Jerzy Liban (c. 1464 - after 1546)

He was born in Liepnitz, Silesia, in 1464, and belonged to a German family. After he had studied at Cracow university, he went to Cologne for some time, only to return to Cracow in 1501 again. The next step in his musical vita was probably an association with the Gymnasium of the Church of St. Mary in Cracow, where he first served as a cantor and later, from 1514 onwards, as the rector. Another thing that we know for certain is that he lectured at Cracow university in the years of 1511, 1513 and 1520. He was at the same time theorist and composer; among his numerous work rank two musical treatises, too, both from around 1539, published in the city of Cracow. In one of the two, "De musicae laudibus oratio", he tried to proove that Latin music theory was derived from Greek by showing the usage of musical terms in Latin that come from those in Greek as well.

There is some music of his included in those treatises: Ortus de Polonia Stanislaus is a four-voice hymn from 1501 in which he uses note-against-note technique. Apart from that piece there are eight Magnificat-settings and the psalm "In exitu Israel" (Ps. 114) , all of those four-voice, which use imitative counterpoint and are all based on melodies of chant.
Jerzy Liban died after 1546.
Text supplied by Monika Fahrnberger

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