Blasius Amon

(c.1558 - 1590)


Austrian composer. He was a chorister at the archducal court at Innsbruck until 1577, when he went to study in Venice (possibly with Andrea Gabrieli). He later joined the Franciscan Order, and in 1585 was cantor at the monastery of Heiligenkreuz, moving to Vienna in 1587. His five volumes of published church music (some posthumous) show a strong Venetian influence, and he may have been the first German-speaking composer to use the polychoral style, in his motets of 1590.

He seems to have composed no secular music, but has left us two books of motets for from four to eight voices and a book of Masses a 4, all printed before his death, and three books of motets, à 4, à 5, and à 6, issued after his death, as well as some works in MS.





IVK: Orlandus Lassus and Catholic Polyphony in late 16th Century Germany