 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Heinrich Scheidemann (ca. 1595 – 1663) was a Germanorganist 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 ofDieterich Buxtehude andJ.S. Bach.
He was born inWöhrden inHolstein. His father was an organist in both Wöhrden and Hamburg, and probably Scheidemann received some early instruction from him. Scheidemann studied withSweelinck inAmsterdam from 1611 to 1614, and evidently was one of his favorite pupils, since Sweelinck dedicated acanon to him, prior to Scheidemann's return to Germany. By 1629, and possibly earlier, Scheidemann was in Hamburg as organist at theCatharinenkirche, a position which he held for more than thirty years, until his death in Hamburg in early 1663 during an outbreak of the plague.
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 earlyBaroque German composers, such asPraetorius,Schütz,Scheidt, andSchein, each of whom wrote in most of the current genres and styles, Scheidemann wrote almost entirely organ music. A fewsongs survive, as well as someharpsichord 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 settings ofLutheran chorales, which were of three general types:cantus firmus chorale arrangements, which were an early type ofchorale prelude; "monodic" chorale arrangements, which imitated the current style of monody—a vocal solo overbasso continuo—but for solo organ; and elaboratechorale 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 theMagnificat, which are not only in multiple parts but are incyclic form towards liturgical use in alternation with the choir during the so-calledVespers, a technique in multiple-movement musical construction which was not to return with vigor until the 19th century. Among his students wereJohann Adam Reincken, his successor at the St. Catharine Church in Hamburg, and (possibly)Dieterich Buxtehude. See:List of music students by teacher: R to S#Heinrich Scheidemann.
