GLAREAN, Heinrich

(1488-1563)

Heinrich Glarean, known also as Glareanus, was a Swiss humanist, music theorist, poet, philosopher, and theologian. A friend of Desiderius Erasmus* of Rotterdam, Glarean argued against the ideas of the Reformation.

Born in the canton of Glarus, Glarean attended the University of Cologne, where he studied philosophy, theology, music, and mathematics. In 1510 Gla-rean received his license to teach and in 1512 was crowned poet laureate by Emperor Maximilian I. In 1514 he moved to Basel, where he directed a boarding school and later lectured at the university. It was in Basel that he first met Erasmus. It was also here that he formed his opposition to the Reformation, despite his admiration for Martin Luther* and Huldrych Zwingli.* In 1529 he took a post at the university at Freiburg im Breisgau, where he served as pro­fessor of poetry and of theology. He helped organize a Swiss Catholic Hochs­chule in 1558 and served as an advisor for the revision of school curricula at Freiburg, Lucerne, and Solothurn. He remained in Freiburg, bothered by blind­ness late in life, until his death.

Like his friend Erasmus, Glarean sought to use the Christian faith to illumi­nate the ideas and wisdom of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and he eagerly studied the literature of antiquity. Inspired by Boethius's great work De musica, Glarean developed his own comprehensive theory of music. He published his ideas in the Dodecachordon of 1547, a three-volume set that was to become his best-known musical work. In this work he elaborates a theory of twelve modes, an expansion of the old medieval theory of eight modes. Perhaps his most important contribution was the recognition of the Ionian and Aeolian modes, those that correspond to our major and natural minor scales, as important for the music of his day. The ideas developed by Glarean greatly influenced later music theorists, such as Gioseffe Zarlino, and had a profound impact upon Renaissance composers. Several composers, including Claudio Merulo and Gio­vanni Gabrieli,* wrote instrumental pieces (toccatas or ricercares) that demon­strated the twelve different modes. Glarean's musical works are of value not only because of his original theoretical ideas but also because of the wealth of biographical information he provides, the numerous musical scores that he in­cludes as examples, and his clear description of contemporary polyphonic method as used by the great Franco-Flemish composers.

Bibliography

C. Miller, "Heinrich Glarean," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie, vol. 7, 1980: 422-24.

Tucker Robison