Triller, Valentin (EN)

Triller Valentin, *1493 (?) Guhrau (now Góra, Lower Silesia), †after 1572 Oberpanthenau in the Duchy of Brzeg in Lower Silesia (currently the village of Ratajno in the municipality of Łagiewniki), German clergyman, author of a hymnbook. In June 1511, he enrolled at the Kraków Academy. From 1555 or, according to K. Ameln, from November 1550 to 1573, he was the second pastor in the Lutheran parish of Oberpanthenau. In 1555, he published a hymnbook in Wrocław entitled Ein Schlesich (sic!) singebüchlein… (part of the print run with a new title page: Ein Christlich Singebuch…, 1559), dedicated to Georg II Piast, Duke of Legnica-Brzeg, to whose care he entrusted his wife and children. The title page, dedication letter, and preface provide important information about the political and religious context that led to the publication of the hymnal. 

This extensive publication (300 pages) has a distinctly retrospective repertoire, serving as an important source of knowledge about the musical culture of 16th-century Silesia. It contains 145 songs, 43 of which are three-voice, eight are two-voice, and the rest are monophonic (four of them, however, were intended for polyphonic performance); nine songs lack musical notation but contain references to other melodies, some of which are not found in the hymnal. The monophonic songs are written mainly in German Gothic notation, while the polyphonic works (and several monophonic ones) use white mensural notation. The collection includes songs for various periods of the liturgical year and for the whole year, sung during church services and for home use. Its peculiarity lies in the almost complete absence of the canon of hymns established by Luther and his collaborators, which even led to unfounded assumptions in the literature that Triller was departing from orthodoxy toward the theology of the Anabaptists, Catholicism, or the Bohemian Brethren. Meanwhile, the author emphasizes in the preface that he focused particularly on the local tradition, out of concern that the music sung in Silesia might fall into oblivion, which is why he introduces contrafacta of Latin works performed in the region (e.g., antiphons or the otherwise unknown three-voice version of Piotr of Grudziądz’s song Prelustri elucentia) and German works, both sacred and secular. It is precisely because of the preservation of this tradition that this hymnbook is of great importance to the history of music. Although Triller’s songbook did not achieve the success of many other 16th-century songbooks (since not all copies were sold, four years later Triller tried to sell the remaining copies with a new title page), it enjoyed local popularity until the end of the 16th century (five copies have survived to this day in Polish libraries and two in German libraries). In Brzeg, it remained in use for nearly 40 years after its publication, and at the turn of the 16th and 17th century in Wrocław, it was provided with numerous corrections and annotations, and some songs were modified. Meanwhile, in Bautzen, Lusatia, the ecumenically minded J. Leisentrit included as many as 39 texts with 18 melodies in a Catholic hymnal (1567) without attributing authorship. Additionally, M. Praetorius included 21 of Triller’s works in altered arrangements in his monumental work Musae Sioniae (parts 7 and 8, 1609–10), occasionally citing their sources.

Literature: W. Salmen Der volkskundliche Gehalt in Valentin Trillers “Schlesisch Singebüchlein” von 1555, “Der Kirchenmusiker” VI, 1955; H. Eberlein Valentin Triller und sein schlesisches Singebüchlein,  “Jahrbuch für schlesische Kirche und Kirchengeschichte”, new series XXXIV, 1955; XXXV, 1956; K. Ameln Valentin Trillers Bekenntnis,  “Jahrbuch für Liturgik und Hymnologie” XVI, 1971; A. Wawrzynek Śląski śpiewnik Valentina Trillera, master’s thesis, Institute of Musicology, Jagiellonian University, 2001 (contains transcriptions of all works); P. Poźniak Drukowana wersja utworu Piotra z Grudziądza, Complexas effectuum musicologiae, memorial volume for M. Perz, ed. T. Jeż, Kraków 2003 (includes edition of the song); A. Mańko-Matysiak Schlesische Gesangbücher 1525–1741. Eine hymnologische Quellenstudie, Wrocław 2005; A. Mańko-Matysiak Revolutionär oder Reformer? Valentin Triller und seine Bedeutung für die deutsche Gesangbuchgeschichte, in: Karły na ramionach olbrzymów? Kultura niemieckiego obszaru językowego w dialogu z tradycją, ed. J. Godlewicz-Adamiec, P. Kociumbas, E. Michta, Warsaw 2016; A. Chemotti The Hymnbook of Valentin Triller (Wrocław 1555). Musical Past and Regionalism in Early Modern Silesia, Warszawa 2020; A. Chemotti Used hymnbooks. An annotated copy of Valentin Triller’s Ein Christlich Singebuch (University of Warsaw Library, Music Department, SDM 93), «Hudební věda» 57/4 (2020).