Emmanuel Adriaenssen

Emmanuel Adriaenssen (also Adriaensen, Adriansen, Hadrianus, Hadrianius; c. 1554 in Antwerp – buried 27 February 1604 in Antwerp) was a Flemish lutenist, composer and master of music. He authored the influential Pratum Musicum, which contains scores for lute solos, and more importantly settings of madrigals for multiple lutes and different ensembles involving lutes and voices. He also had an important influence on the next generation of lutenists through his activity as a teacher of music in his own music school.

Life Emmanuel Adriaenssen was born in Antwerp between 1540 and 1555. The brothers had in 1587 a conflict with the musicians' guild of Antwerp because they practised as musicians without becoming members of the guild. Emanuel later became a master of the guild.

He married Sybilla Crelin in 1584 with whom he had six sons and one daughter. Their sons Alexander (1587–1661), Vincent (1595–1675) and Niclaes (1598–1658) became respectively a still life painter, a battle painter and a portrait painter. Prior to the Fall of Antwerp, Emmanuel was likely a Calvinist as he only had his first son baptised in a Catholic after the Fall of Antwerp. He was registered as a Catholic in the purge records of the Antwerp civic guard after the Fall of Antwerp. His wealth and good connections with the higher circles of Antwerp society may have protected him.

Emmanuel Adriaenssen died in Antwerp between 2 February 1604, the date on which he made his last will, and 27 February 1604, the date of is funeral and burial in the St. James' Church, Antwerp. His wife remarried and emigrated later to Leiden in the Dutch Republic taking her youngest son Niclaes with her.

Works

The Pratum Musicum was first published in Antwerp in 1584 and was reprinted with alterations several times until 1600. They constitute 3 editions:

Pratum musicum longe amoenissimum, cuius ... ambitu comprehenduntur ... omnia ad testudinis tabulaturam fideliter redacta... opus novum (Antwerp, Petrus Phalesius the Younger 1584), reprinted in 1600; and Novum pratum musicum... selectissimi diversorum autorum et idiomatum madrigales, cantiones, et moduli... opus plane novum, nec hactenus editum (Antwerp, Petrus Phalesius the Younger and Johannes Bellerus, 1592).

The Pratum Musicum contains lute solos, and more importantly settings of madrigals for multiple lutes and different ensembles involving lutes and voices giving much study material for the researcher into renaissance performance practice. The book contains around 85 tablatures for fantasias, songs and dances. Most of the vocal pieces are in Italian. The Neapolitan songs, with their parallel fifths (which not required in Italian text, so it is a question here of a style marker) have a more rustic character. One of them, Del crud’amor, has an almost Oriental character. Various dances for solo lute also tend toward the rustic.

The ensemble pieces have been recorded by the Dowland Consort of Lutes and by the Liuto Concertato.