A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Scheidemann

by James Russell Milne

SCHEIDEMANN. The name of a family of organists in Hamburg in the 16th and 17th centuries. Gerber, in his Lexicon, mentions Heinrich Scheidemann, born about 1600, died 1654, but appears to confuse him with an older and more important member of the family, David Scheidemann, probably an uncle of Heinrich. The date of David Scheidemann's birth is not ascertained, but in 1585 he was organist of St. Michael's Church, Hamburg. He is chiefly noteworthy as associated with three other Hamburg organists of repute, Jacob and Hieronymus Praetorius, and Joachim Decker, in the compilation of what we should now call a Choralbuch, though this name was not in general use then,^[1] a book of the usual hymn-tunes or chorales of the Lutheran Church, simply harmonized in four parts for congregational singing. This book appeared in 1604. Its original title is 'Melodeyen-Gesangbuch, darem Dr. Luthers und ander Christen gebräuchlichste Gesänge, ihren gewöhnlichen Melodien nach … in vier stimmen tibergesetzt.' The example first set by Lucas Osiander in 1586, of uniformly giving the melody to the soprano part, and not to the tenor, as the older practice was, is here followed, and in the preface attention is called to the greater convenience of this for congregational singing. Of the 88 tunes in the book, David Scheidemann harmonized 13 or 14; among them there appears for the first time harmonized 'Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern.' Gerber, confusing David with Heinrich, attributes both the melody and the setting of this Chorale to Heinrich. But Winterfeld shows (Ev. Kirch, i. p. 90) that the melody belongs to neither, but seems to be taken from an old secular song, beginning with similar words ('Wie schön leuchten die Aeugelein'), to the metre of which Philip Nicolai in 1599 wrote the words of his hymn, 'Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern.' Winterfeld praises Scheidemann's settings of the chorales for their fresh animated character, and for the happy way in which the rhythmical peculiarities of the old melodies are brought out. Chorales were not then sung as now, all in slow uniform rhythm, but many of the older melodies had curious changes of rhythm, as from common to triple time, in successive lines. See the specimens of Scheidemann in Winterfeld, Part I. nos. 70, 71.

Heinrich Scheidemann, mentioned above, was the son of Hans Scheidemann, organist of St. Catherine's Church, Hamburg. In 1616 he and Jacob Praetorius the younger were sent at the public expense to Amsterdam, to be initiated into a higher style of organ-playing, under the tuition of the then most famous organ-player of Europe, Peter Sweelinck. In 1625 Heinrich succeeded his father as organist of St. Catherine's. Matheson says of Scheidemann that his organ playing and compositions were like himself, popular and agreeable, easy and cheerful, with no pretence or desire for mere show. None of his organ pieces have survived, though Fétis speaks of having obtained some. As a composer, Heinrich Scheidemann was again associated with Jacob Praetorius in contributing melodies to Rist's 'Himmlische Lieder,' which were published in 1641, 42. Praetorius composed ten to the 4th part of Rist's Book, Scheideinann ten to the 5th part, entitled 'Höllenlieder.' One of Scheidemann'S melodies in this collection, 'Frisch auf und lasst uns singen,' continued for a while in church use, as it appears again in Vopelius Leipziger Gesangbuch of 1682. On Scheidemann's death in 1654, Job. Adam Reinke or Reinken became his successor as organist of St. Catherine's, Hamburg.

[ J. R. M. ]

1. It is worth while noting that the word Choral (in English usually spelt Chorale), as now restricted to the melodies of German metrical hymns, really originated in a misunderstanding of what Walther meant when he spoke of Luther as having called the 'deutscher Choralgesang' into life. What both Luther and Walther meant by 'Choralgesang' was the old Cantus Choralis or Plain-song of the Latin Church, which Luther himself wished to retain; and his merit consisted in the adaptation of the chief parts of the Latin Choral to German words, his work in this respect corresponding to Marbeck's 'Book of Common Prayer Noted' with us in England. All the older Lutheran Church-musicians, such as Lucas Lossius and Michael Praetorius, used the words Choral and Choralgesänge in this sense of the old Plain-song melodies to the graduals, sequences, and antiphons, whether sung to Latin or adapted to German words. It was only when German metrical hymns gradually superseded in common use the other choral parts of the service, that the name Choral in course of time became restricted to the melodies of these hymns. See Winterfeld, Ev. Kirch, i. pp. 151, 152.