Introduction

Three long eventful centuries have elapsed since March 24, 1654, the day on which angelic hosts took to the mansions on high the immortal soul of an immortal musician of the Lutheran Church. I refer to the death of Samuel Scheidt. Bearing in mind the rich content and the glorious message of his compositions, it is of significance to know that Samuel Scheidt died on Good Friday, the very day on which the Christian church commemorates the death and burial of Jesus Christ.

While it is true that one can really never understand and appreciate fully the life and work of great men unless one is acquainted with the forces, times, and circumstances which put them on their mettle, contributed to their growth, and gave character to their work, we must admit that this often applies more so to certain men than to others. As one studies the life and work of Samuel Scheidt, one soon begins to realize that Scheidt must be counted among those whose genius was shaped and molded in large degree by the situations and circumstances into which God had put him. It is important to know that Scheidt spent almost all of his life in Halle, the city of his birth, which was not far distant from Wittenberg, the center of the Lutheran Reformation. It is important also to know that Samuel Scheidt was active as a composer during the trying days of the Thirty Years’ War, that he had been a pupil of Jan Pieters Sweelinck, that his music was written in large part for the liturgical services of the Lutheran Church, that his magnum opus, his Tabulatura nova, was published exactly one hundred years after the first hymnal of the Lutheran Church had been published, and that, like Johann Walther, Michael Praetorius, Heinrich Schütz, and others, he was more active as a court musician than as a church musician.

In order that we may understand and appreciate more fully the life and work of Samuel Scheidt, we shall today discuss only personalities and circumstances which contributed substantially to his growth and development, to his aims, procedures, and achievements.

I

We cannot dissociate Samuel Scheidt from Jan Pieters Sweelinck (1562–1621), his illustrious teacher, without breaking that great sequence which culminates in Johann Sebastian Bach. This sequence does not have its roots in Sweelinck himself; its roots were in evidence already in Renaissance and Reformation days, and Sweelinck is already a part of the mighty tree or plant which we see in full growth, decked with luscious fruits, fully ripened and for us to enjoy. If we desire to find the roots, we must look for them in the organ works of Konrad Paumann (ca. 1410–73), Arnold Schlick (ca. 1450–ca. 1520), Paul Hofhaimer (1459–1537), Hans Buchner (1483–ca. 1540), Leonhard Kleber (ca. 1490–1556), Hans Kotter (ca. 1485–1541), and other composers of the 15th and 16th centuries. As we examine these roots, we discover that they, too, are often most luscious, offering needed nourishment to our hungry musical palate. We may well say that the sequence in which Sweelinck and Scheidt played such important parts had its origin in the music of these early masters. They were succeeded by the so-called colorists of the late 16th century, among whom were Elias Nicolaus Ammerbach (ca. 1530–97), Bernhard Schmid(t) the Older (1520–ca. 1592), Jakob Paix (l550–after 1617), and Bernhard Schmid(t) the Younger (1548–?). Were we to accept as gospel truth the words of condemnation which August Gottfried Ritter (1811–85) directed against the colorists, we would thereby, together with Ritter, accuse the colorists of breaking the great sequence or chain we have referred to at a time when it sorely needed support for further development. We must admit that the colorists often did overindulge in the use of splashy and meaningless coloratura passages which were stereotyped as well as senseless; and yet we must admit that we find these same traits in some organ works written by such noted composers of later years as Claudio Merulo and the two Gabrielis. It is most unfair to refer to the coloristic age of German organ history as an age of decline and decay; had it been such an era, says Max Seiffert,^[1] the most noted pupils of Sweelinck^[2] would hardly have been able suddenly to introduce the advanced and full-grown idioms of the last of the great Netherland composers into Germany and blend them effectively with a German idiom which had not yet arrived at the stage of maturation. That a fusion and a blending were possible proves that the work done by the colorists was of greater value and import than some have thought. It likewise proves that steady and much-needed advances toward maturation had been made in Germany and that, basically, German coloration had something in common with the Dutch idiom which the Germans imported through Scheidt and other pupils of Sweelinck. We dare not forget that it was in large part through the work of the colorists that a distinctive instrumental style was developed in Germany and that to this day the Germans are in the very first rank of those who have mastered the art and skill of writing instrumental music in true instrumental style.

The early German masters, who wrote organ music before the colorists appeared on the scene, employed in their organ music a type of polyphony which was basically vocal and choral in character. Through the introduction of intricate musical embroidery and florid passage work the colorists introduced a wholesome type of freedom and liberty into the music of their own native land which was needed in order to produce not only a Scheidt but also a Johann Pachelbel, a Dietrich Buxtehude, a Johann Sebastian Bach, a Beethoven, a Brahms, and a host of other composers. Through the introduction of florid passage work the colorists removed from German instrumental music the mental strait jacket of former days; their music not only furnishes proof that German composers had outgrown their swaddling clothes but also that they now began to wear apparel which would enable them to swim with utter freedom of movement in the turbulent waters of musical composition. We note greater expansion and freedom in this, that the tablatures employed by organists were now used also by performers at other keyboard instruments. Secular music thrived and was regarded as a gift of God intended for the welfare of man. The organ was used as an accompanying instrument, and hymn accompaniments were on their way. Chromatics as well as diminished and augmented intervals were now heard to good effect at the organ; it became necessary to extend keyboards, and also the pedal range was made wider. In these years great advances were made in organ building, which became not only a science but also an art. All this happened in Germany during the coloristic period; we thus see that the era was not one of decline. The era was an important link in the chain of events which progressed steadily from a Konrad Paumann to a Johann Sebastian Bach. All was part of the great sequence with which we must identify Jan Pieters Sweelinck and Samuel Scheidt. If you want proof, examine the music of these masters.

More must be said concerning Sweelinck himself. However, before we take this important step, we should mention that Italy played into the picture to no small extent. Hans Leo Hassler (1564–1612) and Johann Ulrich Steigleder (1593–1635), both of whom were contemporaries of Sweelinck (1562–1621), learned from and admired the work of the Venetian masters Adrian Willaert (ca. 1510–86), Claudio Merulo (1533–1604), Andrea (ca. 1510–86) and Giovanni (1557–1612) Gabrieli. However, these same Venetian masters, together with Gioseffo Zarlino (1517–90), were admired and followed also by Jan Pieters Sweelinck, whose pupils established the North German school of organists and, through Samuel Scheidt, the Central German school; both of these schools were Lutheran, and both differed in more respects than one from the Roman Catholic South German school of organists, whose members were products of the Roman school and of Sweelinck’s foremost contemporary, Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583–1643).

Through his studies under the able guidance of Gioseffo Zarlino, Sweelinck, like Hans Leo Hassler and Heinrich Schütz, helped to establish a most significant rapprochement between northern and southern Europe. But more: since he himself was a Calvinist and since his foremost pupils were Lutherans, we can say that Sweelinck helped to establish and perpetuate a type of Christian ecumenicity among Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and the Reformed which was not merely innocuous, but even salutary and fruitful. In addition, Sweelinck adopted much of the style and many of the practices of the English virginalists, particularly of Dr. John Bull (1563–1628), whose friendship he enjoyed and who based a fantasia on a theme by Sweelinck. While we must admit that the English composers with whom Sweelinck established connections were largely composers of secular music, the fact remains that the majority of these men were Anglicans and most of them, like Sweelinck, did write church music as well as secular music. Sweelinck thus drew the Anglican Church into the ecumenical picture referred to a moment ago. Also in the music of Sweelinck our attention is drawn to the fact that the Calvinism of the Reformed Netherlands was by no means as severe and straitlaced as that of Switzerland and France. Sweelinck’s music is full of the very type of elements which Geneva, Calvin, and Zwingli would never have tolerated. It is not surprising to note, therefore, that a world of difference exists between the music of Jan Pieters Sweelinck and that of the talented but very restricted Claude Goudimel (ca. 1505–72).

The musical tradition of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice had likewise remained free and unhampered. This music was different from that of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (ca. 1525–53) and of the Spaniards Christobal Morales (ca. 1500–53) and Tomás Ludovico da Victoria (ca. 1540–1611), all of whom we identify with the beautiful but reserved music of Rome. The music of the Venetian masters was colorful and dramatic and, though we know that Palestrina had his choirs sing his compositions with accompaniment, we can be reasonably certain that these accompaniments were not as brilliant and impressive as those of the Gabrielis and those of the master composers of Germany, including Samuel Scheidt. That Scheidt at times made a joyful noise unto the Lord in a very literal sense of the term reminds us of the noise made by the brasses of the orchestra of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. There are times when the music of Sweelinck reflects a spirit of typical Calvinistic severity and gravity; we may even conclude that this music reflects a regard for liturgical and ecclesiastical propriety. His organ toccatas, however, though performed in the church, express the free spirit of rhapsodic abandonment which is sounded forth already in the organ music of Claudio Merulo. Bukofzer remarks: “He [Sweelinck] amalgamated in his music the modern Venetian forms with the figurative techniques of the English virginalists.”^[3]

Among the Italian elements adopted by Sweelinck and later passed on to Scheidt and his other students, the use of chromatics plays an important part. The Italians employed chromatics in order to add chroma, or color, to the texts of their music. It is possible, however, that Frescobaldi of Rome learned to use chromatics, not directly from his fellow Italians, the Venetians, but from the Netherlanders who, in turn, had learned it from the Venetians. In his youth, Frescobaldi lived for a time in Flanders; by this time Sweelinck and his two foremost competitors, Peter Philips (ca. 1560 to 1633) and Pieter Cornet (d. 1626) had matured fully as composers. All three made effective use of chromatics. That Frescobaldi learned from Sweelinck and not directly from the Venetians is deduced by some from the fact that Frescobaldi’s pupil, Johann Jakob Froberger (1616–67), at one time used a theme composed by Sweelinck; however, he used it in an abbreviated form. The use of chromatics and of musica ficta helped, of course, to break down the use of the medieval modes. Composers no longer remained altogether true to the mode in which they wrote their music. Modulations became more and more frequent, chromatically altered chords were introduced, and composers began to lean heavily towards major and minor tonalities. The Lydian and Ionian modes, to a large extent also the Mixolydian, were treated very much like major tonalities, while the Aeolian mode was made to correspond to our minor keys. Chromatics were used to weaken the modal character particularly of the Dorian and Phrygian modes, the very modes which differ most clearly from our major and minor. All this becomes apparent not only in the music of Sweelinck but also in that of his pupils and of Johann Pachelbel, an ardent follower of Samuel Scheidt, the pupil of Sweelinck.

Sweelinck also contributed to the expansion and growth of musical form. The ricercare and the canzona were the most popular fugue forms used by the Italians. Adrian Willaert and the two Gabrielis wrote many ricercari and canzoni, as did also Jacques Buus (d. 1565), a Dutch composer who may have been a pupil of Willaert and who was for a time second organist at St. Mark’s in Venice. Sweelinck combined the ricercare and the two-part canzona into a three-part fantasy. He related the themes of the three individual parts to each other according to the practice followed in writing the two-part canzona; however, thematic development took place as it did in the ricercare. Sweelinck therefore went farther than did Hassler, who remained faithful to the ricercare form used by his teacher, Andrea Gabrieli. On the other hand, others followed procedures similar to that followed by Sweelinck. We refer, for example, to Charles Luyton (ca. 1556–1620) of Prague and Pieter Cornet of Brussels. Also Frescobaldi’s name should be mentioned in this connection.

Echo effects play an important part in the music of Sweelinck and Scheidt, as well as in the music of the North German school of organists. It is believed that Sweelinck became fond of these while he was in Italy, where they were applied in the use of pastoral poetry and song. In Germany echo effects became popular in instrumental and vocal, in sacred and secular music. Sweelinck was likewise fond of writing antiphonal and double-chorus music. This fondness he had acquired while studying with Zarlino at St. Mark’s in Venice, where double-chorus music was part of the order of the day already for acoustical reasons. Not only Sweelinck, but also Samuel Scheidt, Heinrich Schütz, Michael Praetorius, and others wrote much music of this type. We likewise call attention to the fact that, already prior to Sweelinck’s day, the colorists of Germany had made much use of antiphonal and echo effects in their instrumental music.

Particularly in two ways did Sweelinck surpass the Italians. First, rhythmically his music is more variegated and interesting; secondly, he understood better how to develop his motifs. The rhythms used by the Italians offered little that was new and challenging. We cannot ascribe this weakness to Sweelinck. The teacher of Samuel Scheidt mastered the skill of developing motifs through studying the variations written by the English virginalists. Variations were popular in those days, also in Italy. Sweelinck learned to write variations chiefly from the music written for the virginal by William Byrd (1543–1623), Orlando Gibbons (1583 to 1625), and John Bull. While volumes could be written which treat Sweelinck’s variation techniques, we shall say no more concerning these at this time, though Samuel Scheidt inherited his mentor’s fondness for variations and became a past master at making use of this form.

Sweelinck was very fond of using sequences in his compositions. As we shall hear again later, the same may be said of Samuel Scheidt, who even used them excessively. Sweelinck and his pupils learned this from the vocal music of the Italians, who used sequences for the purpose of creating musical tension. They thus endeavored to heighten dramatic effects. Even the German colorists made such use of sequences, as did likewise the English virginalists.

The pedal parts of Sweelinck’s organ music, like those of the early English composers, had little or no independent obbligato character. Editors of organ music have often assigned notes and themes to the pedals which Sweelinck had assigned to the manuals. This is often wise and necessary. In this respect Sweelinck’s pupils usually excelled their teacher. As a teacher of musical theory, Sweelinck made faithful use of the principles set forth in Zarlino’s Institutioni armoniche. His pupils later passed on to posterity these same teachings and principles.

Sweelinck was held in high regard by his contemporaries. Some of his pieces were included in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (ca. 1625). When Sweelinck died on October 16, 1621, Dr. John Bull wrote a fantasy and fugue with which he sought to honor the memory of “the last of the great Netherland composers.” Sweelinck was esteemed highly also by his pupils, who sought to follow in his footsteps. Jacob Praetorius even went so far as to try to appropriate and imitate the mannerisms and peculiarities of Sweelinck, the “maker of organists,” who composed a canticum nuptiale for Jakob Praetorius and who dedicated a canon to Heinrich Scheidemann. Partly because two compositions were written jointly by Sweelinck and Samuel Scheidt, some have concluded that Scheidt was the favorite pupil of Sweelinck. While this may not have been the case, we are certain that Samuel Scheidt was the most talented pupil of Jan Pieters Sweelinck of Amsterdam.

II

To understand more fully the work of Samuel Scheidt, one must therefore acquaint oneself with the work of Jan Pieters Sweelinck, his teacher. Without this knowledge one can easily make mistakes akin to those made by people who sought and still seek to judge the works of Johann Sebastian Bach without first familiarizing themselves with the works of those master composers who helped to prepare the way for J. S. Bach and of others who were his colleagues and contemporaries.

There is much misinformation abroad concerning Halle, the city of Scheidt’s birth, the city in which and for which he did much of his work. In the year 1937 this same city published a Festschrift to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the birth of Samuel Scheidt. In a short article contained in this Festschrift, Arnold Schering calls attention to the fact that the portraits of Michael Praetorius, Johann Staden (1581–1634), Heinrich Schütz, and Samuel Scheidt reveal that each of these eminent composers of the Lutheran church was imbued with an impressive Lebensernst. This Lebensernst was by no means accidental. On the contrary, it developed and grew through certain experiences and events in life which made of them men of integrity and character. All lived during the time of the Thirty Years’ War. Those were trying years of oppression and devastation, and we marvel not so much because these men were able to endure it all but rather because they did not permit trial and affliction to deter them and prompt them to cease using the musical talent God had given them. To them music was more than a pastime and a luxury; to them it was a vehicle for prayer, testimony, and thanksgiving; to them it was a necessity, particularly in days of trial and defeat, victory and rejoicing. Their outward countenances mirrored and reflected their inward convictions and strength of character. They lived in days of confusion, breakdown, poverty, and tears, in days of much callousness and hardening of the heart. But despite it all they remained true to their ideals, true to the cause of great music, true to their church, true to their God. Their decimated choirs sang music which these men had to write as simply as possible; in a composition for two equal voices, written by Heinrich Schütz, they sang:

Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness.
Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.
Have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.—Ps. 4:1

But their spirits did not remain depressed; Schütz, Scheidt, and others wrote also Alleluias, settings of the Gloria in Excelsis and of psalms of praise and thanksgiving. They set to music the abiding Word and through their music offered interpretations of that same Word which to this day relieves the heart and gives strength to the soul. Scheidt seems to have been particularly fond of writing elaborate choruses based on Martin Rinckart’s great hymn, Nun danket alle Gott.

Such a person was our Samuel Scheidt. We in America think of him largely as a composer of organ music. While we can certainly pray and give thanks also through the tones of an organ, we should not ignore that Scheidt is one of the great choral composers of the ages. Unlike Schütz and Schein, his eminent contemporaries and friends, he glorified God not only through the medium of choruses and choirs but also with the tones of the organ. He and Michael Praetorius indeed let everything that had breath praise the Lord, whether through the channels of the vocal cords, the pipes of an organ, or the mouthpieces and tubes of other musical instruments. Scheidt wrote this music largely for the purpose of strengthening, sustaining, and edifying his fellow citizens of Halle; hence we should take the time to say a few words regarding conditions in Halle in his day. We shall do so largely on the basis of reports furnished us by Dr. Walter Serauky of the University at Halle.^[4]

During the first half of his career in Halle, Samuel Scheidt was privileged to work under the jurisdiction of Margrave Christian Wilhelm of Brandenburg, an art-loving man who in the years which preceded the Thirty Years’ War made court life in Halle attractive and lustrous largely through the use of music. However, the war put a stop to this. Duke August of Saxony now became administrator, and he, too, respected Samuel Scheidt highly and treated him well until the day of Scheidt’s death. It was particularly through the efforts of Duke August and Samuel Scheidt that Halle became a famous seat of musical culture. Throughout his career as a musician, Scheidt was in the employ of the ducal court at Halle; his work at the Halle churches, though important, was in a way rather incidental. However, prior to the time he spent in Amsterdam to study with Sweelinck, he was for three years organist of Halle’s Moritzkirche; that he was only 17 years old at the time of this appointment testifies not only to his talent but also to the fact that others were aware of his talent and sense of responsibility. He became Hoforganist in the year 1609, after his return from Amsterdam. Between the years 1610 and 1620 the Halle Hofkapelle, of which he was a member, consisted of ten instrumentalists: four trumpeters, one lutanist, one violinist, one violist, two wind instrumentalists, and one organist (Scheidt). It is interesting to note that Michael Praetorius served at times as Kapellmeister of the group, though the seat of his activity was Wolfenbüttel. In addition to the instrumental Hofkapelle, Halle had also its Hofkantorei. Great musical performances took place in connection with certain occasions and festivals; Michael Praetorius often appeared as guest conductor for the occasion. He and Samuel Scheidt became close friends; on one occasion Praetorius imported a positiv from Dresden which was used to augment the festive character of the occasion. The performances at times took place in Halle’s large market place, e.g., at the time Princess Sophie Elisabeth was baptized. It was on this occasion that Samuel Scheidt played the positiv referred to a moment ago. Shortly after, Scheidt was appointed Hofkapellmeister, a position he held until 1619 or early in 1620. This appointment brought about a great change in the life of Samuel Scheidt; he now withdrew from much of his work as a performer and became chiefly a composer of music. He dedicated a number of his compositions to individual members of his Hofkapelle; the relationship which existed between him and his Hofkapelle was evidently most cordial. He was permitted to augment the group, and the group now consisted of two violinists, two violists, two performers on bass instruments, a cornettist, and an organist. Johann Lehmann, who until now had conducted the Hofkantorei, resigned and turned his post over to Scheidt. The nucleus of this choral group was the choral group of the Gymnasium; its soloists and Konzertisten were the members of the Hofkantorei proper.

One reads and hears at times that the Thirty Years’ War did not affect Halle. This is definitely contrary to fact. Halle was subjected to the terrors and tensions of the war particularly after 1624. In 1625 Wallenstein entered the city. In that same year Margrave Christian Wilhelm was obliged to leave Halle, since he had entered the service of Christian IV of Denmark, who sought to come to the rescue of the Protestants. The Hofkapelle could no longer be supported and was disbanded. That Scheidt might not leave Halle, he was appointed municipal Kapellmeister in 1628. He resigned from this office in 1630, and some feared Scheidt’s career as a musician had ended. For Samuel Scheidt the following eight years were trying years indeed, and it was not until 1638 that new hopes arose. In that year August entered the city. Special music was presented to observe the occasion, and a festive service of worship was conducted in the Dom of the city. Scheidt wrote a Te Deum for the occasion, which was sung after the sermon had been delivered. In his sermon the preacher of the day, Christian Weber, made special mention of the music of the service. The Dom was declared the Hofkirche of the city, and Scheidt was put in charge of the music. Though it did not meet the standards of former years, the Hofkapelle again began to function. It included Wolfgang Teubner, a native of Prague and a famous harpist of the 17th century. The Hofkapelle was now here to stay and, after the days of Samuel Scheidt, helped to introduce grand opera into Halle.

Scheidt was on friendly terms with the church musicians of Halle. We refer to those who were active at the three leading churches of Halle. Despite the Thirty Years’ War, the organ came to the fore in Germany at this time, and the respect formerly shown the cantors of the church was now shown more and more the organists of the church. Towards the close of the war, cantors of churches began to lose their influence too because court music often brought about the decline and downfall of church music and even of music in the homes (Hausmusik). The St. Marienkirche in Halle maintained the best musical traditions in the early years of the 16th century; musical standards began to rise in St. Ulrich and St. Moritz in the second half of the 16th century. It seems that Scheidt’s relations with the church organists of Halle were more intimate than those with the cantors. There were times when in one or the other of the three churches mentioned the musical standards must have been rather low, for complaints have been recorded which make mention of this. This was true particularly of the music at St. Ulrich. However, Michael Meister, a very able musician and a close friend of Melchior Vulpius, was cantor of St. Ulrich from 1618 to 1626. Samuel Scheidt felt attached particularly to Halle’s Moritzkirche, whose organ pleased him greatly. Though the Moritz parish was the poorest of the three, it is interesting to note that this congregation purchased a new organ in 1625, at the very time when conditions were becoming highly critical in Halle. Scheidt had much to do with the building of this instrument, which cost a total of 935 gulden, of which Scheidt paid 200 gulden out of his own pocket. The organ was built by none other than Johann Heinrich Compenius, a personal friend of Scheidt, who was at that time only 17 years old. We are thus obliged to identify the name Compenius with that of Scheidt just as we identify the name of Gottfried Silbermann with that of Johann Sebastian Bach.

To obtain a complete picture of conditions in Halle during the days of Samuel Scheidt, we must consider also what happened in its Gymnasium, since the work done at the Gymnasium was the very backbone of all musical activity. Serauky^[5] insists that all musical enterprise in Halle lacked a foundation until 1565, the year in which Halle’s Gymnasium was founded. The student choir of the Gymnasium then became the hub around which all other musical activity revolved. As stated before, this student group was the nucleus of the Hofkantorei. The teachers of music at the Gymnasium served as cantors of the Halle churches. Students recruited from the three upper classes constituted the Stadtchor or municipal Kantorei; in keeping with common practice of that day, the group would furnish the choral music for each of the three churches, singing in the St. Marienkirche one Sunday, in St. Ulrich the next, and in the Moritzkirche the following Sunday. Thereupon the cycle would again be repeated. A second choir rendered similar service in the parish churches of the city, while the music for funerals, weddings, and other occasions was presented by members of the Kurrende.

Samuel Scheidt was obliged to put up with very serious handicaps and inconveniences during the time of the Thirty Years’ War. We refer now to his Kantorei, which in the early years of the 17th century numbered about forty singers. In 1627 it numbered no more than ten members; a few years later, like Bach’s Thomanerchor of many years, it totaled 16 members. The boys lived in the Gymnasium, where they received board, room, and other needed care. Oddly enough, in 1641 all student members of the Kantorei came from other places and parts of Germany, and not one was a permanent resident of Halle. When they would sing in a certain church, the cantor of that respective church would conduct. Samuel Scheidt made it a point to maintain close contact with the Gymnasium. When necessary, he criticised and complained severely and in no uncertain terms. On one occasion he remarked that the singing of the students reminded him of the bellowing of oxen, sheep, and calves; “they sing as though their mouths are filled with plums so that one can understand and follow neither the text nor the tune—one is tempted to clog his ears and run out of the churches.”^[6] However, Scheidt did not only find fault; he was ever ready to step in to remedy conditions. According to all indications the cantors of Halle were as aware of the genius of Samuel Scheidt as they were of the respect which the citizenry of Halle accorded him. Scheidt shared one great personal gift of Heinrich Schütz: When he gave people a piece of his mind, there was only one thing for them to do, and that was to take it. Like Heinrich Schütz, he was a strong character and a man of deep-rooted and fearless convictions.

The court life of Halle, its churches, and its schools helped to attract many to this city, including artists of various types and categories, also poets as well as people of high learning. The city maintained healthy international contacts which contributed to its growth and to the development of its character. Dr. Rolf Hünicken, the municipal archivist of Halle, reports in his article Scheidt und Halle. Eine Studie über die Zusammenhänge von Erb- und Bildungskräften^[7] that merchants came to Halle from Scotland, goldsmiths came from Switzerland, painters and wood carvers from the Netherlands, and musicians from England and Italy. He speaks of the wonders of Halle architecture and calls attention to the fact that at the close of the 16th century Halle established its basis as a cultural center. Into this world we must put Samuel Scheidt, a leading citizen and guiding spirit of this city. Taking into consideration that religion and music weld together a people and help to integrate them, we begin to realize better the importance of a Samuel Scheidt not only for the city of Halle but even more so for the development of a healthy culture which became not only German but even international in character. A healthy democratic spirit prevailed in the city, and also the common-run musician could count on being respected by his fellow citizens.

III

The democratic and high cultural level of Halle manifested itself also in the liturgical worship practices of the individual parishes. As we examine these we see the doctrine of the royal priesthood in action. We become aware, too, of a solid type of sound Lutheranism and find that the blessed work done by Martin Luther in nearby Wittenberg only a century before bore fruit an hundredfold. We dare not ignore, of course, that Halle later became the center of the Pietistic Movement in Germany and that August Hermann Francke (1663–1727), whose pietism was of a zealotistic order, helped to bring fame to Halle not only through the lectures he delivered at the university and through his activities as a pastor but also through the orphanage he established there in 1695. This orphanage achieved fame in part through its cultural endeavors, and it is known that members of the nobility who sought a consecrated and cultured wife often contacted the Halle orphanage for this purpose. The very fact that this orphanage interested itself in a cultural type of education interests us not only because the pietists often assumed an unfriendly attitude towards art and culture but also because we are almost compelled to conclude that the general cultural atmosphere of Halle helped to bring this about and thus perhaps helped to temper a zealot like Francke. We recall at this time, too, that George Frederic Handel was a native of Halle, that his teacher Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow (1663–1712) was active here for many years, and that in 1713 Johann Sebastian Bach was asked to leave Weimar for Halle to become the successor to Zachow at the Liebfrauenkirche.

Our knowledge of the musico-liturgical worship practices of Halle during the 17th century is by no means complete. It is believed that the Kirchenordnung of Halle was prepared by Luther’s coworker Justus Jonas, the first Lutheran superintendent of Halle. We today possess only a fragment of this Kirchenordnung.^[8] The instructions it gives apply more to the singing done by the choir and not so much to the singing by the congregation under the direction of the sexton or verger (Küster). In view of the fact that German translations of certain hymns seem to have been unknown in Halle, it was not unusual for the choirs to sing these hymns in their original Latin version. In fact, much Latin was sung. It was not until after the Thirty Years’ War had ended that greater use was made of the German language. Christhard Mahrenholz reports^[9] that no serious attempts were made by the city council of Halle to abolish the use of much Latin until May 1702. This explains why Samuel Scheidt so often made use of Latin texts.

On ordinary Sundays the choir alternated with the congregation in presenting the hymn used as Gradual, the Creed was omitted, and a free composition was sung instead. After the sermon either a contrapuntal work or a geistliches Konzert was sung. On the festivals of the church year the choir sang in addition to the above: the Introit, the Kyrie the Et in terra pax, the Epistle- and the Gospel-sequence. In the Order of Vespers a Latin hymn was sung alternatingly with the congregation, or a double-chorus version of the Te Deum was sung. At the close of the service a Latin version of either the Magnificat or the Benedicamus was sung. In services devoted to a study of the Catechism, contrapuntal and instrumental music was presented after the Benediction had been pronounced. When it was necessary for the cantor to be with his choir, it was incumbent upon the verger to lead the singing of the congregation. Although the Moritzkirche was the favorite church of Samuel Scheidt, it was least favored as far as musical performances were concerned; the music for the festivals of the church year was not presented in St. Moritz until the third day of the feast, since this parish was the youngest of the three. For the minor feasts, including the first Sunday in Advent, Feast of the Circumcision, Palm Sunday, Ascension Day, and others, there was no special music in St. Moritz at all. On such days it was the duty of the organist to present special music which was to replace music by the choir. This may explain why much of the music of the third part of the Tabulatura nova was written. The organ was used often for the performance of liturgical music; in such cases the text was not sung at all, neither were congregation or choir active in the performance of the music. This also explains why Scheidt wrote so many organ settings of the Magnificat. When the text of the Magnificat was sung, it was sung in Latin. The first half of each verse was sung by the officiant or a soloist, while only the second half was sung by the choir. Psalm tones were used for the Magnificat as well as for the chantings of psalms and Introits. It is possible that the congregation consistently sang along when the Gloria Patri was sung. Samuel Scheidt based no organ music on hymns intended for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. This may have been due to the fact that the organ usually remained silent in the services of these days.

We thus see that many of the musico-liturgical practices of Halle were identical with those of other parishes. Not a few were identical with those of St. Sebaldus in Nuremberg, where Johann Pachelbel was active. Halle is located in Saxony, and we know that in this great province of Germany the traditional Lutheran liturgies were retained without interruption throughout the years which led up to Bach. We become more fully aware of this as we study the work of Samuel Scheidt and as we relate the same to his life and career in Halle.

IV

Many facts regarding the genealogy of Samuel Scheidt have been gathered. Dr. RoIf Hünicken has made some available,^[10] and time permits us to refer to only a few. Samuel Scheidt’s parents were of Thuringian stock. His father’s family loved freedom; its innate Wanderlust prompted its members to love travel and made them somewhat unstable and restless. While Samuel’s father, Konrad Scheidt, inherited this trait, it was offset in large part by the stability of the Achtmann family and of Anna, the daughter of the master baker Simon Achtmann and the wife of Konrad Scheidt. To use an expression current in our day, the Achtmann family was made of solid stuff and was imbued with what the Germans call Charakterfestigkeit. This trait Samuel Scheidt inherited from his mother. It is difficult to ascertain with certainty where Konrad Scheidt was born; it may have been in Glaucha, which was close to Halle. The family of his wife came to Halle from Gera. The Scheidts and the Achtmanns were on intimate terms and associated with people of artistic leanings. Among these was the Compenius clan, which achieved immortality in the history of organ building; among these was also the Stellwagen family, famous for its wood carvings but addicted to kleptomania. While Samuel Scheidt inherited his strength of character from his mother, it is possible that he inherited his musical talent from his father. Not only Samuel, but also two other sons of Konrad Scheidt became musicians and composers. One of these was Gottfried Scheidt (1593–1661) who, like Samuel, studied with Sweelinck and later was court organist in Altenburg. While Michael Praetorius, in addition to being a musician, was likewise a brewmaster, Samuel Scheidt is likely the only illustrious member of the music world whose father was a barkeeper who eventually became a Ratsbierschenk. However, Hünicken^[11] states that, according to all indications, Konrad Scheidt shared the profound religious spirit of his wife. When Samuel Scheidt in 1627 married Helene Margaretha Keller, he not only married a patrician noblewoman, but he thereby affiliated with the Olearius relationship, which ultimately produced none other than George Frederick Handel. Samuel Scheidt became the father of seven children; of these, five died as victims of a pestilence. As we shall hear again later, the life of Samuel Scheidt was by no means devoid of grief, trial, and sorrow.

The exact date of Samuel Scheidt’s birth is not known. He was baptized on November 4, 1587, and may therefore have been born on November 3. We know very little regarding his early youth but assume that like his brother Gottfried he was a product of the Lutheran Gymnasium in Halle. At the early age of seventeen he became organist of Halle’s Moritzkirche. He served in this capacity for three years and then went to Amsterdam to study with the renowned Jan Pieters Sweelinck. After he had been a pupil of Sweelinck for only two years, he returned to Halle at the age of twenty-two to be Hoforganist for Margrave Christian Wilhelm. In the Magdalen Chape1 of the Moritzburg he played the organ every Sunday for the early morning preaching service and for the Order of Vespers. It was his duty, too, to play the clavichord for social functions at the court. As stated previously, he assisted at times at his former post in the Moritzkirche. Pupils soon came to him in increasing numbers, and much of his work was devoted to teaching musical theory and composition. His reputation spread, and not a few requested that he compose music for them. Among these early works we find a set of variations on the chorale Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, which Fritz Dietrich has included as the first composition of his Elf Orgelchoräle des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts.^[12]We find in these variations the unmistakable influence of the German colorists, and in them Scheidt is not at his best. Various other sets of variations of his early years are today available.

Scheidt’s more mature works date back to the early 1620s. In 1624, the 37th year of his life, he began to publish his greatest work, his Tabulatura nova. The publication of this important opus was indeed an appropriate centennial thanksgiving offering for the publication of the first Lutheran hymnal in 1524. This applies particularly to its third part, which is liturgical in spirit and expression. The title chosen by Scheidt was not original on his part; it had been used already by others, e.g., for Gregor Krengel’s Tabulatura nova of 1584. Scheidt himself informs us in the preface to the first part of his Tabulatura nova why he made his monumental work available. Some were anxious to study musical theory and composition with him who did not live in or near Halle and hence were unable to study with him. For them he then arranged a correspondence course, a procedure we frown upon more or less today as far as the study of music is concerned. As you all know, a correspondence course involves much labor for the teacher as well as for the student. Scheidt’s Tabulatura nova was to serve the purpose of relieving the Halle master of this burden. In addition, despite his instructions to the contrary, some of Scheidt’s pupils had distributed his compositions among others. These manuscripts naturally included the many mistakes which usually go into music copied by hand. Taking into consideration that this music had been prepared largely for the express purpose of teaching musical theory and composition, Scheidt could not help but disapprove most heartily of the dissemination of manuscripts of his music which had not been authenticated. For similar reasons he had begun to publish his choral works already four years earlier. I refer to the publication of his Cantiones sacrae of 1620. This collection contains 38 a cappella choral works, each for eight voices. Fourteen of these were settings of chorales and Latin hymns. At about this time Samuel Scheidt was appointed Hofkapellmeister, likely succeeding the English violinist William Brade (1560–1630), who left Halle in 1619 to accept a position in Brandenburg. Scheidt’s new position naturally enhanced his prestige, since it put him in charge of all choral and instrumental music at the court. He continued to conduct the music in the Magdalen Chapel and thus kept up his activity in church music.

In 1621 appeared the first part of Scheidt’s Ludi musici, a collection of instrumental dances. The second part of this collection was published in 1622. Scheidt gave about the same reason for publishing this music that he gave two years later for publishing his Tabulatura nova. He complained that it pained his ears to hear all the changes and mistakes that had been made by those who without his consent copied or disseminated unauthentic manuscripts of his music. The third part was published in 1625, the fourth in 1627. It is most unfortunate, says Mahrenholz,^[13] that so much of his precious music has been lost to posterity. In it one finds a revelation of the composer’s skillful use of rich harmonies, his manifold ways of expressing what he has to say, and clear evidence of a well-tempered spirit of joy.

Because the publication of his Cantiones sacrae had met with encouraging success, he published in 1622 the first part of his Concertuum sacrorum for two, three, four, five, eight, and twelve voices. In all, it contained twelve compositions: three Magnificats, a Mass, and seven settings of Biblical texts. Only one of these compositions, Herr, unser Herrscher, had a German text. The Italian influence is clearly present, likewise the type of intemperance which we find in some music of the Italian baroque. The music sparkles and glimmers, and we note a lack of the inner depth which we are accustomed to find in noteworthy choral music of Germany. We note in these compositions also an excessive use of echo effects.

Donald Ferguson remarks in his A History of Musical Thought:^[14] “—particularly Samuel Scheidt . . . laid solid foundations for that pinnacle to which Bach . . . was to climb.” Our esteemed friend, who has been present at more than one of our conferences during the past ten years, is referring here to the organ music of Samuel Scheidt. While he here refers to Bach as a pinnacle, Gotthold Frotscher^[15] uses the same expression (Gipfelpunkt) when he refers to Scheidt’s position in the organ world of pre-Bach days as a composer of chorale preludes. We must think at this time primarily of Scheidt’s Tabulatura nova, a work so significant that the editors of the Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst could think of no better work to publish as the first volume of their great series (1892). Bokofzer^[16] calls this work “epoch-making.” Mahrenholz^[17] calls attention to the fact that the perilous clouds of the Thirty Years’ War had begun to gather over Halle by 1624 and that this likely persuaded Scheidt to publish the three parts of his Tabulatura nova before matters grew worse. In this work Scheidt did not use the traditional organ tablature. He used instead the Italian keyboard partitura which allowed a separate five-line staff for each voice. All prominence is given the cantus firmus, and we have in this practice one of the strongest characteristics of the music of Samuel Scheidt, notably that based on the chorale. What is more, he restricts himself to the use of one theme; one may find in his music a multiplicity of counterpoints, but not a multiplicity of themes. Frotscher^[18] has also this in mind when he says that Scheidt varies not the substance of his compositions but only their garment. We thus find remarkable clarity in his compositions. On the other hand, Scheidt did not put undue stress on simplicity; while we must marvel at times at the utter simplicity of his compositions,^[19] there are times when even his chorale harmonizations are somewhat complex. He did not always remain within the mode of a composition and departed from the same by means of chromatics; his chords at times become very dissonant and suggest tonal modulation. There are also times when he altered the melody of a chorale through the use of accidentals or through the use of figuration. Scheidt did not therefore follow in the footsteps of Lukas Osiander (1534–1604), who insisted upon using the chorale melody in the upper voice for the sake of simplicity and thus allied himself with the principles of Calvinism and Zwinglianism; neither did Scheidt adopt the stark simplicity found in the music of the Cantionale of Andreas Raselius (1588), of Rogier Michael (1593), of Seth Calvisius (1597), and of Johann Eccard (1597). Scheidt expressed his disapproval of the Osiander ideal also by refusing to make extensive use of the isometric chorale and by refusing to substitute the isometric version of the chorale melody for the rhythmic. Osiander stressed such simplicity in order that congregation and choir remain “nicely” (hübsch) together. Scheidt was an artist and a man of deep understanding; he refused to clothe his art in a strait jacket or to bind it with arresting fetters and shackles. From the music of the colorists, from that of his teacher, and from that of the Venetians and of the English virginalists Samuel Scheidt had learned to know the value of freedom and the worth of rhythmic variety. We shall see this also when we consider his Görlitzer Tabulaturbuch.

Samuel Scheidt applied greatest reserve when he treated liturgical materials. That may be seen as one studies the music of the third part of his Tabulatura nova. The first two parts of Tabulatura nova include music of various types: settings of chorales and secular songs, echo compositions, and fugues. In the first part he has variations of German chorales only and in the second has only one composition which is based on a Latin hymn. In this music he enjoys employing freedom and liberty. Not so, however, in the third part. With but one exception,^[20] he here bases his music on Latin liturgical cantus firmi and states that he has used them pure & absque ullo colore, that is, true to the melody and without figuration or ornamentation. In other words, as is stressed by Scheidt in his foreword to Part Three of his Tabulatura nova, Scheidt insists that particularly the liturgical cantus firmus be clear and distinct, that here no rhythmical variety be employed to obscure the cantus firmus, and that here the cantus firmus be not altered and thus rendered unclear through notes and figuration which are not part of the cantus firmus itself. Scheidt stresses here not simplicity, but clarity. The third part of his Tabulatura nova was prepared for use in the liturgical services of the Lutheran Church. He did not arrange the compositions of this part in the order in which they were used in the liturgical services of Halle. In fact, compositions for the Order of Holy Communion are put alongside of those intended for the Order of Vespers. Thus after the Kyrie and the Gloria in Excelsis follow settings for organ of the Magnificat, and the Credo follows the hymns for Vespers. Imitation plays an important part in this liturgical music and is used to put the cantus firmus into bolder relief. The music is related to the organ fantasy more than to the organ variation. Scheidt provided Part Three of his Tabulatura nova with definite and clear-cut suggestions for the performer, who is told which manuals and which stops he is to use and is told, too, whether and where he is to use a 16', an 8', or a 4' stop on the manuals and on the pedals. He mentions expressly that the cantus firmus is to be played with a solo stop that has a sharp and cutting tone. Compenius evidently built an organ which possessed these qualities for the Moritzkirche in Halle, and that is why Scheidt was likely so fond of playing in this church. On the other hand, Scheidt at no time suggests or intimates that he had any one organ in mind when he wrote his music and set forth his requirements, not even the organ of St. Moritz. He does, however, state what tone qualities an organ should have and what ranges are to be used for an effective performance of his music. We might yet add that Scheidt provided also instructions for playing double pedal parts.

Mahrenholz ^[21] is of the opinion that the conclusion of Samuel Scheidt’s activities as an active organist likely coincided with the publication of his Tabulatura nova. That he continued to love the organ as a musical instrument we take for granted. History records that, as in the case of J. S. Bach, he continued to examine and pass judgment on newly built organs in churches. Since the war had not yet brought troops into Halle, Scheidt succeeded in making available the third part of his Ludi musici in the year after he had completed his Tabulatura nova, and he made plans to add to the Concertus sacri, which he had published in 1621–22. However, the war frustrated these plans. The tensions of war became acute in 1625, and, in addition, an epidemic broke out. In a service of humiliation and prayer the seriousness of the situation was presented to the people, and Kyries ascended to God’s throne on high. After much deliberation Administrator Christian Wilhelm decided to ally himself with Christian IV, the king of Denmark. In November 1625 Wallenstein took possession of Halle. The administrator left, and court life ceased to function. Scheidt derived some income from various side jobs, and less fortunate musicians clung to him for help. Other musicians sought work in other cities and communities. Amidst all these trials, Scheidt married at the age of forty. He and Helene Margaretha Keller united in marriage on April 16, 1627. Since conditions became no worse in Halle in 1627–28, Scheidt published the fourth and last part of his Ludi musici.

In the fall of 1631 Gustavus Adolphus took over the city amidst much jubilation on the part of the people of Halle. The soldiers were kept under strict control, the abuses of former days ceased, and the people now began to breathe freely again.^[22] Scheidt, too, felt relieved and now returned to the preparation of additional concertus sacri. Since he could find no publisher, he decided to simplify the music, to reduce the number of voices, and to drop the instruments of the accompaniment, retaining only the figured bass part of the continuo. These Newe geistliche Concerte for two and three voices included twenty compositions of which not a few were based on chorales. A quodlibet based on three chorales was included, and the opus was published by Oelschlegel of Halle. For a time Gustavus Adolphus lost possession of the city, and though he regained it again later, the harm done the city was so great that it did not recover for a long time. It was not until 1634 that Scheidt continued to extend his series of Geistliche Concerte, and in 1635 two additional parts of these were published. This music, though written in war years, was for eight and twelve voices and for two, three, and four choruses. We again find the Lutheran chorale well represented The second volume contained thirty compositions and the third, which was related to the church year, thirty-four. In 1635 was published also his Liebliche Krafft-Blümlein/Aus des Heyligen Geistes Lustgarten abgebrochen/vnd zum Vorschmack/des ewigen Lebens/im zweystimmichten Him/mels-Chor versetzet. The music is two-part with continuo accompaniment, and it includes twelve compositions.

Saxony and Sweden did not get along with each other too well, and tensions were again acute. In addition, a frightful pestilence plagued all of central Germany and brought death to all four of Scheidt’s children. It was not until 1638 that Halle experienced relief from pestilence and plunderings. Administrator Christian Wilhelm was deposed and Prince August of Saxony was elected in his place. A festive service was conducted in the Domkirche to welcome the new regent. Scheidt wrote a setting of the Te Deum for the occasion, of which it was said that no such beautiful music had been heard before. From this time, too, date Scheidt’s elaborate triple-chorus arrangement of Nun danket alle Gott, a chorale which he used repeatedly and which was perhaps his favorite chorale, and likewise a setting of Nun lob’, mein’ Seel’, den Herren.

Samuel Scheidt was now reinstated as Kapellmeister of the Halle court. Since the Magdalen Chapel had been burned to the ground in 1637, Scheidt no longer had to concern himself about presenting music in it. It was not until 1644, at which time the Administrator again took up residence in Halle, that the Dom of Halle became the official church of the court. A court organist was no longer needed. A certain Friedrich Köhler continued to serve as organist of the Dom. Times were again more quiet in Halle, and in 1640 Scheidt finally completed the fourth volume of his Geistliche Concerte which was published by Hennig Köler of Leipzig. The volume contained 31 compositions and the chorale was again well represented. The fifth and sixth volumes, both of which were lost to posterity, soon followed. We know, however, what their contents were: the fifth contained 35 compositions, of which some were settings of chorales and others liturgical compositions, and the sixth contained 26 choral works, of which some were settings of chorales (including Esaia dem Propheten das geschah) and other compositions based on Biblical texts. In 1641 Scheidt published a collection of vocal compositions for weddings; they were arranged for five voices, and their style was made to conform somewhat to that of madrigals. In the early 1640s Scheidt wrote his LXX Symphonien auff Concertenmanir. These were not intended so much as independent works but rather as sinfonias which might be played at the beginning of a choral work or as interludes and ritornels which might be played between certain sections of a choral composition of larger proportions. To make them as practical as possible, they were written at various pitch levels and in the various keys or modes. They were written for no special compositions of his own and might be used together with choral works by other composers. Meanwhile the lengthy Thirty Years’ War was drawing to its close. Negotiations for the Peace of Westphalia were begun, and the treaty was signed on October 14, 1648. Halle had been spared the ravages which accompanied the last years of the war. The city quite naturally resolved to join in with the rest of Germany to thank God in its churches and in services of worship. These services often began with the singing of Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr, the Te Deum was sung, as were also such hymns as Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott, Nun lob’, mein’ Seel’, den Herren, and Nun danket alle Gott.

The close of the war aroused new hopes in Scheidt, and in these last years he again returned to writing music for the organ. Thus arose his famous Görlitzer Tabulaturbuch. However, much that is contained therein he had written already in his earlier years for his own personal use. At the time he completed his work, he still had not found a publisher. After looking around for years, a councilman of Görlitz bearing the name of Endermann was persuaded to present the matter of subsidizing the publication of this Tabulaturbuch to the town council of Görlitz, which complied with the request and also put the work into the hands of a publisher and printer, Martin Herman of Görlitz. All this quite naturally explains the name Görlitzer Tabulaturbuch; the volume was not prepared, therefore, to supply a special need for the city of Görlitz, but Scheidt dedicated the volume to Görlitz as a token of his gratitude. The volume contains harmonizations of one hundred hymns of which Scheidt thought that they were the chorales most widely used in Germany. Though it is often stated that the Görlitzer Tabulaturbuch is the first Choralbuch of the Lutheran Church, Mahrenholz and others rightly point to the fact this volume is not a Choralbuch at all and that it differs radically from practically all Choralbücher of the Lutheran Church. It is virtually impossible for a congregation to sing to the accompaniment of many of the harmonizations of the Görlitzer Tabulaturbuch. We are safer in concluding that it serves its purpose best when used with the Alternatimspraxis of the Lutheran Church. Various Kirchenordnungen encourage us to take this position. A Mecklenburg Kirchenordnung of 1650 thus says: “Where organs are available, there should the organist play every other stanza.” A Kirchenordnung of Braunschweig and Lüneburg of the year 1709 says: “In those churches in which organs are available, it is the duty of the organist to make known the chorale melody, to get the singing of chorales started in the service, and to play a stanza without playing a variation instead; this latter practice is to be followed also while the hymn is in progress of being sung.” While it may be true that the settings which Scheidt prepared for his Görlitzer Tabulaturbuch may have differed quite radically from those used in various parishes, this need not have prevented organists from using them in connection with the Alternatimspraxis. Not only Scheidt, but also others refused to use slavishly the simplicity insisted upon by Olearius and later by the pietists It was no more unusual to use both the rhythmical and the isometric version of chorales in connection with the Alternatimspraxis than it was to use various harmonizations and to use a very plain version of the chorale for one stanza and a figurate or coloristic version or a chorale variation for another.

In the Liebfrauenkirche of Halle there were two organs; this naturally encouraged Scheidt to include echo effects in his organ music. The choir was often divided and its various divisions placed in various parts of the church. We see here the influence of St. Mark’s in Venice, of Zarlino, and of Sweelinck. Scheidt was not the only one to take over these ideas; Michael Praetorius resorted to the same practice, as did others. To us this seems theatrical, and to our sensitive ears this sounds very much overdone and even naive. The same applies to a large extent to the use of sequences. Even the music of Bach contains many sequences, and Debussy is known to have ridiculed the music of Bach by stating that it consists of nothing but sequences. However, Scheidt made much greater and at the same time less discriminate use of sequences, but it was done for a purpose, namely, to heighten the effect and to add dramatic emphasis. We often are not affected by echoes and sequences in this way, but to the people of the 17th and 18th centuries these devices sounded just as effective as certain other devices seem effective to us today, though they might sound naive and ineffective to people of other generations.

Like other masters of the 17th and 18th centuries, Scheidt used all the musical means at his disposal in order to add to the worth and effectiveness of his music. It did not matter to him that a device or a style which he used had been used previously in secular music, in madrigals, in music written for the virginal, in the music of the colorists, among Roman Catholics and Calvinists, or at court functions; if it served his purpose and served it well, he used it and, to our thinking, he at times used it even injudiciously. What he did was thoroughly in keeping with Luther’s remark that we employ everything that hath clapper to praise the Lord. We do not imply thereby that Scheidt was indifferent to liturgical decency and wholesome standards; had this been the case, he would not be among the immortals today, and we recall, too, how in the third part of his Tabulatura nova he was sensitive to healthy liturgical worship standards. If we rule out his music for the reasons referred to, we must rule out also the music of practically all Lutheran masters, and the next step we will have to take will be to replace the work of these geniuses of the church with the work of mediocrities and musical nonentities who may have the pious desire to do what is right and wholesome but from whom God Himself has withheld the gifts and the musical sensitivity needed for the creation of first-class church music. Then, too, likely, everything will be regulated by precepts and ordinances instituted by men who do everything according to rote and rule. The geistliche Konzerte of Scheidt remind us of this problem. The very word Konzert will fill the minds of some with misgivings. However, we wonder at times whether Scheidt should here have chosen the word Konzert, since the composition in question sounds more like an accompanied motet. Not a few of these geistliche Konzerte should, in fact, be called cantatas, for they have the earmarks of the cantata, and we wonder at times why Scheidt’s name is referred to but very rarely and usually not at all when we speak of the church cantata. While the da capo aria is still missing, we do have in the geistliche Konzerte of Samuel Scheidt mighty opening choruses, duets, chorale variations, an echo chorus, motetlike movements and, at the close, a simple four-part harmonization of the chorale. This type of structure we find, for example, in his geistliche Konzerte, Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein, in which he covers all seven stanzas, and Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, in which he covers the eight stanzas of the hymn. In connection with this very matter, Mahrenholz^[23] says: “In truth do we find in the music of Scheidt the cantata in such distinct and clear-cut form that we marvel, that in this respect Scheidt has to this day remained unnoticed. We are still without a history of the cantata, especially of the chorale-cantata; when one does appear, it will hardly be able to pass up Samuel Scheidt.” We so often speak of Andreas Hammerschmidt (1611–1675) having helped to pave the way for the coming of the cantata through his Dialogi oder Gespräche zwischen Gott und einer gläubigen Seele (1645–1669), but the work done by Hammerschmidt along these lines is much further removed from the cantata than the geistliche Konzerte of Samuel Scheidt who, let us not forget, belonged to the generation which preceded that of Hammerschmidt. In this respect Scheidt was ahead also of Heinrich Schütz, his contemporary, whose Dialoge are in reality no closer to the cantata than the Dialogi of Andreas Hammerschmidt. Incidentally, in his geistliche Konzerte Scheidt included at least three choral dialogs which he himself had written.

A relationship exists between Scheidt and the chorale cantata also in this that what Scheidt and, of course, also Sweelinck and the virginalists did by way of instrumental variations was applied by Johann Pachelbel and J. S. Bach in some of their cantatas. We think, for example, of Bach’s cantata No. 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden, which in turn is very similar to that based by Pachelbel, an ardent friend of Scheidt’s music, on the same chorale.^[24] When we study and compare these cantatas with the variations of Scheidt, we begin to realize to what great extent a man like J. S. Bach admired and leaned on the work done by his musical forerunners. Although we have no large-scale oratorios by Scheidt, it is believed^[25] that he wrote a contrapuntal setting of the Passion for performance in the churches of Halle in the very midst of the season of Lent, on Laetare Sunday.

While it does not occur often, there are a few instances where Scheidt uses a double orchestra (eight part), e.g., in what we might call his echo symphonies. His orchestral works have a distinct Italian flavor, and in them we find the seed of later orchestral works of Germany, and they show us, too, that Germany was already fairly well along on its way to the leadership it enjoys in the orchestral world to this day Through Scheidt Germany made rapid strides also as far as the development of musical form was concerned. We discover this already in his Tabulatura nova. The colorists had used the terms “fantasy” and “fugue” synonymously; in the music of Scheidt each has more of its own individuality. His toccatas, too, have more individuality of their own, more, for example, than those of Sweelinck, which in large part are modeled after those of Merulo. In other instances, where Sweelinck was influenced by music written for the virginal alone, we see in the music of Scheidt not only the influence of the virginal but also that of the stringed instruments of an orchestra; we refer to the so-called imitatio violistica. Scheidt’s echoes, too, are more independent than those of his teacher. What Sweelinck calls a fantasy, Scheidt calls a fuga. In much of his music, Scheidt is more skillful than his teacher at driving home his principal theme. Willi Apel^[26] states: “On the whole, Scheidt lacks the ingenious imagination of his teacher.” While the statement is likely true, some may be inclined to challenge its veracity. Of this we may be sure: Sweelinck is in truth the last of the great Netherland composers, while Scheidt is on the threshold of a new era. Scheidt is more of a transition composer than Sweelinck; at times he seems to be at home neither in the medieval modes nor in the major and minor tonalities. His Görlitzer Tabulaturbuch belongs into the new era, and in it we see Scheidt breaking away almost completely from the medieval modes; everything flows and moves along chromatically and otherwise, and only the cantus firmus holds its ground without swaying. We here have a foretaste of the chorale harmonizations of Bach. Both masters assigned figuration to each voice, and a polyphonic type of coloration is the result. We find, too, the early development of the figured bass in this music.

In his chorale variations Scheidt does not attempt to interpret the text. The number of his variations does not correspond to the number of stanzas of a hymn. Scheidt perpetuated what he had learned in the field of chorale variations from Sweelinck, whom we must regard as the first great composer of chorale variations. Sweelinck’s variations are cycles; therefore his variations are related to one another. It remained for Reinken, Böhm, Buxtehude, Pachelbel, Walther, J. S. Bach, and other composers of the second and third generation after Samuel Scheidt to write variations which were not part of a large interrelated cycle and each of which was independent, capable of serving as an autonomous prelude, offertory, or postlude. That Scheidt did not seek to relate his variations to a special stanza becomes apparent also from the fact that he included no repeats in his variations.

Though Samuel Scheidt taught many pupils, only one, Adam Krieger (1634–1666), achieved lasting fame which has endured to the present day. Through Adam Krieger German solo song was related to a folk idiom. Hermann Kretzschmar^[27] is of the opinion that he may have learned this from Scheidt, notably from his Tabulatura nova. We have already referred to the fact that Scheidt possessed a strong character. That he was a pious man we may assume without much hesitation. That he was loyal to his Lutheran Church, her teachings, and her traditions becomes evident as we study his life and his music. We may also be sure that he loved the chorales of his church; he used them to so great an extent that we cannot think of his music without thinking of the chorale. By his very insistence that in the performance of his music the chorale be played clearly and distinctly he gave clear evidence of his high regard for the chorale. The chorales were to him an expression of his Christian faith, and it was hardly accidental that the first opus of each of his two most monumental works, the Tabulatura nova and his Geistliche Konzerte, was a composition based on the Lutheran Credo: Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott. As already stated, Samuel Scheidt died on Good Friday March 24, 1654. The works of Samuel Scheidt did indeed follow him: he became not only the founder of the Central German school of organists and the father of the choral prelude, but with him began the era which culminated in Johann Sebastian Bach. We thank God for having given us Samuel Scheidt.

Cited References and Notes

1. J. P. Sweelinck und seine direkten deutschen Schüler (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1891), p. 5.
2. Samuel and Gottfried Scheidt, Heinrich Scheidemann, Jakob Praetorius, Paul Siefert, and Melchior Schildt.
3. Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era (New York: W. W Norton, 1947), p. 75.
4. Samuel Scheidt, Festschrift aus Anlass des 350. Geburtstages, 1587 bis 1937, pp. 10 ff.
5. P. 30.
6. Serauky, p. 33.
7. Serauky, pp. 37, 38.
8. Cf. E. Sehling, Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen (Leipzig, 1904), II, 434.
9. Samuel Scheidt—Sein Leben und sein Werk (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1924), p. 51.
10. Serauky, pp. 39 ff.
11. Serauky, p. 45.
12. Published by the Bärenreiter Verlag, Kassel, No. 546, 1932.
13. P. 11.
14. Published by Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., New York, 1948, p. 233.
15. Geschichte des Orgelspiels und der Orgelkomposition (Berlin: Max Hesses Verlag, 1935), I, 386.
16. P. 105.
17. P. 12.
18. P. 388.
19. Cf. Samuel Scheidt, Six Chorale Preludes on When Jesus on the Cross Was Bound.. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, OC 339.
20. Jesus Christus, unser Heiland (Jesus Christ, Our Blessed Savior).
21. P. 15.
22. The information here given is taken largely from Mahrenholz, pp.15 ff. Mahrenholz in turn gives much credit to Arno Werner, the author of Samuel und Gottfried Scheidt; cf. Sammelbände der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft, I, 1900, pp. 401 ff. Mahrenholz’s volume corrects much misinformation published by Werner.
23. P. 94.
24. This cantata by Johann Pachelbel is being published at this very time by the Bärenreiter Verlag of Kassel, Germany.
25. E.g., by Mahrenholz, p. 96.
26. Masters of the Keyboard (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1947), p. 89.
27. Geschichte des neuen deutschen Liedes (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1911), p 93.

Concordia Seminary
St. Louis, Mo.

From The Musical Heritage of the Church, Volume V (St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publishing House, 1959). Copyright Concordia Publishing House. Printed by permission. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Concordia Publishing House.