When Max was Emperor: Musical Splendor for the Holy Roman Court

Our first full concert of the 2022-2023 season explores early Renaissance music from the courts of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor from 1508-1519. Though he was known as “the last knight,” he was also an ardent supporter of the arts and sciences, and his royal court reflected his interests, whether with music, visual arts, philosophy, cartography, literary arts, and more.
In the same ways that Albrecht Dürer represented the visual arts in the royal court, there were two musicians who epitomize the musical life of Maximilian’s empire. The Flemish master Heinrich Isaac and his student, the Swiss-born Ludwig Senfl, were both active as court chapel masters to Emperor Maximilian’s Hofkapelle, whether in Innsbruck, Augsburg, or other places that the Emperor and his court traveled for numerous imperial congresses or for seasonal changes.
Maximilian’s royal children, Margaret and Philip, inherited his passion for music. Both supported excellent chapels in Brussels and Mechelen, with musical masters such as Antoine Brumel, Pierre de la Rue, Jacob Obrecht, and others. We will sample a few strikingly intense pieces from these satellite courts as well as many pieces from Maximilian’s own imperial chapel. One of the striking and virtuosic works in the program will be Iaaac’s six-voice motet Virgo prudentissima. Composed by Isaac in 1507 while he was in Constance for the imperial Reichstag of that year (which was organized to prepare for the coronation of Maximilian I as Holy Roman Emperor), this amazing motet has grandeur, polyphonic complexity, and textural diversity, but never loses its forward motion or becomes static.
The music splendor of Maximilian’s Holy Roman Court will be interpreted by eighteen singers, a consort of viols, two lutenists, and three sackbut (early trombone) players. As a special treat, we will have a pre-concert lecture by Sara Schneider, host of KMFA’s “Early Music Now”, TEMP Board member, and author of the historical novel The Eagle and the Songbird, which is about the Emperor and members of his retinue, both historical and fictional.