Gottfried Scheidt (20 September 1593 – 3 June 1661) was a German composer 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 ...

. Born in Halle, he moved to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

in 1611 to study with

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck ( ; April or May, 1562 – 16 October 1621) was a Dutch composer, organist, and pedagogue whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras. He was among the first major keyboard compo ...

, returning home in 1615 to further study with his older brother

Samuel Scheidt Samuel Scheidt (baptised 3 November 1587 – 24 March 1654) was a German composer, organist and teacher of the early Baroque era. Life and career Scheidt was born in Halle, and after early studies there, he went to Amsterdam to study with ...

and others. He was appointed organist to the

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

court in 1617, and held the post until his retirement on 5 May 1658. He was successful and respected, and aside from playing the organ, directed the newly founded

Hofkapelle A court chapel (German: Hofkapelle) is a chapel (building) and/or a chapel as a musical ensemble associated with a royal or noble court. Most of these are royal (court) chapels, but when the ruler of the court is not a king, the more generic "co ...

, despite the strictures of the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

. He was unsuccessful in his application, in 1622/1623, for the post of principal organist of the Marienkirche in Danzig, which his brother had declined and which eventually went to

Paul Siefert Paul Siefert (variants: Syfert, Sivert, Sibert; 23 May 1586 – 6 May 1666) was a German composer and pipe organ, organist associated with the North German school. Biography He was born in Danzig (Gdańsk), Royal Prussia (a fief of the Crown of ...

. His only known organ compositions are in a set of

variations Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individuals ...

on "

Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr "" (Alone to God in the highest be glory) is an early Lutheran hymn, with text and melody attributed to Nikolaus Decius. With the reformers intending church service in German, it was intended as a German version of the Gloria part of the Latin ma ...

" made collaboratively in 1614 by Sweelinck and others; the six variations include three by Scheidt and three anonymous, which may be by him; this work belongs to the tradition of the North German school. Modern editions are found by H.J. Moser (Kassel, 1953), and G. Gerdes, in ''46 Choräle für Orgel von J.P. Sweelinck und seinen deutschen Schülern'' (Mainz, 1957). His other compositions are all occasional vocal works: ''Pia vota et hortulanae devotionis amicor'', a

wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...

aria In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

(1646); ''

Selig sind die Toten (English: Blessed are the dead) is the incipit of a verse from the Bible frequently used in funeral music of German-speaking composers. The text appears in Revelation 14:13. In the Luther Bible it begins , in English "Blessed are the dead, who d ...

'',

funeral A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...

music for Sophie Elisabeth, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Leipzig, 1650); another funeral work (1620), in ''S. Scheidt: Gesamtausgabe'' IV, ed. G. Harms (Klecken, 1933); and two works in ''Cantionale sacrum'' III (Gotha, 1648), in ''Schatz des liturgischen Chor- und Gemeindegesangs'' III, ed. L. Schoeberlein (Göttingen, 1872).

Sources

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Nigel Fortune Nigel Cameron Fortune (5 December 1924 – 10 April 2009) was an English musicologist and political activist. Along with Thurston Dart, Oliver Neighbour and Stanley Sadie he was one of Britain's leading musicologists of the post-World War II ge ...

, 'Scheidt, Gottfried', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2007-06-08) * C. Mahrenholz: ''Samuel Scheidt: sein Leben und Werk'' (Leipzig, 1924) {{DEFAULTSORT:Scheidt, Gottfried 1593 births 1661 deaths German Baroque composers German classical organists Organists and composers in the North German tradition German male organists People from Halle (Saale) 17th-century classical composers German male classical composers 17th-century male musicians Male classical organists