Andreas Werckmeister (November 30, 1645 – October 26, 1706) was a German organist,

music theorist Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

, and composer of the

Baroque era The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including th ...

. He was amongst the earliest advocates of

equal temperament An equal temperament is a musical temperament or tuning system, which approximates just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into equal steps. This means the ratio of the frequencies of any adjacent pair of notes is the same, wh ...

, and through this advocacy was highly influential to the

harmonic A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the ''fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', the ...

basis underlying almost all of subsequent

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

music.

Life

Born in

Benneckenstein Benneckenstein () is a town in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it has been part of the town of Oberharz am Brocken. Benneckenstein is in the eastern Harz, 14 km southeast of Braunlage, and 24 km so ...

, Werckmeister attended schools in

Nordhausen Nordhausen may refer to: * Nordhausen (district), a district in Thuringia, Germany ** Nordhausen, Thuringia, a city in the district **Nordhausen station, the railway station in the city * Nordhouse, a commune in Alsace (German: Nordhausen) * Narost ...

and

Quedlinburg Quedlinburg () is a town situated just north of the Harz mountains, in the district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. As an influential and prosperous trading centre during the early Middle Ages, Quedlinburg became a center of in ...

. He received his musical training from his uncles Heinrich Christian Werckmeister and Heinrich Victor Werckmeister. In 1664 he became an

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

Hasselfelde Hasselfelde is a town in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated in the eastern Harz, approximately 17 km south of Wernigerode. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Oberharz am Brocken. Hasselfelde has 2,390 ...

; ten years later in

Elbingerode Elbingerode is an ''Ortsteil'' of Oberharz am Brocken in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The former town was incorporated into the newly established municipality on 1 January 2010. Geography It is situated in the eastern ...

; and in 1696 of the Martinskirche in

Halberstadt Halberstadt ( Eastphalian: ''Halverstidde'') is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the capital of Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town center that was greatly destroyed by Allied bombi ...

Musical compositions

Of his compositions only a booklet remains: pieces for violin with

basso continuo Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...

, with the title ''Musikalische Privatlust'' (1689). Also some organ works remain: Canzon in a-minor, Canzona in d-minor, Praeludium ex G, Canzonetta in D-major.

Theoretical works

Werckmeister is best known today as a theorist, in particular through his writings ''Musicae mathematicae hodegus curiosus...'' (1687) and ''Musikalische Temperatur'' (1691), in which he described a system of what we would now refer to as well temperament (named after Bach's opus "

The Well-Tempered Clavier ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'', BWV 846–893, consists of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the composer's time, ''clavier'', meaning keyboard, referred to a variety of in ...

") now known as ''

Werckmeister temperament Werckmeister temperaments are the tuning systems described by Andreas Werckmeister in his writings.A. Werckmeister: Musicalische Temperatur (Quedlinburg 1691), reprint edited by Rudolf Rasch The tuning systems are numbered in two different ways: t ...

''.

Werckmeister's writings – particularly his writings on

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

– were well known to

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

. Werckmeister believed that well-crafted counterpoint, especially

invertible counterpoint In music theory, an inversion is a type of change to intervals, chords, voices (in counterpoint), and melodies. In each of these cases, "inversion" has a distinct but related meaning. The concept of inversion also plays an important role in mu ...

, was tied to the orderly movements of the planets, reminiscent of

Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws o ...

's view in ''

Harmonice Mundi ''Harmonice Mundi (Harmonices mundi libri V)''The full title is ''Ioannis Keppleri Harmonices mundi libri V'' (''The Five Books of Johannes Kepler's The Harmony of the World''). (Latin: ''The Harmony of the World'', 1619) is a book by Johannes ...

''. According to George Buelow, "No other writer of the period regarded music so unequivocally as the end result of God’s work".George J. Buelow: "Andreas Werckmeister", ''Grove Music Online'', ed. L. Macy (Accessed May 7, 2006)
(subscription access)
/ref> Yet in spite of his focus on counterpoint, Werckmeister's work emphasized underlying harmonic principles.

List of works

* ''Musicae mathematicae hodegus curiosus...'' (1687) * ''Musikalische Temperatur, oder...'' (1691) * ''Der Edlen Music-Kunst...'' (1691) * ''Hypomnemata musica'' (1697) * ''Erweierte und verbesserte Orgel-Probe'' (1698) * ''Die nothwendigsten Anmerckungen und Reglen, wie der Bassus continuus...'' (1698) * ''Cribrum musicum'' (1700) * ''Harmonologia musica'' (1702) * ''Musikalische Paradoxal-Discourse'' (1707)

References

External links

*
"Well Temperaments based on the Werckmeister Definition"
* Well Tempered based on Werckmeisters last book Musikalische Paradoxal-Discourse (1707) is Equal Temperament see: https://www.academia.edu/5210832/18th_Century_Quotes_on_J.S._Bachs_Temperament * Edition of Canzon in a (organ work) https://www.free-scores.com/sheetmusic?p=aXAgQAhxny# {{DEFAULTSORT:Werckmeister, Andreas 1645 births 1706 deaths People from Oberharz am Brocken German music theorists German classical organists German male organists German Baroque composers 18th-century keyboardists German male classical composers Male classical organists