Matthias Weckmann

Matthias Weckmann (* 1616 in Niederdorla in Mühlhausen / Thuringia, † February 24, 1674 in Hamburg ) was a German composer of the Baroque.

Life

Weckmann was born as a son of Jacobus Weckmann which teacher and organist, and later was first pastor in Oppershausen. From 1628 or 1630 Weckmann choirboy and a member of the Dresden court orchestra, where Heinrich Schütz supervised his education. 1633 Weckmann went to Schutz's recommendation and as a fellow of the Saxon Elector Johann Georg I to further studies with Jacob Praetorius in Hamburg. There he also met the organist of St. Catherine's Church Heinrich Scheidemann know.

1636 or 1637 he was admitted organist at the electoral castle church in Dresden and 1637-1639 in the newly founded kurprinzliche chapel. In 1643 he accompanied contactor and other members of kurprinzlichen chapel to Denmark and was appointed there until 1647 by Crown Prince Christian Kapellmeister at the court in Nykøbing. From 1647 he appeared again stay in Hamburg and Lubeck. There he married on July 25, 1648 the daughter of a lutenist. His best man was working there Franz Tunder.

In the meantime, he was in 1647 returned to his position as court organist in Dresden. In winter 1649/50 Johann Jacob Froberger and Johann Caspar Kerll visited him at the Dresden court. From this develops between him and Froberger a lively correspondence. Inter alia Weckmann here seems to have also received important impulses for his own compositional work.

After a fantastic audition Weckmann took over in 1655, the position of organist and church clerk at the St. Jacob's Church in Hamburg. He founded with leading musicians of the city and with the support of influential citizens a Collegium Musicum. He made acquaintance with the vagina 's death since 1663 working at St. Catherine's Church Johann Adam Reincken. Even with Tunder son Dietrich Buxtehude there were several meetings among other factors, also works Froberger were passed. The contact with the Dresden court seems also after his departure not to be canceled because his sons Hans Georg and Jacob at the expense of the Saxon Elector studied in Wittenberg and himself in 1667 (?) Even took a trip to Dresden. Of his children, the son of Jacob Weckmann was also a musician. He was from 1672 to his death organist at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig.

1674 died Weckmann in Hamburg and has been interred in a family grave in the resurrected St. Jacobi Church in Hamburg below the organ. His successor Hinrich Freese († 1720) married his second wife and thus took over his music, some of which was later acquired by Johannis Lüneburg organist Georg Böhm. Therefore, there is a large part of today surviving works Weckmann in the Council library Lüneburg.

Works

By Matthias Weckmann works have been preserved:

These few surviving works are already sufficient to qualify Weckmann as an extremely imaginative and expressive composer.