Heinrich Schwemmer was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 music

Baroque music

Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...

 teacher and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

He was born in Gumpertshausen bei Hallburg, Lower Franconia

Lower Franconia

Lower Franconia is one of the three administrative regions of Franconia in Bavaria , Germany ....

, and moved with his mother to Weimar

Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

 after his father’s death in 1627, to get away from the Thirty Years War. After his mother's death in 1638, he moved to Coburg

Coburg

Coburg is a town located on the Itz River in Bavaria, Germany. Its 2005 population was 42,015. Long one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined with Bavaria by popular vote in 1920...

, then in 1641 to Nuremberg

Nuremberg

Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

, when he remained for the rest of his life. He studied music with Kindermann

Johann Erasmus Kindermann

Johann Erasmus Kindermann was a German Baroque organist and composer. He was the most important composer of the Nuremberg school in the first half of the 17th century.-Life:...

 at the Sebaldusschule, and in 1650 himself became a teacher, effectively a Kantor

Kantor

People named Kantor include:* Isaiah Kantor , mathematician* Istvan Kantor, Hungarian-born Canadian performance artist* Jodi Kantor, New York Times journalist* MacKinlay Kantor, American novelist and screen writer...

 without the title; from 1656 he was Director chori musici along with Paul Hainlein. Along with Georg Caspar Wecker

Georg Caspar Wecker

Georg Caspar Wecker was a German Baroque organist and composer. A minor composer of the Nuremberg school, Wecker is now best remembered as one of Johann Pachelbel's first teachers....

, he taught a generation of musicians in the tradition of the South German school, including Nikolaus Deinl, Johann Krieger

Johann Krieger

Johann Philipp Krieger was a German Baroque composer and organist. He was the elder brother of Johann Krieger.-Early years:...

, Johann Löhner, Johann Pachelbel

Johann Pachelbel

Johann Pachelbel was a German Baroque composer, organist and teacher, who brought the south German organ tradition to its peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most...

, J.B. Schütz, and Maximilian Zeidler. Schwemmer taught singing

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

, while Wecker gave instruction in keyboard

Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

 playing and composition

Musical composition

Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...

.

All his known compositions, of which there a considerable number in manuscript, are vocal works: mostly sacred strophic song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

s for wedding

Wedding

A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...

s and funeral

Funeral

A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...

s, with some cantata

Cantata

A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....

s and choral concertos. He was a master of the concertato

Concertato

Concertato is a term in early Baroque music referring to either a genre or a style of music in which groups of instruments or voices share a melody, usually in alternation, and almost always over a basso continuo...

 vocal style.

Sources

• Harold E. Samuel, 'Schwemmer, Heinrich', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2007-06-10), http://www.grovemusic.com/
• Harold E. Samuel: The Cantata in Nuremberg during the Seventeenth Century (Ann Arbor, 1982)

External links