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Scheidt, Schein, and Schütz
Samuel Scheidt (1587 - 1654) was one of the earliest German composers to synthesize the traditional Germanic chorale and counterpoint with the more contemporary stylistic innovations from Italy. A multi-faceted composer of music both sacred and secular, his fame rests mainly on his book of organ music, which advocated staff notation instead of tablature.
Scheidt was born in Halle within a year of both Heinrich Schütz and Johann Hermann Schein. All three knew one another and were active in the fusion of the northern and southern European musical styles). Scheidt attended public school, being instructed in music by the Kantor of the local Gymnasium, Matthäus Birkner, until he earned the position of organist at the Moritzkirche in Halle in 1604. After resigning that post, Scheidt journeyed to Amsterdam for a period of study with well-known organist Jan Sweelinck, whose music he would later edit and publish back in Germany.
Scheidt served as court organist and secular keyboard composer to the Halle governing administrator, Christian Wilhelm of Brandenburg. These were prosperous years, and after 1619 Scheidt combined his duties as organist with those of Kapellmeister. Much of Scheidt's better-known music came during his appointment as Kapellmeister: three volumes of instrumental pieces, one collection each of motets and vocal concertos, and the Tabulatura nova, a massive collection of organ music.
In 1625, Wilhelm left Halle to fight in the Thirty Years War, and Scheidt was left virtually unemployed. Despite his lack of salary and the departure of most of his musicians for paying jobs, Scheidt remained in Halle, earning what he could from teaching and the occasional commission from other cities' courts. For his loyalty Halle created a new musical post for him in 1628: director musices (musical director). A conflict with the Rector of the local Gymnasium--both claimed, to have jurisdiction over the choirboys--resulted in Scheidt's dismissal from the post in 1630, and the composer's personal life soon suffered as well when all of his children died of plague during a 1636 outbreak.
The return of a city administrator in 1638 (now Duke August of Saxony) brought a renewed musical prosperity to Halle, and Scheidt once again assumed his duties as the city's Kapellmeister. He continued to compose music for public and private occasions until his death in 1654 at the age of 66
Johann Hermann Schein (1586 ? 1630) was born within a year of both Heinrich Schütz and Samuel Scheidt. In addition to his activities as a composer and a poet, Schein was one of J.S. Bach's predecessors as Kantor of St. Thomas in Leipzig.
Born in the small town of Grünhain, Schein spent most of his childhood years in Dresden. At 13 he sang as a boy soprano in the choir of the Elector of Saxony. Schein's musical education continued under the court's Kapellmeister, and when his voice broke he enrolled in the prestigious Schulpforta school for music and the humanities. He then enrolled at the University of Leipzig to study music, literature, and law. While a student, he published his first work, "Venus Kräntzlein," (New Secular Songs) a musical setting of his own poems.
Although he had always divided his attention between music and literature, in 1615 Schein became Kapellmeister to the Duke of Weimar; but quickly moved on as Kantor at St. Thomas in Leipzig in 1616. Schein suffered personal misfortunes that dampered his more prosperous professional life. His first wife died in 1624, and most or possibly all of the children born by his second wife, whom he married in 1625, died before reaching adulthood. Schein's own health was poor, and after suffering tuberculosis, scurvy and kidney stones for most of his adult life, he died in 1630 at the age of forty-four.
Unlike his close friend and colleague Samuel Scheidt, whose fame rest largely on instrumental music, Schein composed mostly vocal music. While his early sacred music draws heavily on the motets of Lassus, Schein later developed a more modern style of sacred vocal concerto with basso continuo (the 1618 Opella nova containing some of the earliest examples of this revolutionary form). The texts set in his secular music are all of his own authorship; the music itself, like his work for sacred occasions, develops over time from a relatively simple, homophonic style (as in the early Venus Kräntzlein) to a more complex texture featuring greater vocal independence and basso continuo (as in Hirten Lust, published in 1624, the first collection of German madrigals with basso continuo).
Heinrich Schütz (1585 - 1672) synthesized Italian polychoral and rhythmic styles with German polyphonic technique to construct powerful sacred compositions that rival the majestic religious music of J. S. Bach. This is especially evident in the marvelous Symphoniae Sacrae ("Sacred Symphonies"), big motets with continuo of which Schütz published three sets between 1629 and 1650. These included the cantata-like Saul, Saul was verfolgst du mich? ("Saul, Why Persecutest Thou Me?"), and the heartbreaking Fili Mi, Absalon ("Absalom, My Son"). Other highlights of his work include the multiple-chorus setting of the Psalms of David, full of splendor and tone-painting, and the funeral work Musikalische Exequien. The elderly Schütz aimed for a more spare style, evident in the Christmas Oratorio (1664), in which all the characters are accompanied by their own scoring and the evangelist/narrator is accompanied only by continuo.
Schütz was born in Kôstritz, then his family moved to Weissenfels when he was six. When Schütz was thirteen, Landgrave Moritz spent the night at the inn owned by Schütz's father. He heard the boy sing and sent him to the Collegium Maurizianum in the city of Kassel, where he came under the influence of Georg Otto, head of the court choir. Schütz could then trace his musical patrimony to Martin Luther himself, since Otto sang in the choir at Torgau led by Johann Walther, Luther's close friend and co-worker. Schütz studied math, logic, liberal arts, Latin, Greek, French, and Hebrew.
In 1608 Schütz studied law at the University of Marburg, but Landgrave Moritz offered funds for a trip to Italy. Venice at the time was the center of the highest musical culture not only for Italy, but for much of Northern Europe as well. Schütz studied with Giovanni Gabrieli (1555-1612) in St. Mark's cathedral. Its sonic nooks and crannies gave birth to the polychoral style, and Gabrieli was its most creative proponent.
Schütz was appointed second court organist in Kassel by Landgave Moritz, but Johann Georg I, the Elector of Saxony desired to secure his services. Landgrave Moritz surrendered the musician to the more powerful ruler on a supposedly temporary basis. The appointment of Schütz as director of the elector's chapel in Dresden was made permanent in 1617.
Schütz married to Magdalene Wildeck; he was 33 and she was 18. He survived his wife by some 47 years, as well as his two daughters. His wife died September 6, 1625; he never married again, and when he died forty-seven years later, he was buried by her side. After her death he published "Der Psalter nach Cornelius Becker", a direct result of the sorrow of 1625; in the preface he says: "I turned to this task as a comforter in sadness." Important compositions continued to come after family tragedy and the deaths of friends and rulers, which he witnessed many throughout his long life.
In 1628 Schütz journeyed to Venice again to escape the the Thirty Years War. Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) was developing While stylish similarities between Schütz and Monteverdi are recognized, it is not certain whether or not they had any contact with each other in either a relationship of student to teacher or friend to friend. Undoubtedly Schütz studied both published and manuscript works of the older genius, and must have heard many of these performed while in Italy.
From 1630 to 1637 the Black Death infected the city of Dresden, and death struck many of his friends and relatives. Due to the war there also was a lack of funds and Schütz had trouble getting paid; so he requested and was granted a leave of absence, during which he went to work for Prince Christian at the court of Denmark. Many trips to Copenhagen followed, the last one in 1644. After the Thirty Years War official activities and responsibilities gave him no opportunity for retirement; as court Kapellmeister, composer, and teacher of numerous talented pupils, he was the musical authority of his century.
Even at the advanced age he had reached, Schütz was still able to compose and new musical works and edit and revise works written earlier. The last years and months of his life were as exemplary as his entire lifetime. For the most part he remained home and devoted much of his time to reading the Bible and books of distinguished theologians. Only his hearing had declined in old age.
For more
information about Scheidt, Schein, or Schütz, visit the one of these
web sites: Scheidt Schutz
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