Born: c1500 - ?Prague
Died: After 1547 - ?Heidelberg, Germany

Gregor Peschin [Pechin, Pečin, Pesch, Pesthin, Pitschner, Posthinus] was a Bohemian composer. He received his musical training in the court chapel of Lajos II in Budapest, serving there until 1526. From 1527 to 1539 he was a member of the court chapel of Matthäus Lang, Prince-Bishop of Salzburg, where he and Paul Hofhaimer were colleagues as organists. His skill in playing the organ won him the high opinion of his musical patron. In 1539 he went to Neuburg an der Donau in the service of Count Palatine Ottheinrich, subsequently Elector of Heidelberg (1556-1559); this move was probably connected with the building of a large organ for the castle in Neuburg by Hans Schachinger of Munich (the work was commissioned on June 26, 1537). When Count Palatine Ottheinrich had to leave the duchy of Pfalz-Neuburg in 1544 after his bankruptcy, Peschin followed him and his retinue into exile, going first to Heidelberg. He is mentioned, along with the lutenist Sebastian Ochsenkun, in Elector Friedrich II's accounts books for 1546. The last extant document concerning Peschin is a letter he wrote to his friend, the composer and printer Hans Kilian of Neuburg, on November 18, 1547, attached to the so-called ‘Heidelberg chapel inventory’ of 1544 (D-HEu Cod.Pal.Germ.318). Peschin probably wrote part of the inventory as well.

Drawn up before Ottheinrich went into exile, it lists 105 compositions by Peschin (including five masses, four epitaphs on members of the ducal family, about 30 motets and over 50 German songs), mentioning some of them several times. 12 of his song settings are included in Sebastian Ochsenkun's lute tablature, compiled in 1558 at the request of the elector of the time, Ottheinrich of the Palatinate (RISM 1558²⁰). Those few of Peschin's songs that survive owe much to the compositional tradition of Hofhaimer, and the classical perfection to which Hofhaimer brought the Tenorlied is continued in his work.

Works

Edition:
Das Deutsche Gesellschaftslied in Österreich von 1480–1550, ed. L. Nowak, DTÖ, lxxii, Jg.xxxvii/2 (1930/R) [N]

Missa dominicalis (Missa super dominicale minus), 4vv (alternative Ag, 6vv), D-Mbs Mus.ms.69

Motets:
Beati omnes qui timent/Ecce sic benedicitur, 4vv, Rp B220–222; Cum ascendisset aurora, 6vv, Rp B211–15; Dominus dixit ad me, 4vv, Rs 2⁰, Liturg. 18; Dulces exuviae dum fata, 4vv, Rp B220–222; Deus qui sedes super thronum/Quia tu solus laborem, 4vv, Rp B220–222; Praeceptum novum de vobis, 4vv, Rp B220–222; Si bona suscepimus, 4vv, Rp B211–215; Sic enim Deus dilexit mundum, 4vv, Rp B211–215; Vocem iocunditatis/Ecce ducem nostrum … Franciscus Sforcia Dux Mediolaniensis, 8vv, Mbs Mus.ms.1536, 1564¹ (anon.)

Ode:
Collis o heliconii, 4vv, 1539²⁶

Sacred songs:
Es wöll uns Gott genedig sein, 4vv, 1558²⁰; Herr das du mich so gestürtzet, 4vv, 1558²⁰; Herr durch Barmhertzigkeyt, 4vv, 1558²⁰; Im friede dein, o Herre mein, 4vv, 1558²⁰; Invocabat autem Samson, 4vv, 1558²⁰; Mein seel erhebt den Herren, 4vv, 1558²⁰; O Herr, nit ferr, sey dein, 4vv, 1558²⁰; Wol dem die ubertrettung gross, 4vv, 1558²⁰

Secular songs:
All ding auff erdt, 6vv, Rp B282 (T only); Die aller holdseligst, 4vv, 1558²⁰, N; Ein stund vermag, 5vv, Rp B282 (T only); Es mag wol noch geraten, 5vv, Rp B282 (T only); Dort niden an dem Rheyne, 4vv, 1558²⁰, N; Fraw ich bin euch von hertzen hold, 4vv, 1539²⁷, N (also attrib. Ludwig Senfl); Freud und muet het mich, 4vv, 1558²⁰; Glueck hoffnung gib, 4vv, 1556²⁸, N; Herrlich und schön, 5vv, Rp B282 (T only); Ich hab ein hertz, glaub mir, 5vv, Rp B282 (T only); Mag ich Zuflucht in eer und zucht, 4vv, 1539²⁷, N; Mein hertz fert hin, 5vv, 1556²⁹, N; Mich fretzt unglück so vast hart, 4vv, 1540⁷, N; Oft wünsch ich jr, 1539²⁷, N; Und wer der winter noch so kalt, 4vv, 1558²⁰, N; Wer das elendt Bauer wil, 5vv, Rp B282 (T only)

About 100 other works (masses, motets, songs, epitaphs), lost, listed in HEu Pal.Germ.318 (see Lambrecht)

Source: Grove Music Online, © Oxford University Press 2006 (Author: Jutta Lambrecht)
Contributed by Thomas Braatz (April 2006)

Use of Chorale Melodies in his works

Title

Chorale Melody

Year

Sacred songs: Es wöll uns Gott genedig sein, 4vv

Es woll uns Gott genädig sein

1558

Links to other Sites

Bibliography

L. Nowak: ‘Das deutsche Gesellschaftslied in Österreich von 1480 bis 1550’, SMw, xvii (1930), 21–52
H. Spies: ‘Beiträge zur Musikgeschichte Salzburgs im Spätmittelalter und zu Anfang der Renaissancezeit’, Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde, lxxxi (1941), 80–84, 89–91
S. Hermelink: ‘Ein Musikalienverzeichnis der Heidelberger Hofkapelle aus dem Jahre 1544’, Ottheinrich: Gedenkschrift zur 400jährigen Wiederkehr seiner Kurfürstenzeit in der Pfalz, ed. G. Poesgen (Heidelberg, 1956), 247–60
A. Layer: ‘Pfalzgraf Ottheinrich und die Musik’, AMw, xv (1958), 258–75
G. Pietzsch: ‘Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte der Musik am kurpfälzischen Hof zu Heidelberg bis 1622’, Abhandlungen der geistes- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse der Mainzer Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, 6th ser., vi (Wiesbaden, 1963)
J. Lambrecht: Das ‘Heidelberger Kapellinventar’ von 1544 (Codex Pal.Germ.318): Edition und Kommentar (Heidelberg, 1987)

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