Introduction

Biography

Eccard stu­died un­der Da­vid Kö­ler, 1567–71, at the court cha­pel in Wei­mar, and af­ter­ward with Or­lan­do di Las­so in Mu­nich.

He re­turned to Mühl­hau­sen by 1574. Around 1577–78 he moved to Augs­burg and be­came a mu­si­cian in the house­hold of Ja­cob Fug­ger III. His dedication in the Newe deutzsche Lieder (1578) states its songs were writ­ten dur­ing Ec­card’s ser­vice to Fug­ger in Augs­burg (Au­gus­tae Vin­de­li­co­rum).

While in Augs­burg, Ec­card main­tained pro­fess­ion­al ties to his home­town of Mühl­haus­en, some 200 miles north, where his mu­sic was be­ing print­ed.

In 1581, Eccard be­gan serv­ing the Mar­grave Ge­org Fried­rich of Bran­den­burg at Kö­nigs­berg (now Ka­lin­in­grad, Rus­sia), and in 1586 went to Ber­lin to be mu­sic di­rect­or for the Elect­or of Bran­den­burg.