Heinrich Scheidemann's Keyboard Music: Transmission, Style and Chronology (review)

Research during the second half of the twentieth century has led to the discovery of many additional compositions by Heinrich Scheidemann (ca. 1595– 1663), a North German organist and composer. The scope, quality, and innovative style of this music has raised his reputation from that of a minor master to that of the most important figure in North German organ music during the first half of the seventeenth century.

Born in Wöhrden, he moved to Hamburg in 1604 when his father, David Scheidemann, was appointed organist of the Catharinenkirche there. The church subsidized Heinrich' s studies with the renowned Dutch organist and composer, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621) in Amsterdam between 1611 and 1614. Sweelinck' s reputation as a teacher attracted several German students, who became the founders of the so-called North German organ school of the seventeenth century. Some well-known pupils were Samuel Scheidt (Halle), Melchior Schildt (Hanover), and four students —Ulrich Cernitz, Jacob Praetorius, Johannes Praetorius, and Heinrich Scheidemann —who would later head the four principal organists' posts at Hamburg. The style transmitted by Sweelinck shows a thorough knowledge of all the keyboard traditions of his time —the free forms (fantasias and toccatas) and improvisatory practices of the Venetians, the variations (based on both sacred and secular themes) of the English virginalists, and the imitation of the Franco Flemish and Italians —as well as his own concepts of polyphony, figuration, and structure. This was a period of transition between the Renaissance and Baroque, though most of Sweelinck' s vocal music remained in the Renaissance style and keyboard music in general did not change drastically in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Even though he and his pupils are discussed in books on Baroque music, there is not a clear break in style until just after their time, around 1660.

Heinrich Scheidemann returned to Hamburg and occupied his father' s post at the Catharinenkirch (Lutheran) from around 1625 until his death in 1663. He held a prestigious position in a musical and cultural city and collaborated with other musicians and artists. His organ was enlarged in the mid-1630s to fifty-six stops, four manuals, and pedals. Perhaps this is why his music is more idiomatic for the organ than that of his teacher, though he adopted many elements of Sweelinck' s musical style. Some of Scheidemann' s finest works are his chorale arrangements and Magnificat settings, which use the cantus firmus technique or imitation. Freer forms include the praembula, toccata, and embellished motets. Dances and variations were written for the harpsichord. Although his music was never published and circulated only within professional circles in Northern Germany, it exists in several manuscript sources. Some, such as the organ tablatures at Clausthal-Zellerfeld, were not discovered until the mid-twentieth century. These examples are representative of the early years of the North German organ school and reflect Scheidemann' s importance.

Pieter Dirksen has made an important contribution to Scheidemann scholarship with this volume. Part 1 (chapters 1–6) discusses the sources of Scheidemann' s music. Early ones (chapters 1 and 2) are the Wolfenbüttel Autographs and the Sweelinck Sources. Middle period sources (chapters 3 and 4) are the Zellerfeld Tablatures (discovered in the 1950s by Gustav Fock), the Claushohn and Voigtlander sources, and the Duben, a harpsichord manual. Late sources (chapter 5) are the Lüneburg, Pelplin, and the "Clavier" Anthologies. Chapter 6 consists of a list of keyboard pieces that have been dated. Tables of contents and representative pages from the manuscripts are included, most of which are written in German organ tablature, which uses letter notation with rhythmic symbols.

Part 2 (chapters 7–13) is entitled "Chronology" and contains chapters on various musical genres: "Toccatas and Free Imitative Pieces" (chapter 7), "Harpsichord Variations and Dances" (chapter 8), "Praembula and Praeludia" (chapter 9), "Chorale Cycles" (chapter 10), "Choral Fantasias and Magnificat Cycles...