Andreas Werckmeister (November 30, 1645 – October 26, 1706) was an organist,
music theoristMusic theory is the field of study that deals with how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It identifies patterns that govern composers' techniques. In a grand sense, music theory distills and analyzes the parameters or elements of music – rhythm, harmony , melody,...
, and composer of the
Baroque eraBaroque music describes a style of European classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1750. This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical era...
.
Born in
BenneckensteinBenneckenstein is a town in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated in the eastern Harz, approx. 10 km southeast of Braunlage, and 20 km south of Wernigerode. It is part of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Brocken-Hochharz....
, Germany, Werckmeister attended schools in
NordhausenNordhausen is a city at the southern edge of the Harz mountains, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Nordhausen...
and
QuedlinburgQuedlinburg is a town located north of the Harz mountains, in the district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In 1994 the medieval old town was set on the UNESCO world heritage list....
. He received his musical training from his uncles Heinrich Christian Werckmeister and Heinrich Victor Werckmeister. In 1664 he became an
organistAn organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
in
HasselfeldeHasselfelde is a town in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated in the eastern Harz, approx. 17 km south of Wernigerode. It is part of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Brocken-Hochharz....
; ten years later in
ElbingerodeElbingerode is a town in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is situated in the eastern Harz mountain range, approximately 8 km south of Wernigerode. The municipality consists of Elbingerode proper and the villages of Königshütte and Rübeland.The area around Elbingerode had...
; and in 1696 of the Martinskirche in
HalberstadtHalberstadt is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt and the capital of the district of Harz. It is located on the German Framework Road....
.
Of his compositions only a booklet remains: pieces for violin with basso continuo, with the title
Musikalische Privatlust (1689).
Werckmeister is best known today as a theorist, in particular through his writings
Musicae mathematicae hodegus curiosus... (1687) and
Musikalische Temperatur, oder... (1691), in which he coined the term
well temperamentWell temperament is a type of tempered tuning described in twentieth-century music theory. The term is modelled on the German word wohltemperiert which appears in the title of J.S. Bach's famous composition, Well-Tempered Clavier...
and described a system of well temperament now known as
Werckmeister temperamentWerckmeister temperament refers to any of the tuning systems described by Andreas Werckmeister in his writings . The tuning systems are confusingly numbered in two different ways: the first refers to the order in which they were presented as "good temperaments" in Werckmeister's 1691 treatise,...
.
Werckmeister's writings were well known to
Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and organist whose ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, in particular his writings on
counterpointIn music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent. It has been most commonly identified in Western music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
. Werckmeister believed that well-crafted counterpoint, in particular invertible counterpoint , was tied to the orderly movements of the planets, reminiscent of Kepler's view in
Harmonice MundiHarmonices Mundi is a book by Johannes Kepler. In the work Kepler discusses harmony and congruence in geometrical forms and physical phenomena...
. According to George Buelow, "No other writer of the period regarded music so unequivocally as the end result of God’s work," a view harmonious with that of Bach. Yet in spite of his focus on counterpoint, Werckmeister's work emphasized underlying harmonic principles.