Arnold von Bruck

He was one of the most famous and influential composers in German-speaking areas during the first half of the 16th century, the period of the Protestant Reformation; however, he seems to have remained a Roman Catholic.

[1] He was born in Bruges, and received at least part of his musical training as a choirboy in the chapel of Charles V, where he probably studied with Marbrianus de Orto.

That same year he became court Kapellmeister for Archduke Ferdinand, before he was emperor; Bruck was to retain this post for all of his active career, retiring at the end of 1545.

[1] Some of Arnold von Bruck's chorales appeared in a highly cosmopolitan collection by Georg Rhau, the Newe deudsche geistliche Gesenge of 1544.

Unusually for the time, it contained music both by the early generation of Protestants, including Balthasar Resinarius and Sixtus Dietrich, and Roman Catholics such as Bruck.