Hans Judenkönig (also Judenkunig, Judenkünig; born around 1450 in Schwäbisch Gmünd; died March 4, 1526 in Vienna) was a lute player and one of the most important instrumentalists of the Renaissance.
Hans Judenkönig was a German lutenist, composer, and probably also a lute maker. His family came from Württemberg; his father may have been Hartmann Judenkönig. He is first mentioned in 1518 as a lutenist in the Corpus Christi Brotherhood at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna; he had probably been working there as a musician for some time and lived in Vienna’s oldest district in a house called “Gundlachhaus,” which later became known as “Küllnerhof,” a center for musicians and merchants. Although he did not belong to the nobility, his prominent position as a citizen is illustrated by the coat of arms of a string player, which is depicted in both books; both books also contain a full-page woodcut showing a bearded lutenist (probably Judenkönig himself) together with a student playing a large viola da gamba. Judenkönig was in contact with the learned humanist community of Vienna: he edited some of Petrus Tritonius‘ odes, and he also seems to have been familiar with the ideals of the poetic-mathematical circle around Conrad Celtis. The date of his death at an advanced age was noted in the margin of a copy of his instruction.
Together with Sebastian Virdung (Musica getutscht, 1511), Judenkönig was one of the first in the German-speaking world to publish a self-instruction manual for the lute. His Utilis et compendiaria introductio, qua ut fundamento iacto quam facillime musicum exercitium, instrumentorum et lutine, et quod vulgo Geygen nominant, addiscitur was printed in Vienna at his own expense, probably between 1515 and 1519 (for editions, see BrownI ). It begins with a brief guide to playing the lute, followed by intabulations of 19 settings of Horace’s odes by Tritonius and a setting of Catullus‘ “Vivamus, mea Lesbia.” Rules for tuning the lute are followed by a group of intabulations, including ten songs, the hymn “Christ ist erstanden” (“Christ is risen”) and “Der hoff dantz” (“The court dance”). Ain schone kunstliche Underweisung in disem Buechlein, leychtlich zu begreyffen den rechten Grund zu lernen auff der Lautten und Geygen (Vienna, 1523; ed. in Die Tabulatur, x, 1969) consists of two parts. In the first part, instructions on fingering with the left hand on the lute alternate with practical exercises in a progressive series: There is an introductory group of two-part intabulations based on the tenor and bass parts of four songs, followed by a Pavana alla veneziana from Dalza’s Intabolatura de lauto (1508) and “Ain hoff dantz mit zway stimen”
The first five positions for the left hand are illustrated by three-part intabulations of 11 songs, an ode by Tritonius, a motet and a chanson, six dances (including another from Dalza) and five fantasies entitled “Priamel.” Judenkönig has also included instructions for right-hand fingering. The second part of the instruction has its own title page; it is a handbook of mensural notation and intabulation technique. Although the viols are mentioned in the titles of both books, they are practically ignored in the texts.
The lute player, who worked in Vienna in the circle of the local university, became particularly well known for two widely used textbooks for laymen for self-instruction in lute playing.
The name of the family, which is documented in Gmünd archives from 1420 to 1477 and belonged to the guild middle class, may derive from the role of the “Jewish king” in an Easter play.