Bartholomäus Aich was a South-German organist and composer in the 17th century. Little is known about his life: originally from the village of Uttenweiler near

Biberach an der Riß Biberach an der Riß (, ; ), often referred to as simply Biberach (), is a town in southern Germany. It is the capital of Biberach (district), Biberach district, in the Upper Swabia region of the German state (Lands of Germany, Land) of Baden-Wü ...

in Upper Swabia, he was the organist of the convent of canonesses in

Lindau Lindau (, ''Lindau am Bodensee''; ; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Lindou'') is a major Town#Germany, town and Lindau (island), island on the eastern side of Lake Constance (''Bodensee'' in German) in Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital ...

/Lake Constance. His only surviving work is the musical-dramatic festival play ''Armamentarium comicum amoris et honoris'' (The Comic Armoury of Love and Honour), written on the occasion of the wedding of Count Maximilian Willibald of

Waldburg-Wolfegg Waldburg-Wolfegg was a County ruled by the House of Waldburg, located in southeastern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Waldburg-Wolfegg was a partition of Waldburg-Wolfegg-Zeil and was repartitioned in 1667, creating Waldburg-Waldsee Waldburg-Wald ...

and Clara Isabella Princess of

Aarschot Aarschot () is a city and municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, Belgium. The municipality comprises the city of Aarschot proper and the towns of Gelrode, Langdorp and Rillaar. On 1 January 2019, Aarschot had a total popu ...

and Arenberg, that took place in Lindau on 6 December 1648. ''Armamentarium'' combined the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

theatre tradition with the Italian

monody In music, monody refers to a solo vocal style distinguished by having a single melody, melodic line and instrumental accompaniment. Although such music is found in various cultures throughout history, the term is specifically applied to Italy, ...

of the early

Baroque period The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (in ...

and was performed by pupils of the Lindau Jesuit college on 8 December 1648. It is one of the earliest surviving examples of an

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

tic work performed in Germany. The libretto (by an unknown author) is highly allegorical and focused on the heraldic symbols that the combined coat of arms of the bridal couple would contain. These allegories are introduced by biblical figures from the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

. Since that custom-made plot was not appropriate for performances beyond the original purpose, the work vanished into oblivion. It was recently rediscovered in the musical collections of the Dukes of Waldburg-Wolfegg and performed at Schloss Wolfegg on 11 September 2005, by the Hassler-Consort ensemble, conducted by Franz Raml.

References

*''Bartholomäus Aich: Amor et honor''. Programme brochure of the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele for the 2005 concert at Schloss Wolfegg. Texts by Johannes Hoyer and Florian Mehltretter.

External links

„Armamentarium comicum amoris et honoris“
musicologist workshop at the

University of Augsburg The University of Augsburg () is a university located in the Universitätsviertel section of Augsburg, Germany. It was founded in 1970 and is organized in 8 Faculties. The University of Augsburg is a relatively young campus university with a ...

, summer term 2005 (archived version) {{DEFAULTSORT:Aich, Bartholomaus 17th-century classical composers 17th-century German composers 17th-century male musicians German Baroque composers German male classical composers German male opera composers German opera composers Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown