HEINRICH FINCK  

The German composer Heinrich Finck, probably born in Bamberg, was intermittently in the service of three Kings of Poland, finally, in 1510, securing a position as Kapellmeister to Duke Ulrich of Stuttgart. There followed a period at the court of the Emperor Maximilian I. In 1520 he was appointed composer to the Salzburg Cathedral chapter, and finally he made his home in Vienna, organizing a choral establishment at the Schottenkloster. In 1527 he became, for a short time, Court Kapellmeister to Ferdinand I. In the course of a long and varied life Finck wrote a great deal of music, of which four Mass settings, motets, hymns, and secular songs survive. In these last, in the form of tenor songs, he shows his preference for folk-song texts.