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Illuminated chansonnier by Heinrich Isaac, showing the beginning of his four-voice motet Palle, palle; probably written in Florence in the 1480s and copied during that period. Palle (Italian for "balls") is a reference to the coat-of arms of the Medici family, his employers at the time.

Heinrich Isaac (also known as Ysaac, Henricus, Arrigo d'Ugo, and Arrigo il Tedesco – Tedesco meaning "Flemish" or "German" in Italian) (around 1450-55 – March 26, 1517) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, of south Netherlandish origin. He is regarded as one of the most significant contemporaries of Josquin des Prez, and had an especially large influence on the subsequent development of music in Germany. He was first claimed for Germany by Glarean who dubbed him "Henricus Isaac Germanus" but in his will he calls himself "Ugonis de Flandria"; Milanese [Revista critica della literatura italiana June 1886] speculated that this 'Hugo' might be connected to 'Huygens' and discovered the name "Isaacke" in the town archives of Bruges.

Little is known about Isaac's early life (or indeed his real name), but it is probable that he was born in Flanders, likely in Brabant.^[1][2]

It is known that he was writing music by the mid 1470s, and the first documentary reference to him is from 1484, when he was court composer at Innsbruck for Duke Sigismund of Austria. So there must have been some acceptable reputation from him in music before 1486. ^[3] The following year, he entered the service of Lorenzo de' Medici at Florence, where he was thought to be the organist, but instead the organist was an Isaac Argyropoulos. He was however the choir master, and teacher to Lorenzo's children; he assumed this post on the death of Antonio Squarcialupi. One of his students in Florence was the future Pope Leo X. He performed for Pope Alexander VI in Rome, September 1492.^[4] In 1494, the Medici were banished from Florence; the era of Savonarola was beginning, and Isaac was left to find employment elsewhere. However, he had married a Florentine.

Isaac moved to Vienna in 1496.^[5] By 1497, Isaac was in the employ of Emperor Maximilian I^[6]. Isaac was the court composer for Maximilian in new chapel in Vienna April 3, 1497^[7] He travelled widely in Germany, to Augsburg, Wels, Innsbruck, and Nurembergand is credited with having a big influence on German composers of the time.^[8] Isaac was a singer at Ss. Annunziata until 1493.^[9] In 1502, he returned to Italy, going to Florence and then Ferrara at the Este court of Ferrara, where he competed with Josquin for employment: a famous letter from the agent of the d'Este family compared the two composers, saying that "Isaac is of a better nature than Josquin, and while it is true that Josquin is a better composer, he only composes when he wants to, and not when asked; Isaac will compose when you want him to." In 1507 he was in Constance for the crowning of Maximillion as the Holy Roman Emperor and was to compose music for it. ^[10] He wrote 2 motets for the occasion.^[11]

Isaac returned to Florence in 1514. By December 1516, Isaac had become ill; he died not long after, on 26 March 1517 in Florence.^[12]

Isaac composed a wide variety of music, including masses, motets, German and Italian songs and instrumental music. He mastered the cantus firmus in masses and motets, as well as wrote French chanson, Italian frottole, German lieder.^[13] He was one of the most prolific composers of his time, but his work has been largely neglected in favour of Josquin (although the composer Anton Webern wrote his thesis on Isaac). His best known work is probably the lied Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen, of which he made at least two versions. It is possible, however, that the melody itself is not by Isaac, and only the setting is original. The same melody was later used as the theme for the Lutheran chorale O Welt, ich muss dich lassen, which was the basis of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Johannes Brahms.

Of his settings of the ordinary of the mass, 36 survive; others are believed to have been lost. Numerous individual movements of masses survive as well. But it is composition of music for the Proper of the Mass – the portion of the liturgy which changed on different days, unlike the ordinary, which remained constant – which gave him his greatest fame. The huge cycle of motets which he wrote for the mass Proper, the Choralis Constantinus, and which he left incomplete at his death, would have supplied music for 100 separate days of the year.^[14]

Isaac is held in high regard for his Choralis Constantinus. It is a huge anthology of over 450 chant-based polyphonic motets for the Proper of the Mass. It had its origins in a commission that Isaac received from the Cathedral in Konstanz, Germany in April of 1508 to set many of the Propers unique to the local liturgy. Isaac was in Konstanz because Maximilian had called a meeting of the Reichstag (German Parliament of nobles) there and Isaac was on hand to provide music for the Imperial court chapel choir. After the deaths of both Maximilian and Isaac, Ludwig Senfl, who had been Isaac's pupil as a member of the Imperial court choir, gathered all the Isaac settings of the Proper and placed them into liturgical order for the church year. But the anthology was not published until 1555, after Senfl's death by which time the reforms of the Council of Trent had made many of the texts obsolete. The motets remain some of the finest examples of chant-based Renaissance polyphony in existence.

Isaac composed a 6-voice motet Angeli Archangeli.^[15] Angeli Archangeli was composed using the idea of the Feast of All Saint’s Day, honoring angels, archangels, and all other saints.^[16]

Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen (help·info)

The influence of Isaac was especially profound in Germany, since he was the first significant master of the Franco-Flemish polyphonic style who both lived there, and whose music was widely distributed there. It was through him that the polyphonic style of the Netherlanders became widely accepted in Germany, making possible the further development of contrapuntal music there.

• Martin Staehelin: "Heinrich Isaac," The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2

• James D. Feiszli: "Performance Editions from Heinrich Isaac's 'Choralis Constantinus'." D.M.A. dissertation, Arizona State University, 1983.

• Burn, David J. What Did Isaac Write for Constance? The journal of musicology: A quarterly review of music history, criticism, analysis, and performance practice. Winter 2003. United States. Vol 20. p 45-72.

• Picker, Martin. Isaac in Flanders: The early works of Henricus Isaac. From Ciconia to Sweelinck: Donum natalicium Willem Elders.1994.

Vol 28. p 153-165.

• Rothenberg, David J. Angels, Archangels, and a Womanin Distress: The Meaning of Isaac’s Angeli archangeli. The journal of musicology: A quarterly review of music history, criticism, analysis, and performance practice. Fall 2004. United States. Vol 21. p 514-578.

• Slonimsky, Nicolas. ed. Kassel, Richard M. Baker’s Dictionary of Music. 1997. Prentice Hall International, London, England. Vol. 31.

• Heinrich Isaac free scores in the Werner Icking Music Archive
• Listen to a free recording of song from Umeå Akademiska Kör.