Isaac, Heinrich

Isaac, Heinrich (hīn`rĭkh ē`zäk), c.1450–1517, Flemish composer. Isaac, a prolific and versatile composer, traveled widely in Europe, serving at the courts of Lorenzo de' Medici and Emperor Maximilian I. Among his best-known works is the collection of 99 four-part settings of the proper chants of the mass known as Choralis Constantinus, a monumental collection of Gregorian liturgical music. He also wrote many motets, masses, hymns, and secular songs.

Bibliography

See A. Einstein, The Italian Madrigal (3 vol., 1949, repr. 1971).

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Isaac, Heinrich

(born c. 1450, Brabant—died 1517, Florence) Flemish composer. He spent much of his career in Italy, especially Florence, but was known as a leading representative of the Netherlandish style. As court composer to Emperor Maximilian I (from 1497), he was allowed to travel. He had many students, including Ludwig Senfl, and his historical importance in Germany is as the main disseminator of the progressive Northern style there. The beauty and quality of his works, which include over 100 masses, dozens of motets, and secular songs, have led some to regard him as second only to Josquin des Prez among his contemporaries.