Paul Hofhaimer

He was born in Radstadt, near Salzburg. Sources are somewhat contradictory on his early life, with Vadian asserting that he was self-taught, and the Nuremberg humanist Conrad Celtes saying that he acquired his technique at the court of Emperor Frederick III. Hofhaimer went to Innsbruck in 1478, and so impressed Archduke Sigismund of Tyrol that he was given a lifetime appointment as court organist in 1480. He almost certainly knew Heinrich Isaac well while he was in Innsbruck, since Isaac became court composer there later that decade. In 1489 he began serving Maximilian I as organist, but he did this in addition to his Innsbruck service. In 1498, after several years of travel, during which he visited the Saxon court of Elector Frederick the Wise, he moved to Passau, and in 1507 he moved to Augsburg, where he could be closer to Maximilian. Maximilian and the king of Poland made him a knight and nobleman in 1515, conferring on him the title of "First Organist to the Emperor". Hofhaimer's last move was to Salzburg, where he remained as organist at Salzburg Cathedral until his death. Life as a travelling musician at the peripatetic imperial court was harsh. Hofhaimer had to move frequently between Augsburg, Vienna, Innsbruck and other cities. The musicians even encountered mortal danger as they followed the Emperor during his military campaigns. Later, in 1524, when he had already joined the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg, Hofhaimer claimed in a letter to Vadian: Ich dannck got, das ich nymmer wye ayn zigeyner umraysen bedorff. [I thank God that I no longer have to travel like a gypsy.]

From 1969, (the 450th anniversary year of Emperor Maximilian I's death), the city of Innsbruck has awarded the Paul Hofhaimer Prize for interpretations of organ compositions by old masters. An international competition takes place every three years for the prize.