Paul Siefert
Encyclopedia
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...
and organist
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
associated with the North German school.
Biography
He was born in Danzig to his father's second wife and named after his father (died 1604), who was a procurator. The Danzig city councilCity council
A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...
gave scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
s to Samuel Scheidt
Samuel Scheidt
Samuel Scheidt was a German composer, organist and teacher of the early Baroque era.-Biography:...
and him to study with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck was a Dutch composer, organist, and pedagogue whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras. He was among the first major keyboard composers of Europe, and his work as a teacher helped establish the north German organ...
in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
from 1607 to 1610; in the autumn of that year, he returned home where he became assistant organist of the Marienkirche. His application to become principal organist of the church after Cajus Schmiedtlein died in March 1611 failed due to complaints about his arrogance and style of performance.
He moved to Königsberg in 1611 to take up the post of organist of the principal church in the 'Altstadt', and became court organist at Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
in 1616. He returned to Danzig in 1623 to become principal organist, where he remained until his death; he failed in an application for the post of Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...
in 1627 after the death of Andreas Hakenberger
Andreas Hakenberger
Andreas Hakenberger was a German composer.A motet Beati omnes, qui timent Dominum à 12 is recorded on Hanseatic Wedding music. Weser-Renaissance Ensemble Bremen dir. Manfred Cordes. cpo-References:...
, who was succeeded by Kaspar Förster
Kaspar Förster
Kaspar Förster was a German singer and composer.Förster studied music under his father Kaspar and then under Marco Scacchi in Warsaw...
. He did not lead a serene life; he became sidelined at the Warsaw court, and had long-running feuds with Kaspar Förster, choirmaster of the Marienkirche from 1627 to 1652, and Marco Scacchi
Marco Scacchi
Marco Scacchi was an Italian composer and writer on music.Scacchi was born in Gallese, Lazio. He studied under Giovanni Francesco Anerio in Rome. He was associated with the court at Warsaw from 1626, and was kapellmeister there from 1628 to 1649...
, Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
court choirmaster from 1628 to 1649.
Music
His first book of Psalmen Davids consists of two concertos for three and four voices and twelve settings for four and five voices of material drawn from the Calvinist Goudimel-Lobwasser psalterPsalter
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were...
of the Reformed Church. The form used is that of the chorale
Chorale
A chorale was originally a hymn sung by a Christian congregation. In certain modern usage, this term may also include classical settings of such hymns and works of a similar character....
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...
, the instrumental parts having little significance, mainly doubling the voices. Psalmorum Davidicorum II consists of fifteen psalms for four to eight voices, a concerto for four voices, and an eight part instrumental canzona
Canzona
In the 16th century an instrumental chanson; later, a piece for ensemble in several sections or tempos...
; the works are antecedents of the concertato chorale motet and the chorale cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
; there are instrumental prelude
Prelude (music)
A prelude is a short piece of music, the form of which may vary from piece to piece. The prelude can be thought of as a preface. It may stand on its own or introduce another work...
s and ritornello
Ritornello
A ritornello is a recurring passage in Baroque music for orchestra or chorus. The first or final movement of a solo concerto or aria may be in "ritornello form", in which the ritornello is the opening theme, always played by tutti, which returns in whole or in part and in different keys throughout...
s, and alternating sections of solo and tutti passages.
His 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...
works bear some similarity to Sweelinck, but are not generally of a high quality. The highly ornamented line is usually played by the right hand with the chorale underneath. This texture is interrupted by episodes exploiting effects of harmony and colour.
Vocal
- Psalmen Davids, nach französischer Melodey oder Weise in Music componieret, 3-5 part choirChoirA choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
, instruments doubling and continuoFigured bassFigured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note...
(1640) - Canticum seu Symbolum divi Ambrosii et Augustini Te Deum laudamus, 1-5 part choir, instruments doubling and continuo (1642)
- Psalmorum Davidicorum, ad gallicam melodiam … pars II … 4-8 part choir, instruments doubling and continuo (1651)
- Der Herr herrschen thut, motet for 5 part choir
Instrumental
- Canzona a 8, in Psalmorum (1651)
- Fantasia and an ornamented Lassus motet
- ChoraleChoraleA chorale was originally a hymn sung by a Christian congregation. In certain modern usage, this term may also include classical settings of such hymns and works of a similar character....
variationsVariation (music)In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.-Variation form:...
, keyboard - 13 fantasiaFantasia (music)The fantasia is a musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation. Because of this, it seldom approximates the textbook rules of any strict musical form ....
s, keyboard (doubtful)
Sources
- Jerrold C. Baab, 'Siefert [Syfert, Sivert, Sibert], Paul', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2007-06-08), http://www.grovemusic.com/
- C.V. Palisca: Marco Scacchi's Defense of Modern Music (1649), in Words and Music: the Scholar's View, ed. L. Berman (Cambridge, MA, 1972)
- D. Brough: Polish 17th-Century Church Music (New York, 1989)