Morten Børup

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Morten Børup (1446–1526) was a Danish teacher, cathedral cantor and Latin poet. Born in Skanderborg, he worked as a farm laborer and suffered abuse. At 27 he fled to Aarhus and joined the cathedral school. With help from his teachers and Archdean Morten Krabbe, he studied at the new University of Copenhagen and earned a theology degree, then went on to the University of Cologne, where he earned a doctorate in 1487.

Back in Denmark, he became head of the Aarhus cathedral school around 1490 and stayed in that job until 1520. His students included the Lutheran reformers Jørgen Sadolin and Hans Tausen. Børup wrote Latin plays for his students; some of these were among the first public plays in Denmark (1501). He is said to have created a choral dance performed more than 50 years after his death at the christening of Christian IV. Later he became the cantor of Aarhus Cathedral, directing church music and likely composing Latin hymns and poetry.

One of his best-known works is Carmen vernale (Spring Song) written for the school's May festival. The piece was adopted by many schools in Denmark and Sweden and inspired composers, including Carl Nielsen.