Franz Tunder (1614 – November 5, 1667) was a German

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

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 ...

of the early to middle

Baroque 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 t ...

era. He was an important link between the early German Baroque style which was based on Venetian models, and the later Baroque style which culminated in the music of

J.S. 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 wor ...

; in addition he was formative in the development of the

chorale cantata A chorale cantata is a church cantata based on a chorale—in this context a Lutheran chorale. It is principally from the Germany, German Baroque music, Baroque era. The organizing principle is the words and music of a Lutheran hymn. Usually a chora ...

Life

According to recent research, Tunder was born in

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

, not in Bannesdorf or Burg on the island of

Fehmarn Fehmarn (, da, Femern; from Old Wagrian Slavic "''Fe More''", meaning "''In the Sea''") is an island in the Baltic Sea, off the eastern coast of Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is Germany's third-largest island, after Rüg ...

as was believed by earlier scholars. Little is known about his early life other than that his talent was sufficient to allow him to be appointed as court organist to

Frederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Frederick III of Holstein-Gottorp (22 December 1597 – 10 August 1659) was a Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. He was the elder son of Duke Johann Adolf of Holstein-Gottorp and Princess Augusta of Denmark. His mother was a daughter of King Fred ...

in Gottorf at the age of 18. A few years earlier, he had gone to Italy in the company of Johann Heckelauer, and it is likely that he studied with

Girolamo Frescobaldi Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi (; also Gerolamo, Girolimo, and Geronimo Alissandro; September 15831 March 1643) was an Italian composer and virtuoso keyboard player. Born in the Duchy of Ferrara, he was one of the most important composers of k ...

while he was in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. (

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 ...

asserted that he did, but this has been disputed by later scholars). Between 1632 and 1641, Tunder worked in Gottorf as "Hoforganist". In 1641 he was appointed as the main organist at

's main church, the Marienkirche, succeeding Peter Hasse. In 1647 he became administrator and treasurer there also. He held that post for the rest of his life. His successor was

Dieterich Buxtehude Dieterich Buxtehude (; ; born Diderik Hansen Buxtehude; c. 1637 – 9 May 1707) was a Danish organist and composer of the Baroque period, whose works are typical of the North German organ school. As a composer who worked in various vocal a ...

. Buxtehude married Tunder's daughter, Anna Margarethe, in 1668. He began the tradition of "

Abendmusik (German for "evening music", plural ') usually refers to a series of musical concert held in the St. Mary's Church, Lübeck ('), Germany, begun in the 17th century and lasting until the early 19th century. Most of the music for these occasions, co ...

en", a long series of free concerts in the Marienkirche, the most elaborate of which were before

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

time. The earliest of these concerts occurred in 1646. The concerts seem to have originated as organ performances specifically for the businessmen who congregated at the weekly opening of the town's stock exchange. These concerts were to continue through the 17th and 18th centuries; they were distinguished from other concerts by having free admission (for they took place in a church), and by being financed by the business community.

Music

Along with

Heinrich Scheidemann Heinrich Scheidemann (ca. 1595 – 1663) was a German organist 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 of Dieterich Buxtehude and J.S. Ba ...

and

Matthias Weckmann Matthias Weckmann (''Weckman'') (''c''.1616 24 February 1674) was a German musician and composer of the Baroque period. He was born in Niederdorla (Thuringia) and died in Hamburg. Life His musical training took place in Dresden (as a chorister a ...

, Tunder was one of the most important members of the North German organ school; however, few of his works are preserved. His surviving output suggests a marked preference for the chorale fantasia style, though he is also known for chorale versets, such as his setting of ''Jesus Christus unser Heiland'', notable in particular for the opening pedal flourish (probably the earliest surviving example of an opening pedal solo in an organ work), a technique that was to be more fully exploited by Dietrich Buxtehude.Geoffrey Webber, " The Cambridge Companion to the Organ", edited by Nicholas Thistlethwaite and Geoffrey Webber. Cambridge University Press, 1998.

References

*Georg Karstädt, "Franz Tunder", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. *

Manfred Bukofzer Manfred Fritz Bukofzer (27 March 1910 – 7 December 1955) was a German-born American musicologist. Life and career He studied at Heidelberg University and the Stern conservatory in Berlin, but left Germany in 1933 for Switzerland, where he obt ...

, ''Music in the Baroque Era''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1947. * Kerala J. Snyder: "Franz Tunder", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed September 6, 2005)
(subscription access)
*Geoffrey Webber, "The Cambridge Companion to the Organ", edited by Nicholas Thistlethwaite and Geoffrey Webber. Cambridge University Press, 1998.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tunder, Franz 1614 births 1667 deaths Musicians from Lübeck German classical organists German Baroque composers Organists and composers in the North German tradition German male organists 17th-century classical composers German male classical composers 17th-century male musicians Male classical organists