Gallus, Jacobus

(Real name Jacob Handl)

About 1550-1591

His real name was Jacob Handl, also written Handl and llahncl. Was a German composer of sacred music, born at Carniola, the name Callus being a Latinized form, as was customary at that time. He was chapelmaster to Stanislaus Pawlowski, Bishop of Olmutz, about 1579, and later to the Emperor at Prague. He was a distinguished contemporary of Palestrini and Orlando Lasso, and composed before the modern scales of major and minor had been formulated. His compositions include detached pieces contained in Proske's Musica divina, and other collections of Bodenschatz, Zahn, Becker, Rochlitz, Schoberlein, etc. In 1580 he published Missse selectiones, a series of sixteen masses in four books; in 1586, 1587, 1590, Musici operis harmoniarium, in four volumes; in 1589, Epicedon Harmonicum, and others. His motet, Ecce quomodo moritur Justus, was borrowed by Handel for his funeral anthem.

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