Emmanuel Adriaenssen

Emmanuel Adriaenssen (also Adriaensen, Adriansen, Hadrianus, Hadrianius; c. 1554 in Antwerp – buried 27 February 1604 in Antwerp) was a Flemish lutenist, composer and master of music. He authored the influential Pratum Musicum, which contains scores for lute solos, and more importantly settings of madrigals for multiple lutes and different ensembles involving lutes and voices. He also had an important influence on the next generation of lutenists through his activity as a teacher of music in his own music school. Life Emmanuel Adriaenssen was born in Antwerp between 1540 and 1555. The brothers had in 1587 a conflict with the musicians’ guild of Antwerp because they practised as musicians without becoming members of the guild. Emanuel later became a master of the guild. He married Sybilla Crelin in 1584 with whom he had six sons and one daughter. Their sons Alexander (1587–1661), Vincent (1595–1675) and Niclaes (1598–1658) became respectively a still life painter, a battle painter and a portrait painter. Prior to the Fall of Antwerp, Emmanuel was likely a Calvinist as he only had his first son baptised in a Catholic after the Fall of Antwerp. He was registered as a Catholic in the p