Martin Agricola
See Agricola for several other people of the same name.Martin Agricola (
January 6,
1486 –
June 10,
1556) was a
German composer of
Renaissance music and a music theorist.
He was born in
Schwiebus in
Lower Silesia. His German name was
Sohr or
Sore.
From
1524 till his death he lived at
Magdeburg, where he occupied the post of teacher or cantor in the
Protestant school. The senator and music-printer Rhau, of
Wittenberg, was a close friend of Agricola, whose theoretical works, providing valuable material concerning the change from the old to the new system of notation, he published.
Among Agricola's other theoretical works is
Musica instrumentalis deudsch (1529), a study of
musical instruments, and one of the most important works in early
organology.
Agricola was also the first to harmonize in four parts
Martin Luther's
chorale,
Ein' feste Burg .
