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Paul Hofhaimer

Klaus Aringer

Paul Hofhaimer came from a family of organists in Radstadt and was trained into a thoroughly accomplished organ expert at the court of Frederick III. Active at the Innsbruck court from about 1487, he was engaged in 1490 by Maximilian I as “chief organist” (obrigster Organist). In this capacity Hofhaimer had to accompany the emperor on all his important journeys, which quickly spread his fame internationally. As a soloist endowed with privileges, he formed part of Maximilian’s self-fashioning as a ruler. Depictions of him on a chariot in the Triumphal Procession and on a woodcut by Hans Weiditz attest to this (Fig. Emperor Maximilian’s Chapel; Fig. Triumphal Procession, Regal).[32] Emperor Maximilian also tried his own hand at playing the organ, thereby joining a long line of Habsburg rulers at the keyboard.[33]

In 1515 Hofhaimer was knighted. After Maximilian’s death he moved to Salzburg as cathedral organist. There, too, he served primarily as chamber organist to his sovereign, Cardinal Matthäus Lang. His colleagues Nicolaus Lescalier and, from 1527, the Bohemian-born Gregor Peschin had to take on the ordinary services in the cathedral. Hofhaimer himself could be admired at the cathedral organ only in the cardinal’s presence and on the highest feast days.[34]

[32] Moser 1929, 26 f.; Dammann 1974, 252, 259, 274 ff.; Michel/Sternath 2012, 247 f.

[33] Biba 1999, 225 f.

[34] Stenzl/Hintermaier/Walterskirchen 2005, 91, 94.