Heinrich Scheidemann (ca. 1595 – 1663) was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
organistThe organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet...
and composer. He was the best-known composer for the organ in north Germany in the early to mid-17th century, and was an important forerunner of
Dieterich BuxtehudeDieterich Buxtehude was a German-Danish organist and a highly regarded composer of the Baroque period. His organ works comprise a central part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals and church services...
and
J.S. 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...
.
He was born in
WöhrdenWöhrden is a municipality in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany....
in
HolsteinHolstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....
. His father was an organist in both Wöhrden and Hamburg, and probably Scheidemann received some early instruction from him. Scheidemann studied with
SweelinckJan Pieterszoon Sweelinck was a Dutch composer, organist, and pedagogue whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras...
in
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
from 1611 to 1614, and evidently was one of his favorite pupils, since Sweelinck dedicated a
canonIn music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...
to him, prior to Scheidemann's return to Germany.
Heinrich Scheidemann (ca. 1595 – 1663) was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
organistThe organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet...
and composer. He was the best-known composer for the organ in north Germany in the early to mid-17th century, and was an important forerunner of
Dieterich BuxtehudeDieterich Buxtehude was a German-Danish organist and a highly regarded composer of the Baroque period. His organ works comprise a central part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals and church services...
and
J.S. 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...
.
Life
He was born in
WöhrdenWöhrden is a municipality in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany....
in
HolsteinHolstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....
. His father was an organist in both Wöhrden and Hamburg, and probably Scheidemann received some early instruction from him. Scheidemann studied with
SweelinckJan Pieterszoon Sweelinck was a Dutch composer, organist, and pedagogue whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras...
in
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
from 1611 to 1614, and evidently was one of his favorite pupils, since Sweelinck dedicated a
canonIn music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...
to him, prior to Scheidemann's return to Germany. By 1629, and possibly earlier, Scheidemann was in Hamburg as organist at the
CatharinenkircheSt. Catherine's Church is one of the five principal Lutheran churches of Hamburg, Germany. The base of its spire, dating from the 13th century, is the oldest building preserved in the city; after the lighthouse on the Neuwerk island...
, a position which he held for more than thirty years, until his death in Hamburg in early 1663 during an outbreak of the plague.
Music and influence
Scheidemann was renowned as an organist and composer, as evidenced by the wide distribution of his works; more organ music by Scheidemann survives than by any other composer of the time. Unlike the other early
BaroqueBaroque 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...
German composers, such as
PraetoriusMichael Praetorius was a German composer, organist, and writer about music. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns.- Life :He was born Michael Schultze, the youngest son of a Lutheran...
,
SchützHeinrich Schütz was a German composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and often considered to be one of the most important composers of the 17th century along with Claudio Monteverdi...
,
ScheidtSamuel Scheidt was a German composer, organist and teacher of the early Baroque era.He was born in Halle, and after early studies there, he went to Amsterdam to study with Sweelinck, the distinguished Dutch composer, which was clearly formative on his style...
, and
ScheinJohann Hermann Schein was a German composer of the early Baroque era. He was born in Grünhain and died in Leipzig...
, each of whom wrote in most of the current genres and styles, Scheidemann wrote almost entirely organ music. A few songs survive, as well as some
harpsichordA harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
pieces, but they are dwarfed by the dozens of organ pieces, many in multiple movements.
Scheidemann's lasting contribution to the organ literature, and to Baroque music in general, was in his Lutheran
choraleA chorale was originally a hymn sung by a christian congregation. In casual modern usage, this term also includes classical settings of such hymns and works of a similar character....
settings, which were of three general types:
cantus firmusIn music, a cantus firmus is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.The plural of this Latin term is , though one occasionally sees the corrupt form canti firmi...
chorale arrangements, which were an early type of
chorale preludeIn music, a chorale prelude is a short liturgical composition for organ using a chorale tune as its basis. It was a predominant style of the German Baroque era and reached its culmination in the works of J.S. Bach, who wrote 46 examples of the form in his Orgelbüchlein.-Function:The liturgical...
; "
monodicIn poetry, the term monody has become specialized to refer to a poem in which one person laments another's death....
" chorale arrangements, which imitated the current style of monody—a vocal solo over basso continuo—but for solo organ; and elaborate chorale fantasias, which were a new invention, founded on the keyboard style of Sweelinck but using the full resources of the developing German Baroque organ. In addition to his chorale arrangements, he also wrote important arrangements of the
MagnificatThe Magnificat is a canticle frequently sung liturgically in Christian church services. The text of the canticle is taken directly from the Gospel of Luke where it is spoken by the Virgin Mary upon the occasion of her Visitation to her cousin Elizabeth...
, which are not only in multiple parts but are in
cyclic formCyclic form is a technique of musical construction, involving multiple sections or movements, in which a theme, melody, or thematic material occurs in more than one movement as a unifying device. Sometimes a theme may occur at the beginning and end Cyclic form is a technique of musical...
towards liturgical use in alternation with the choir during the socalled
VespersVespers is the evening prayer service in the Western Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies of the canonical hours. The word comes from the Greek εσπερινός and the Latin vesper, meaning "evening." The term is also in limited use in some Protestant...
, a technique in multiple-movement musical construction which was not to return with vigor until the 19th century. Among his students were
Johann Adam ReinckenJohann Adam Reincken was a German organist and composer...
, his successor at the St. Catharine Church in Hamburg and
Dieterich BuxtehudeDieterich Buxtehude was a German-Danish organist and a highly regarded composer of the Baroque period. His organ works comprise a central part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals and church services...
.
Media
External links
- Scores and MIDI files by Scheidemann at the Mutopia Project
The Mutopia project is a volunteer-run effort to create a library of free content sheet music, in a way similar to Project Gutenberg's library of public domain books.The music is reproduced from old scores that are out of copyright...