Heinrich Isaac (c. 1450-1517); FLM

Heinrich Isaac (c. 1450–1517) was a major Franco-Flemish composer whose career took him through many of the leading musical centers of Renaissance Europe. His origins are uncertain, but by the 1480s he was active in Florence, where he became closely associated with the Medici court and with Lorenzo de’ Medici. After the political upheavals that followed Lorenzo’s death, Isaac entered the service of Emperor Maximilian I and traveled extensively through the Habsburg territories while maintaining ties to Italy. He eventually returned to Florence, where he spent his final years.

Isaac composed masses, motets, German songs, Italian secular music, and a vast repertory of liturgical settings. His monumental Choralis Constantinus, largely published after his death, contains polyphonic settings of Mass Propers for much of the church year and stands among the most ambitious sacred collections of the Renaissance. His famous song Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen became one of the most enduring German melodies of the period. Isaac’s extraordinary stylistic adaptability reflects his cosmopolitan career, combining Franco-Flemish contrapuntal mastery with Italian grace and a sensitivity to German musical traditions.

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Read biography at allmusic.com.