Cyriacus Spangenberg and the main points of his chronicle of music

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the analysis of Cyriacus Spangenberg’s treatise «Von der edlen und den hochberühmten Kunst der Musica... auch wie die Meistersenger aüffkhommenn vollkhommener Bericht» (1598) — one of the first significant works on the history of music in the German language. It examines the features of the structure and content of the work, in which Spangenberg, following traditional musical topoi, made the first attempt at a systematic chronological presentation of the history of music from antiquity to modernity. The historian pays special attention to German musical culture and the formation of the professional community of Meistersingers. Spangenberg’s innovative approach, elaborated in his treatise, allows us to describe him as one of the first scholars who laid the foundations of musical historiography.