LOOKING FOR PARTNERS: GABRIEL PLAUTZIUS
(A) GABRIEL PLAUTZIUS AND HIS GENEALOGICAL (SLOVENIA)
This assignmentis expected to state Plautzius's origin: place and time of his birth, based on rarity stated data (biographical and bibliographical facts). In Germany, Slovenia, Bohemia…?
PLAUTZIUS [Plautius, Plautz, Plavec] GABRIEL (born in Carniola; death in Mainz/Germany, 11 January 1641) is Slovenian composer and instrumentalist resident in Germany. He came from Ljubljanaon 10 April 1612 to be Kapellmeister at the electoral court at Mainz or Archbishop Johann Schweikard von Kronberg; he added the word 'Carniolus' to his name (which was original Plavec) to indicate that he was born in Carniola, a part of Slovenia. Documents in the Mainzarchives state that the performers whom he directed, 15 in number, provided 'exquista musica sacra'. During a period of several years' illness before his death his duties were carried out by Daniel Bollius. He enjoyed considerable fame and was not only an excellent Kapellmeister but also played many instruments well. He introduced the concertato style to the Mainz court. His most important surviving music is contained in his Flosculus vernalis sacras, missas, aliasque laudes B. Mariae continens for from three to six and eight voices and continuo (Aschaffenburg, 1622; three pieces also in RISM 1627). This shows that he was a very competent composer capable of writing highly expressive music with effective contrasts of themes and textures.He was well versed in contemporary techniques and successfully adopted procedures typical of both Renaissance and early Baroque music, i.e. imitative writing (e.g. in Ave maris stella) and cori spezzati, as well as parlando and monodic writing after the manner of Viadana (e.g. in Dic Maria quid vidisti). He also published anonymously Himmlische Harmoney: ein new Mayntzisch Gesangbuch (Mainz, 1628, 2/1631). An obituary of him referred to his 'unrivalled' skill in composing music for ten and twelve voices, but none of it survives.
(Selected) bibliography
- Adam Gottron, Gabriel Plautz, 1612–1641 Kappellmeister des Mainzer Erzbischofs Schweikard von Kronberg , KJb, XXXI-XXXIII (1936–8), 58
- Adam Gottron, Mainzer Musikgeschichte von 1500 bis 1800 (Mainz, 1959), 43ff, 55f
- Dragotin Cvetko, Les compositeurs Gallus-Plautzius-Dolar et leur oeuvre (Ljubljana, 1963)
- Gabrijel Plavec,Flosculus vernalis (1621), edited by Ivan Klemenčič; transkription and revision by Tomaž Faganel, (Ljubljana, 1997)
(B) The assignmentis to present the seek for and tying up all the important data and developmentof genealogical tree in the co-operate with the Slovenian genealogical Society (Mr. Peter Hawlina).
(C) International workshops for the promotion of the countries, cities and places, wherever G. Plautzius lived and worked: Železniki and Ljubljana (Slovenia), Mainz and Aschaffenburg (Germany) and so on.
(D) Promotion.
CONTACTS:The core partner of this assignmentis to be The Institute for Musicinformation Sciences of CIMRS at University of Maribor.
Address: IGIZ CIMRS UM/Slovenija, Krekova ul. 2, SI-2000 Maribor
Contact person: Mr. Franc Kriznar ()
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