HASSLER, FRANZ LEO. – Organist and composer, born in Nuremberg in 1564, died in Frankfurt am Main on 8 June 1612. He studied in Venice with A. Gabrielli and, after a brief stay in Augsburg, became maestro to Rudolf II of Bohemia. From 1601 to 1608 he was in Nuremberg, then in Frankfurt.
He wrote canzoni for 4 voices (1590), sacred canzoni, madrigals for 5 and 8 voices; Masses for 4 to 8 voices, Sacri Concentus for 5 and 12 voices (1601). Much of this music has been printed in modern collections. H.’s music is distinctly Italian in style and preserves all the freshness of the Venetian school.
BIBL.: G. B. Katschhaler, Storia della musica sacra, Italian translation, 3rd ed., Turin 1926, pp. 93, 123, 129; R. Schwartz, F. L. H. unter dem Einfluss der italienischen Madrigalisten, in Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 9 (1889), pp. 126–30. Silverio Mattei