Innsbruck, Ich Muss Dich Lassen (1597) - Score and parts
Sheet Music

2 Violins, 2 Violas, Cello; or 5 viols; or 5 Trombones; or 5 Cornets; or SSATB Recorders

SKU: MM.LPMGM01

Composed by Lutkeman. String Quartets, Quintets etc., Miscellaneous Wind Music, Recorder Quintets. German Instrumental Music. Score and Parts. Published by London Pro Musica (MM.LPMGM01).

The "Innsbruck" melody has been used in both secular and sacred works over several centuries. The earliest surviving setting is probably the simple four-part version by Heinrich Isaac (d. 1517). The possibility has often been suggested that Isaac himself wrote the melody, but the fact that the same composer used the song (in canon) in a section of his Missa Carminum, a work which otherwise uses popular German melodies of the time, would suggest that the tune is older than the Isaac setting. The tune is one of several that were taken over by the Lutheran church. Many later settings are found, using various different texts, including an extended motet by Christian Hollander, as well as several harmonisations by J. S. Bach, not to mention a number of sixteenth-century lute intabulations.