Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/799

SCHEIDT. effects of the different ways of bowing on the violin, and the imitation of an organ tremulant itself by the rapid interchange of the fingers of the two hands on one and the same key ('Bicinium imitatione tremula organi duobus digitis in una tantum clave manu tum dextra, tum sinistra'). The first two parts contain a mixture of sacred and secular pieces, the secular pieces however being marked off as for domestic rather than for church use by the absence of a pedal part. The sacred pieces consist of ten fantasias or sets of variations on chorale melodies, with a few fugues or fantasias on another motive, among which is a 'fantasia fuga quadruplici,' on a madrigal of Palestrina's, which Ritter describes as a masterpiece of contrapuntal art, four subjects from the madrigal being treated first singly and then together, and with contrary motion and other devices. The secular pieces consist chiefly of variations on secular melodies, among which appears one entitled an English song 'de fortuna.' The third part of the 'Tabulatura Nova' stands however on a higher level than the first two. The composer expressly renounces the virtuoso; he writes, as the title-page says, for those who delight to play the organ purely musically, and without mere ornamental and passage work. In this third part he gives very full directions with regard to registering both for manuals and pedal. It is intended entirely for church use, and both by the choice of pieces, and the manner in which they are arranged, it gives us an insight into the way in which the organ was very frequently employed in the church services of those days. It was not then generally used to accompany or sustain the voices of the choir or congregation, but rather to alternate with them. Thus, for instance, between each verse of the 'Magnificat' sung by the choir without accompaniment, the organ would come in independently with some variation or changing harmonies on the plainsong melody. A further use of the organ was even to take the place of the choir in making the responses to the ecclesiastical intonations of the officiating clergy when there was no proper choir to do this. Frescobaldi's works (especially 'Fiori Musicali,' 1635) furnish instances of this use of the organ in the Roman Church. Thus when the priest had intoned the Kyrie of the Mass, in the absence of a proper choir, the organist would answer, as Ambros expresses it, when speaking of Frescobaldi's works of the kind, 'with a kind of artistically-ennobling and enriching echo' ('mit einer Art von künstlerisch-veredelnden und bereichernden Echo'), that is to say, the organist, taking up the plain-song theme, would not just harmonize it note by note, but treat it in the form of a short polyphonic composition for the organ. (See the quotations from Frescobaldi in Ambros's 'Geschichte der Musik,' iv. pp. 444–450.) The third part of Scheldt's 'Tabulatura' shows that this usage was not confined to the Roman Church, but was also retained for a considerable time in the Lutheran. It opens with twelve short movements based on the plain-song of the different sections of the Kyrie and Gloria of the Mass, and the remark, or rubric, as we might call it, 'Gloria canit Pastor,' shows that they were expressly intended as responses made by the organ to the intonation of officiating clergy. The Magnificat follows, in all the church tones, one verse sung by the ecclesiastic and every alternate verse arranged to be played by the organ in lieu of a choir. This way of treating the Magnificat prevailed in Lutheran Churches even up to Pachelbel's time (1706), though the plain-song was more and more put into the background, and the practice became simply an excuse for interludes on any motive. After the Magnificat came a series of hymns common to both Roman and Lutheran Churches, with their plain-song melodies treated in a similar fashion. The book further contains Luther's version of the Creed ('Wir glauben All, an einen Gott') with its Doric melody, John Huss's Communion Hymn, arranged to be played instead of being sung during Communion. The two last pieces in the book are 6-part movements for the full organ, meant to be played at the end of Vespers. Interwoven with the last is the liturgical melody of the Benedicamus. In all these compositions Scheidt has faithfully adhered to the original plain-song melodies when they appear as Cantus Firmus, but in the further working out has not been content simply to harmonize them according to the laws of the Church modes, but has so far altered them in accordance with the new ideas of harmony then beginning to make way. But there is still wanting in him a consistent system of modulation. The chromatic semitones are still employed by him rather in a hap-hazard sort of way.

Twenty-six years later, viz. in 1650, Scheidt published another work for the organ, his second and last, which shows a different conception as to the use of the organ in the services of the Church, and probably marks a change which was then going on gradually in the practice of the Lutheran Church. The congregational singing of metrical hymns was gradually superseding the older liturgical music, and the organ had more and more to surrender its independence to accommodate itself to the simple accompaniment in 4-part harmony of the melodies of these hymns, which now began to assume exclusively the name of Choral-musik. This, which was at first a loss, became in time a gain, as it deepened the sense of the value of harmony for its own sake; and besides, out of this originated the new art-form of the Choral-Vorspiel of later days. Scheidt's last organ work was intended to meet the new requirements. Its title sufficiently explains its object: 'Tabulatur-buch 100 geistlicher Lieder u. Psalmen D. Martini Lutheri und anderer gottseliger Männer für die Herren Organisten mit der Christlichen Kirchen u. Gemeine auf der Orgel, desgleichen auch zu Hause zu spielen u. zu singen, auf alle Fest-u. Sonn-tage durchs ganze Jahr mit 4 Stimmen componirt … Gedruckt zu Gorlitz … im. 1650 Jahr.'