Christian Ritter (probably 1645 to 1650 – probably after 1725) was a composer and organist of the

North German organ school The 17th century organ composers of Germany can be divided into two primary schools: the north German school and the south German school (sometimes a third school, central German, is added). The stylistic differences were dictated not only by teach ...

Biography

Ritter was probably a pupil of

Christoph Bernhard Christoph Bernhard (1 January 1628 – 14 November 1692) was born in Kolberg, Pomerania, and died in Dresden. He was a German Baroque composer and musician. He studied with former Sweelinck-pupil Paul Siefert in Danzig (now Gdańsk) and in War ...

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

. A notice on one of his works described him as ''Kammerorganist'' (chamber organist) in Halle in 1666, although this position does not appear in the records until 1672. In 1677 he was the ''Hoforganist'' (court organist). The composer David Pohle was ''

Kapellmeister (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

'' at Halle during these years. Ritter may have left Halle in 1677 as in that year the position of ''Kammerorganist'' was filled by

Johann Philipp Krieger Johann Philipp Krieger (also ''Kriger'', ''Krüger'', ''Krugl'', and ''Giovanni Filippo Kriegher''; baptised 27 February 1649; died 7 February 1725) was a German people, German Baroque composer and organist. He was the elder brother of Johann Krieg ...

.Baselt (1993). pp. 236–237 Some years later he went to Sweden. In 1681 he was mentioned on a record of the

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

court, a year later as deputy ''Kapellmeister''. Ritter went back to Dresden in 1683 and was ''Kammerorganist'' and deputy ''Kapellmeister'' under Christoph Bernhard. In 1688 he was evidently back in Stockholm as ''Kapellmeister'', remaining there until 1699. According to a detail on a vocal work, Ritter was living in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

in 1704. In 1717 he described himself in a letter to

Johann Mattheson Johann Mattheson (28 September 1681 – 17 April 1764) was a German composer, singer, writer, lexicographer, diplomat and music theorist. Early life and career The son of a prosperous tax collector, Mattheson received a broad liberal education ...

as "''

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

'', who did his part at the royal, electoral and princely courts for more than 30 years ''in re musica''".

Works

As well as more than 20 sacred vocal works, a few organ and keyboard works survive. Best known among his sacred works is ''O amantissime sponse Jesu'', a

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

for

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

and five stringed instruments. A number of

musicologists Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

, amongst them

Hans Joachim Moser Hans Joachim Moser (25 May 1889, Berlin''Die kleine Enzyklopädie'', Encyclios-Verlag, Zurich, 1950, Vol. 2, p. 202. – 14 August 1967, Berlin) was a German musicologist, composer and singer. Moser was the son of the music-professor Andreas Mos ...

and Richard Buchmayer, author of the first major study on Ritter, assess his compositions as being of exceptionally high quality.

References

Sources

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External links

* * German Baroque composers Organists and composers in the North German tradition German male organists German classical organists 18th-century keyboardists 18th-century classical composers German male classical composers 18th-century German composers 18th-century German male musicians 17th-century births 18th-century deaths Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Male classical organists {{Germany-composer-stub