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Johannes Eccard Life

German compose: after serving the banker Jacob Fugger in Augsburg (1577-78), Eccard joined the chapel of Prince Georg Friedrich of Preussen-Ansbach in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) in 1579, becoming kapellmeister in 1604.

From 1608 until his death in 1611, he was kapellmeister to the electors of Brandenburg.

Eccard wrote in a narrow range of forms, his songs and early Masses recalling Orlando di Lasso.

He favoured short sacred pieces, vocal and instrumental, and these works of his culminated in a cycle of chorale settings, Geistliche Lieder auf den Choral, for five voices (1597).

MIDI FILE - Uebers Gebirg Maria geht (2'50'')

These represent a fusion of choral song and polyphonic motet and avoid the stark economy advocated by some Lutheran extremists.