Rhaw or Rhau, Georg
Rhaw or Rhau, Georg
Rhaw or Rhau, Georg , German publisher and composer; b. Eisfeld an der Werre, Suhl, 1488; d. Wittenberg, Aug. 6, 1548. He studied at the Univ. of Wittenberg (B.A., 1514), and then was cantor of the Thomaskirche and of the Thomasschule in Leipzig from 1518 to 1520, bringing out the Missa de Sancto Spirito (1519) during the disputations between Luther and Eck. He then settled in Eisleben as a schoolmaster, and later taught in Hildburghausen (1521–23). In 1523 he went to Wittenberg, where he established a publishing business, issuing many first eds. of Luther’s Writings and numerous collections of musical works, mostly Protestant. He wrote Enchiridion utriusque musicae practicae (Wittenberg, 1517; 2nd ed., 1518, as Enchiridion musices ex variis tnusicorum libris depromptu; 9th ed., 1558; facsimile ed. by H. Albrecht, Kassel, 1951) and Enchiridion musicae mensuralis (Leipzig, 1520; 10th ed., 1553).
Bibliography
W. Wölbing, Der Drucker und Musikverleger G. Rhaw: Ein Beitrag zur Drucker- und Verlegstätigkeit im Zeitalter der Reformation (diss., Univ. of Berlin, 1922); V. Mattfeld, G. Rhaw’s Publications for Vespers (Brooklyn, 1966).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire