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The Visit of Philip the Fair

Helen Coffey

The incorporation of wind instruments into performances of liturgical music was witnessed again in Innsbruck during the visit of Maximilian’s son, Philip, in 1503 (see » Abb. Philip the Fair of Burgundy, King of Spain). By that time, circumstances at the Innsbruck palace had changed yet again. Archduke Sigmund had died in 1496 and his widow Katharina soon remarried, the Neuhof that they had inhabited being transformed soon thereafter into Maximilian’s treasury and adorned with its golden roof. There was therefore now no continuous ducal presence, as there had been during Sigmund’s lifetime, although through Maximilian’s regular visits to Innsbruck, courtly music was still often heard within the palace walls.[55] As Maximilian’s visits to Innsbruck continued, so too did the descriptions of life at his court, written by those who visited the king from other European centres. One such visitor was Antoine de Lalaing, a Flemish nobleman and courtier in the entourage of Philip the Fair that accompanied the Burgundian duke on the two-year journey that took him from Mechelen to Spain and back again, via France, Austria and Maximilian I’s German territories. Antoine documented these travels in great detail in his journal, including the musical performances that took place in Innsbruck after the Burgundians’ arrival there on 13 September 1503.[56]

 

 

[55] Indeed, from 1516 until 1521, the two young princesses Anna of Hungary and Maria of Austria were resident at the Innsbruck palace and had several musicians in their employ. See Waldner 1897/98, 59 and Senn 1954, 46–47.

[56] Gachard 1876, 309.