A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Glareanus, Henricus

GLAREANUS, Henricus, so called because he was born, 1488, in the Canton of Glarus, his real name being Loris or, Latinised, Loritus; a celebrated teacher of music. He is said to have been a shepherd-boy in his youth; but he studied music under Cochläus at Cologne, where he was crowned poet-laureate in 1512 for a poem in honour of the Emperor, which he composed and sang to his own accompaniment. In 1515 he was teaching mathematics at Basle, and in 1517 was appointed, at the recommendation of Erasmus, professor of philosophy and 'artes liberates' in Paris. He soon however returned to Basle, where he is said to have set up a school, and from whence he removed to Freiburg im Breisgau. Heinrich Schreiber, in an excellent monograph on Glareanus (Freiburg 1857), proves that it was not at the University of either Paris, Basle, or Freiburg, that he was professor. He died May 28, 1563, at Freiburg. His friends, Erasmus, Justus Lipsius, and Vossius, wrote panegyrics on him. His principal works on the theory of music are 'Isagoge in musicen Henrici Glareani,' etc. (the dedication 'ad Falconem Consulem urbis Aventinensis,' Avignon, is headed Basileae, anno Christi 1516, 4to. ad idus Martias'), now extremely scarce, containing chapters on solmisation, the intervals, modes, tones, and their treatment; and Δωδεκαχορδον (1547, fol.), a still more important work, the aim of which is to prove that there are 12 church modes, corresponding to the ancient Greek modes, and not 8, as many writers have maintained. The third part contains numerous examples from the works of Ockenheim, Obrecht, Josquin de Près, and other musicians of the 15th and 16th centuries, valuable also as specimens of early music-printing. Woneggar of Lithuania published an abstract of the 'Dodecachordon' (Freiburg 1557), the second edition of which (59) contains a poem by Glareanus in praise of the 13 Federal cities of Switzerland, set to music by Manfred Barbarin. The catalogue of Draudius mentions a third treatise, 'De musices divisione ac definitione' (Basle 1549); but as the headings of the chapters are identical with those in the 'Dodecachordon,' it can scarcely be a separate work. His theory of the 12 church modes, as parallel to the ancient Greek modes, will assure for Glareanus a lasting place among writers on the science of music.

[ F. G. ]