Jacobus Gallus

It’s quite remarkable that so much of the life of a composer with the stature of Jacobus Gallus should be shrouded in uncertainty. The year and place of his birth seem to be affirmed . . . 1550, Ribnica, Slovenia; but most of his short life is unaccounted for. His death in Prague in 1591 would give him a mere 25 years to compose 445 motets, 20 settings of the Ordinary and several books of Latin songs from Classical sources that he called ‘Moralia’.
It is said that Gallus was a Cistercian monk, although the woodcut accompanying his magnum opus, ‘Opus musicum’(1591) portrays him with a ruff collar, embroidered tunic and plenty of hair . . . not typical monastic wear. He did, however, spend plenty of time in monasteries traveling in Austria, Moravia, Bohemia and Silesia, as he wrote “to understand the muse, and meditate on the shepherd’s pipe”.
His position as chapelmaster to the Bishop of Olomouc, Stanislaus Pavlovsky in 1579 is well affirmed and for whom Gallus wrote the motet and mass, “Undique flammatis Olomucum”. In 1585 he returned to Prague for a similar position at the church of St. Jan na Brzehu, which he held until his untimely death.