ABSTRACT
The musical contents, structure, and packaging of anthologies compiled by Friedrich Lindner, Valentin Haussmann, Petrus Neander, and Martin Rinckart demonstrate the variety and flexibility that characterize music-editing in German-speaking lands. The primary tenets for compiling a Kunstkammer all have counterparts in the gathering strategies of German music editors. The German case marks a broader movement, as communities across northern Europe responded to Italian cultural influences. The pedagogical function of German anthologies of Italian music heightened the tendency toward canonization. Petrus Neander and Martin Rinckart adapted Italian secular songs to German texts for the education and instruction of schoolboys in Lutheran lands, a sign that the now ubiquitous anthology found its place in the classroom early on. The publication and distribution systems for music books furthered the processes of canon formation. Northern editors relied heavily on Venetian music books for source material, selecting madrigals that may have been in circulation for some time.
