Johann Schelle

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Johann Schelle (* 6. September 1648 in Geising ( Erzgebirge ); † 10. March 1701 in Leipzig ) was a German composer of the Baroque .

Life

St. Thomas Church and St. Thomas School in Leipzig, engraving 1735

Johann Schelle, son of the cantor and rector Jonas Schelle, became a descantist of the Saxon court orchestra in Dresden under Heinrich Schütz at the age of seven . On his recommendation, Schelle was accepted as a choir singer in the Ducal Chapel in Wolfenbüttel in 1657 , for which Schütz worked as Kapellmeister.

From 1665 to 1667 Schelle was a singer with the St. Thomas Choir at the St. Thomas School in Leipzig. He enrolled at the University of Leipzig on January 31, 1667. In order to secure his livelihood, he also gave music lessons. On the recommendation of Sebastian Knüpfer , Schelle became cantor in Eilenburg in 1670 . There he married Elisabeth Wüstling from Eilenburg in 1671; as a result, six sons and two daughters were born.

From January 31, 1677 until his death, Schelle was Thomaskantor in Leipzig, succeeding Knüpfers and predecessor of Johann Kuhnau . At the same time he was director chori musici for the city of Leipzig. In Leipzig he introduced the combination of Gospel text with sacred songs and the choral cantata and composed mainly vocal-instrumental church music . In 1682/1683 he was Thomas organist alternating with Johannes Keimel .

Schelle was the teacher of Johann Theodor Roemhildt , Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow , Reinhard Keizer , Johann Christoph Graupner and Johann David Heinichen .

He was one of the first to perform German-language oratorio gospel cantatas in the service.

Works

The majority of Schelle's work (186 works) were sacred works with German text, of which only a few were published during his lifetime. Only 48 works have been handed down. Some of his hymns were printed in Joachim Feller's songbook Der reverendige Student around 1693. 25 cantatas preserved in the manuscript are in the Berlin State Library . These works show Schelle's importance for the development of this musical genre. He was one of the first composers to combine biblical words and free poetry. His surviving representatives of the genre of choral cantatas are also some of the oldest of their kind. Far from the grandeur of old Protestant chants, Schelle wrote his music in his preferred three-quarter time and often the saraband or minuet rhythm . His colleague at the Paul Thymich school wrote the texts for this .

literature

  • Robert Eitner:  Schelle, Johann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 30, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, p. 760 f.
  • Bernhard Friedrich Richter: Two funeral programs for the Thomaskantors Sebastian Knüpfer and Johann Schelle. In: Monatshefte für music history , 34 (1902), pp 9-16.
  • Friedrich Graupner: The work of the Thomaskantor Johann Schelle. Altenberg 1929.
  • Siegmar Keil: Johann Schelle's choral cantata “Now thank all God” - an example of representative Leipzig church music in the late 17th century. In: Forum Kirchenmusik, vol. 63 (2012), no. 2, pp. 19–32.
  • Martin Petzoldt : The Thomas organists in Leipzig. In: Christian Wolff (Ed.): The organs of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2012, ISBN 3-374-02300-2 , pp. 95-137 (p. 105).
  • Stephen Rose (Ed.): Leipzig Church Music from the Sherard Collection: Eight Compositions by Sebastian Knüpfer, Johann Schelle, and Johann Kuhnau (= Yale University Collegium Musicum , series 2, vol. 20). Madison, WI: AR Editions, 2014.
  • Arnold Schering : Music History Leipzig, Vol. 2, Leipzig 1926, p. 167 ff.
  • Hans-Joachim Böttcher : "Schelle, Johann", in: Important historical personalities of the Düben Heath, AMF - No. 237, 2012, pp. 87–88.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Leipzig Church Music from the Sherard Collection , accessed on January 7, 2017.