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LOOKING FOR PARTNERS: GABRIEL PLAUTZIUS
(A) GABRIEL PLAUTZIUS AND HIS GENEALOGICAL (SLOVENIA)
This assignment is 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 Ljubljana on 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 Mainz archives 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 assignment is to present the seek for and tying up all the important data and
development of 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 assignment is to be The Institute for Music information
Sciences of CIMRS at University of Maribor.
Address: IGIZ CIMRS UM/Slovenija, Krekova ul. 2, SI-2000 Maribor
Contact person: Mr. Franc Kriznar ([email protected])
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