Gabriel Plautz - Court Chapelmaster in Mainz

Abstract

In the article the author contributes some data to help elucidate some details in the life and the work of the composer, Gabriel Plautz, the chapelmaster at the court of the Electoral Prince in Mainz. In this connection it is of special interest that his music is mentioned both in the diary of the Imperial Coronation by F. Mantenesius and in the parish death records as being »exquisit«. The novelty he introduced in Mainz consisted probably in his cori-spezzati technique, his employment of polyphony simultaneously with the parlando, and his inclusion of instruments in vocal compositions. Finally the author mentions the discovery of an autograph letter which Plautz wrote to the abbot of the Benedictine monastery in Münster Schwarzach when he sent him his collection of compositions, »Flosculus Vernalis«.