HEINRICUS ISAAC  

The Franco-Flemish composer Heinrich Isaac was particularly active in Italy and in Austria, where between 1497 and 1514 he held the position of court composer to Maximilian I. Earlier, from 1480 to 149,2 he had served Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, where he was cathedral organist, thereafter moving to Innsbruck and then to Vienna in the imperial service. He spent the last three years of his life in Florence, where he died in 1517. One of the most skilled and prolific composers of his time, and regarded as one of the most significant contemporaries of Josquin Desprez, he composed, in addition to large scale Masses and motets, songs and instrumental music.