fund of Cultural Activities]] annually awards the deserving musicians the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Gallus Badges ({{lang|sl|Gallusova značka}}) and the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Gallus Citations ({{lang|sl|Gallusova plaketa}}).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jskd.si/priznanja-in-nagrade/gallusova_plaketa_seznam.htm |title=GALLUSOVA PLAKETA |publisher=Javni Sklad Republike Slovenije |language=sl}}</ref> Gallus was depicted on the front side of the now-obsolete 200-[[Slovenian tolar|tolar]] banknote of the Republic of Slovenia.<ref name=Ribnica24 />

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Tomasz Jeż. [https://www.academia.edu/1439975/The_Motets_of_Jacob_Handl_in_Inter-confessional_Silesian_Liturgical_Practice "The Motets of Jacob Handl in Inter-confessional Silesian Liturgical Practice"] in ''De musica disserenda'' III/2, 2007, pp.&nbsp;37–48.
* [[Gustave Reese]], ''Music in the Renaissance''.  New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954.  {{ISBN|0-393-09530-4}}
* Allen B. Skei/Danilo Pokorn:  "Jacobus Handl", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 23 March 2008), [http://www.grovemusic.com (subscription access)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516041031/http://www.grovemusic.com/ |date=16 May 2008 }}
* Edo Škulj, ''Clare vir – Ob 450-letnici rojstva Iacobusa Gallusa'', Ljubljana (Družina) 2000, {{ISBN|961-6358-02-2}},
* Edo Škulj (ed.),  ''Gallusovi predgovori in drugi dokumenti,'' Ljubljana (Družina-Cerkveni glasbenik) 1991

==External links==
{{commons category|Jacobus Gallus}}
* [http://www2.arnes.si/finearts/gallus/gallus.html Fine Arts: '' Jacobus Gallus''. Arnes.si]
*{{ChoralWiki|Jacob Handl}}
*{{IMSLP|id=Handl, Jacob}}

{{Ribnica |state=collapsed}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallus, Jacobus}}
[[Category:1550 births]]
[[Category:1591 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Ribnica, Ribnica]]
[[Category:Renaissance composers]]
[[Category:Composers from the Holy Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Classical composers]]
[[Category:Male classical composers]]