Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/798

782 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. ]

SCHEIDT,, one of the celebrated three S.'s (the other two being Heinrich Schütz and Hermann Schein, his contemporaries), the best German organist of his time, was born at Halle in 1587. His father, Conrad Scheidt, was master or overseer of salt-works at Halle. The family must have been musical, as some works are still preserved of Gottfried, Samuel's brother, which A. G. Ritter ('Geschichte der Orgelmusik ') says show considerable musical ability. Samuel owed his training as an organist to the then famous 'Organisten-macher' Peter Sweelinck of Amsterdam. At what date he betook himself to Amsterdam, and how long he remained a pupil of Sweelinck, is not precisely ascertained. In 1620 at least, if not earlier, he was back in his native town, and had received the appointment of organist and capellmeister to Christian Wilhelm, Markgraf of Brandenburg, and then Protestant Administrator of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg. In this capacity Scheidt officiated as organist not at Magdeburg, but in the Hof-kirche at Halle. The troubles of the Thirty Years War and the misfortunes of his patron, the siege and sack of Magdeburg in 1631, and the abdication of Christian Wilhelm in 1638, seem to have made no difference to Scheidt's official position at Halle, though his income and means of living may have suffered. We have no record as to his personal relations with Christian's successors in the administration of the Magdeburg archbishopric, but Chrysander in the 'Jahrbücher für musikalische Wissenschaft,' i. p. 158, prints a letter from Scheidt to Duke Augustus of Brunswick in 1642, which seems to imply that he was then looking for some patronage or assistance from that art-loving prince. Scheidt never left Halle however, and his circumstances may have improved, as in his will he bequeathed some money for the sake of the organ in the St. Moritz-kirche at Halle. He died at the age of 67 on March 14, 1654.

Scheldt's first published work appeared at Hamburg in 1620 ('Cantiones Sacrae octo vocum'), and consists of 39 vocal compositions, 15 of which are settings of Lutheran chorales. His fame however rests not on his vocal compositions, but on his works for the organ. His next work, also published at Hamburg in 1624, is considered epoch-making in the history of organ music. It consists of three parts, but the whole work bears the general title 'Tabulatura Nova'; the same title, indeed, as many earlier works of the same kind in Germany (e.g. Ammerbach, 1571; B. Schmid, 1577; Paix, 1583; Woltz, 1617), from all of which, however, it differs widely both in aim and style, and indeed marks the beginning of a new and better treatment of the organ both with regard to playing and to composition. From 1570 to about 1620, organ playing in Germany almost entirely consisted in what was known as the art of 'koloriren,' the art of 'colouring' melodies sacred or secular by the inserting of meaningless passages, all framed on one and the same pattern, between each note or chord of the melody. These earlier Tablaturebooks were all compiled simply to teach this purely mechanical art of 'colouring' melodies for the organ. The music was written in the so-called German Tablature, i.e. with letters instead of notes. (For a full account of these German 'Coloristen' of the 16th and 17th centuries, see A. G. Ritter's 'Geschichte der Orgelmusik,' pp. 111–139.) Scheidt's 'Tabulatura Nova' put an end to this miserable style of playing and composing for the organ, as well as to the old German Tablature. The music in his book is noted in score of four staves, with five lines to the stave, so far differing from the notation both of Frescobaldi and Sweelinck, the former using two staves of six and eight lines respectively, the latter two staves both of six lines. To give an idea of the contents of Scheldt's work, we transcribe in full the separate titles of the three parts:—

The last words mark an important difference between the third part and the two preceding. In the first two parts the composer appears to wish to show how he could beat the 'Colourists' on their own ground, his figures and passages however not being like theirs, absolutely meaningless and void of invention, but new and varied, and having an organic connection with the whole composition to which they belong. He shows himself still as virtuoso, desirous to extend the technique of organ-playing, while at the same time displaying his contrapuntal mastery. So far as technique is concerned, there is to be noticed in Scheidt the extended use of the pedal, so different from Frescobaldi's occasional use of it for single notes merely, also the imitation of orchestral effects, such as what he himself terms 'imitatio violistica,' the imitation of the