Biography of Meister Alexander (Part 2)

Just as I mentioned in earlier an entry, we do not know much about Alexander, because there are not many clue left to trace back his biography, and like that he made it to the circle of the mysterious composers of the Middle Ages. Let us see what we know about him based on the entry of Oxford Music Online:

All we know is that Meister Alexander (a.k.a. Der Wilde Alexander) was a German, (presumably Alleman) poet-composer, active from the mid- to late 13th-century. He is not attested in official documents or mentioned in contemporary literature, which makes difficult to piece together his biography. The only biographical clues are certain allusions in his poetry to historical events between 1285 and 1288 but more recent study shows additional allusions to events from 1247 to 1252. In two manuscripts he is named ‘der wilde Alexander’, perhaps because of his unusual style or his restless itinerant life, and in the Jenaer Liederhandschrift he is called ‘Meister Alexander’. But the Meistersinger did not regard him as one of the 12 masters. Alexander was one of the most important Minnesinger and composers of Sprüche after the time of Walther von der Vogelweide. In the surviving sources he is represented mainly by 24 Spruch strophes, but also by two Minnelieder and one Leich. 

In his Spruch poetry he is criticical with his own time and strafes his contemporaries and the deeds of his time, with reference both to the life of the individual and putting his opinion into religious and political context. His Minnesang compositions are still belonging to the chivalrous hohe Minne; yet the the motifs he uses points towards classical Minnesang, with a tendency to idealize,and  given a new life by his highly personal, vagabond and passionate style. Alexander’s lyric poetry resembles to the style of classical courtly poetry, but still tainted by his own powerful, dark, allegorical style. 

The originality and forward-looking form of his melodies reflect his poetic skill and these suggest a high level of education. Alexander’s musical style is similar to that of classical Minnesang; but at the same time the melodies show a more modern and refined stylistic intent, and some suggest early 14th-century style in their extensive melismas (see for example Sîôn trûre's opening melisma).

Source of this blog entry: Oxford Music Online's entry on "Alexander, Meister"

Biography of Meister Alexander (Part 1)

There are several ways of piecing together the biography of a particular Medieval composer. Thanks to literacy, written official documents remained to us from those times and sometimes their contemporaries mention them in their letters and so on (for example X heard that Y has a good working relationship with Z-nobleman, or anything like that, so we can trace back the name of the nobleman and try to figure out something about Y).

Unfortunately, we are not this lucky in Alexander's case. According to the most recent researches, we cannot find any of his names mentioned in official documents or contemporary literature. The only deductions can be made from his ouevre and his linguistic features; the last shows that he was probably from the Alemann regio, since he used that dialect. Little we know about his life, but there are certain allusions that he was active in the second half of the 13th-century (according to Oxford Music Online: events can be linked to his figure between 1247 and 1252 and between 1285 and 1288).
I would like to present here and example for the result of such deductions: one of the closest allusions is by F. Loewenthal mentioned in the article Die Lebenszeit de Wilden Alexander by Norbert Wagner, and there after citing the Strophe II 4 by Alexander:

Ein hirte enbant sín tobenden hunt.
des gét beschorn und ungesunt
manc schaf uf dürrer weide.
ein lieht erlasch ze Megenze sider;
do vlouc ein ar mit leide:
ze Pülle ein listic slange erstarp.
der Elbe minne der Rín erwarp;
daz vuogte ein tube ze Brunswíc.
sich vröute ein wolf der missetat
ze Swaben, daz in Beiern gat
ein staeter mul unrehten slíc.

Loewenthal indentifies 'hirte' (shepherd) and his 'tobenden hunt' (foolish dog) with Pope Honorius IV and his legate, Cardinal Bishop Johannes von Tusculum, who in 1286/87 became unpopular in Germany because of his arrogant financial claims and had to flee away from the country.

This was just an example how we can relate the content of his poems with the historical events of his time. He dresses up his criticism of the time in Biblical metaphores and pictures, which leads us to the conlusion that he might had got a good education for his time.