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Artist
Matthaeus Le Maistre
2+ albums
16th centuryfranco-flemish
about
Matthaeus Le Maistre (c.1505/1510 – 1577) was a Franco-Flemish composer who became one of the leading figures in the early Lutheran musical establishment of Saxony. Born in the Low Countries, trained in the Franco-Flemish polyphonic tradition. Worked in Munich in the 1530s–40s, likely connected with the Bavarian court chapel. In 1554/55 he succeeded Johann Walter as Kapellmeister of the Dresden Hofkapelle, becoming only the second head of the newly reorganised Lutheran court chapel. Under Elector August of Saxony he professionalised the chapel, trained singers, and produced a steady output of sacred music shaped for Lutheran needs (German-texted motets, responsories, chorale-based works), while still drawing on the Franco-Flemish idiom. In 1568 he resigned for health reasons, though he kept an honorary pension and stayed in Dresden until his death in 1577. His surviving output includes motets, Magnificats, psalm settings, masses, and chorale works; it sits stylistically between Walter’s simpler homophony and the more elaborate polyphony of Scandello and later Schütz. Le Maistre is a bridge figure: He brings Franco-Flemish sophistication into the young Lutheran chapel. He defines the post-Walter Dresden sound just before the major expansion under Antonio Scandello and then Rogier Michael. His motets were widely copied and circulated in central Germany. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.