Johann Staden 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...

 Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 organist

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

 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 is best known for establishing the so-called 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...

 school.

Life

He was the son of Hans Staden and Elisabeth Löbelle. The exact date of his birth is unknown; it is believed that he was born in 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...

 in 1581 (the date on the only surviving portrait) and records show that a certain Johannes Starnn was baptised in July 1581. At 18 Staden was already quite famous and serving as organist of one of the city churches; by 1604 he was employed as court organist in Bayreuth; he got married the same year. In 1605 the court moved to Kulmbach

Kulmbach

Kulmbach is the capital of the district of Kulmbach in Bavaria in Germany. The town is famous for Plassenburg Castle, which houses the largest tin soldier museum in the world, and for its famous sausages, or Bratwürste.-Location:...

, where Staden remained until 1610, publishing two collections of secular songs, Neue teutsche Lieder (1606) and Neue teutsche geistliche Gesäng (1609). He may have visited Bayreuth again in 1610 and returned to Nuremberg by 1611, the year his daughter was baptised there.

In June 1612 he left Nuremberg again to succeed Hans Leo Hassler

Hans Leo Hassler

Hans Leo Hassler was a German composer and organist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras, elder brother of the less-famous Jakob Hassler...

 as court organist in Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

. He stayed until around 1614/15, becoming organist at Nuremberg's Spitalkirche on 20 June 1616. Later that year he moved to the Lorenzkirche, succeeding Kaspar Hassler. Finally, in 1618 he accepted the most prestigious musical position in Nuremberg: organist at the Church of Saint Sebald (Sebalduskirche). He held that post until his death in 1634.

Works and influence

Much of Staden's work survives in printed collections. His first published works were the secular songs of Neue teutsche Lieder (1606), another Neue teutsche Lieder (1609) and Venus Kräntzlein (1610); the songs feature simplistic rhythms, are harmonically simple and feature little to no imitative counterpoint. The same can be said about his sacred songs, which he also published several collections of. Other sacred music is of considerably greater interest: Harmoniae sacrae (1616) contains some of the earliest German sacred concertos, introducing the concepts of an obligatory basso continuo, independent instrumental accompaniment and the solo concerto to Nuremberg's tradition; these features are also seen in other collections of sacred choral music. The basic style, however, remained that of the motet

Motet

In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...

. Staden's instrumental music consists of around 200 pieces, including not only various dance forms but also some of the first German instrumental sonatas. These pieces could have been written for a group of performers named Nuremberg Musikkränzlein.

Staden was highly acclaimed as a teacher; he was instrumental in creating the Nuremberg tradition and his most important pupil, Johann Erasmus 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:...

, would carry that tradition through 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....

 and Heinrich Schwemmer

Heinrich Schwemmer

Heinrich Schwemmer was a German music teacher and composer.He was born in Gumpertshausen bei Hallburg, Lower Franconia, and moved with his mother to Weimar 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, then in 1641 to...

 to the Krieger brothers

Johann Krieger

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

 and, ultimately, to 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...

, who studied under both Wecker and Schwemmer. Other pupils of Staden included three of his sons (Johann, Adam and Sigmund Theophil Staden

Sigmund Theophil Staden

Sigmund Theophil Staden was an important early German composer.Staden was born in Kulmbach, son of Johann Staden, the founder of the so-called Nuremberg school...

) and miscellaneous lesser Nuremberg composers. Apart from establishing the so-called Nuremberg school through training young musicians, Staden's activities in Nuremberg during the 1620s-30s included evaluating new music dedicated to the city (this included Samuel Scheidt

Samuel Scheidt

Samuel Scheidt was a German composer, organist and teacher of the early Baroque era.-Biography:...

's Geistliche Concerten of 1634).

External links

• http://www.arnorog.nl/index.php?option=downloads&task=info&id=330&Itemid=50 The downloads-section of the website of Arno Rog (formerly free-sheetmusic.org), features the complete score in pdf-format and the sourcefiles in Lilypond format.