Sebald Heyden

Sebald Heyden (8 December 1499 – 9 July 1561) was a German musicologist, cantor, theologian, hymn-writer and religious poet. A member of the Haiden family of Nuremberg, he is perhaps best known for his De arte canendi ("On the Art of Singing", third installment published 1540) which is considered to have had a major impact on scholarship and the teaching of singing to young boys. He wrote hymns such as "O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß". It has been speculated that Heyden was the world's first true musicologist. He entered the University of Ingolstadt in 1513, graduating with a master's degree in 1519. Among his pupils was Nicholas Selnecker. He was in regular contact with Hans Sachs and Albrecht Dürer. Over the decades, Heyden developed a great reputation as a scholar, devoted to studies and writing on education, theology, and music. In 1527 he began publishing textbooks such as Formulae puerilium colloquiorum (Nomenclatura). A collection of secular songs, it has been described as a "treatise on singing technique aimed at the growing number of amateur musicians who wished to improve their skills." The first installment was produced in 1532 in 26 pages, the second in 1537 grew to 115 pages and the third in 1540 to 163 pages. In the third installment, Heyden confessed to being an admirer of Josquin des Prez and his contemporaries, transcribing Josquin's Missa L'homme armé sexti toni (Benedictus), amongst others. Notably, Heyden is said to have "adopted a horror fusae position at a time when Italian musicians were writing pieces a note nere under the signature of C." In 1546 he published Paedonomia scholastica pietatis, studii literarij ac morum.

Heyden died in Nuremberg.