J ACOB P RAETORIUS VON ALLEN MENSCHEN ABGEWANDT Léon Berben plays on the Scherer organ in Tangermünde Léon Berben spielt an der Scherer-Orgel in Tangermünde Léon Berben joue l'orgue Scherer de Tangermünde Britta Schwarz – mezzo-soprano 1. Magnificat Primi Toni 23:30 2. Praeambulum ex d 4:32 3. Vater unser im Himmelreich 17:57 4. Praeambulum ex C.b.mol. 2:30 5. Magnificat Quarti Toni 11:19 6. Magnificat germanice 4:13 7. Praeambulum ex F 2:03 8. Von allen Menschen abgewandt 10:32 TOTAL 76:37 playing was vigorous, awake and honest, he had fast JACOB PRAETORIUS, often referred to by his and firm hands, and he was well trained in composi- German last name Schultz(e), was born in Hamburg tion technique, but his music was destined only for the on 8 February 1586, into a family of famous organists. organ. His pieces were easy to play.« On the other His grandfather Jacob (? - 1586) and his father hand, Praetorius »was always regal and somewhat odd, Hieronymus (1560 - 1629), who was his first teacher, he adopted the noble character of his teacher and were both organists at the main church in Hamburg, showed extreme amiability in all his activities, as the the Jakobikirche. Succeeding Heinrich thor Molen as Dutch always do. […] Schultz's pieces were more dif- early as 1604, Praetorius obtained the post of organist ficult to play and more elaborate, which put this com- at the Petrikirche in the same city, a position he held poser above everyone else.« until his death on 21 or 22 October 1651. Recent research has noted that he left for Amsterdam in 1606 In his chronicle of organists (1702 - 1718), to study with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562 - 1621) Johann Kortkamp wrote of Praetorius that he was for a two-year period. He seems to have been one of »esteemed by all people of high and low class. From his the great organist's first pupils, and Sweelinck even youth, he has acquired a special method in church wrote a motet for his student's wedding in 1608. In his music style, playing with majesty and devotion, and he Grundlage einer Ehrenpforte (Hamburg, 1740) Johann was capable of animating people's hearts to listen to Mattheson wrote that Praetorius »had a particular, the sermon. Thanks to his great knowledge and with unusual but efficient finger technique. Schultz God's help he has taught many organists, who, at times adopted Sweelinck's perfectly agreeable and were needed in Germany, and helped them with his respectable habits and behavior, he kept his body from recommendations. This amiable man should also be making any superfluous movements, and while remembered for his sensual and artistic playing. Just playing he gave the impression of not making any like the priest with his parishioners, he was able to effort.« induce devotion with his organ playing. For example when he played a hymn like Erbarm Dich mein o Herre Even during his lifetime Praetorius was already Gott, how well he played it with devotion; how well he compared to his colleague Heinrich Scheidemann, the was able to use the various stops for their specific qual- other great Hamburg student of Sweelinck, and ities, so that not only his playing, but also the organ organist at the Katharinenkirche. Mattheson described itself had to be admired.« We also find Praetorius' Scheidemann as a rather nice and affable man, who qualities in his compositions: contrapuntal rigor is »did not make too great a deal of himself. […] His always combined with the pleasure of virtuoso playing. 3 Among his students, Berendt Petri (born between The practice of improvisation was considered 1594 and 1598 - ?) and Matthias Weckmann (1615 or perfectly normal: no one in northern Germany during 1616 - 1674) were the most renowned; the latter the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ever talked became organist at the Jacobikirche in Hamburg in about playing »written« music; they always impro- 1655. vised. Only ensemble music or organ music sub com- munione was played from sheet music, often without Originally, the PRAEAMBULUM – or praeludium – any preparation. As many as two thousand people was an introductory piece: the organist only played it were present at the services in the main churches of to indicate the key or mode of the next piece for the large cities, so Communion could take up to an hour, singers and to give the instrumentalists a chance to even when only part of the congregation participated tune their instruments (Friedrich Erhardt Niedt, in it. Later, in the early eighteenth century, the music Musicalische Handleitung Oder Gründlicher Unterricht, during Communion was suppressed, and musicians 1710 – for the original text, see the German version of had ever fewer occasions to exhibit their improvisa- these notes). The organist improvised on sections of tional abilities. When Johann Sebastian Bach impro- the mass ordinary, on hymns and songs, or on poly- vised for a full half hour (!) on An Wasserflüssen phonic music. These praeambula were improvised Babylon in the Katharinenkirche in Hamburg in 1720, mainly to foster a smooth continuity in the religious »as was formerly a tradition among the great organists service; the extant ones, which are often fairly short, of Hamburg during Saturday Vespers« (Nekrolog auf were mostly examples meant for pupils (»for the ama- J. S. Bach, 1754), Johann Adam Reinken was aston- teurs but particularly for the pupils«) or less talented ished. He said: »I thought this art was defunct, but I organists who did not master the art of improvisation. see it still lives in you.« However, in extending such improvisations with ever- growing contributions, organists made exceptions to The art of improvising needed to be proven right that tradition. Of the three praeambula Jacob away, when an organist auditioned for a vacant posi- Praetorius left us, the Praeambulum ex d has 108 meas- tion. Johann Jacob Hamischer compiled a list of ures. Samuel Scheidt, Johann Scheidemann, and requirements he considered important when he went Johann Steffens also wrote such pieces of considerable through such a challenge in Stockholm in 1673: length. The Toccata by Delphin Strunck, which 1. »[The organist] needs to be able to play a prelude Michael Praetorius compares to a praeambulum or to manualiter and pedaliter in any tonum musicalem given a praeludium, comprises 313 measures! by knowledgeable musicians. 2. He must have learned to treat any given chorale or psalm per fugas as usual in 4 manuali et pedali absque ritus. 3. He should receive During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries from these knowledgeable musicians a fugue theme, the MAGNIFICAT was an integral part of the vesper which he must be able to elaborate upon in at least service, as is evident from the large number of four voices ex tempore. 4. He must be capable of Magnificat arrangements by composers of northern playing a basso continuo properly and in four parts, Germany. They are usually cycles organized by church which is a compositio ex temporanea and particularly mode and with a variable series of often unnumbered important because of the other [ensemble] music […].« versets. These versets were frequently performed alter- Kortkamp's report on Matthias Weckmann's audition natim, as prescribed as early as 1529 by Johannes for the position of organist at the Jakobikirche in Bugenhagen for the ordinary of the church of Hamburg emphasizes such requirements as well: Hamburg. Several variants of this type of ordinary in »When it was his turn to play, he improvised in the alternation are extant, from the most simple choro vel mode of the given fugue on the plenum. The mode was organo alternation (as mentioned by Franz Eler in a primus tonus, but mixed with the tertie toni, which 1588) to the most complex type between the organ, the was magnificent to work with. […] Subsequently he (boys') choir, the vulgus (the congregation), the pre- improvised on the church song he was given, An centor and the puellae (young girls), as Laurentius Wasserflüssen Babylon p.[edaliter] on two keyboards. Stiphelius described it in 1609. Another possibility – […] He first played the chorale very simply so that the one presented in this recording – is to group sev- ordinary people, of whom the congregation mainly eral versets, a practice already documented in the four- consisted, could understand it. Afterwards he treated it teenth century. The parts of the Magnificat sung in this in a fugue and took it through all sorts of transposi- recording are taken from Eler's collection of Cantica tions, even in Semitonia […]. Then he was asked to sacra (1588), which was used as the official hymn book play in a violin solo with Mr. Schop to exhibit his abil- in Hamburg until 1700. Concerning their perform- ities in basso continuo. […] He was also required to ance we read that »The organist asks the precentor play a motet a 6 vocum by the late Mr. Hieronymus what Introitus or Responsorium and in what mode he is Praetorius, starting from the bass line and then to going to sing, because disagreement on the songs improvise variations upon it on two manuals. Finally, would cause disarray and anger in the listeners.« In to conclude, he was to play a joyful fugue on the order to facilitate the coordination of the modes, Eler plenum.« We never find any evaluation of a candidate mentions the tone in Latin at the end of each melody. at that time based on written compositions, as we do In the eighteenth century Mattheson still emphasizes nowadays. the importance of such a practice. Moreover, in the 1614 Ratzeburg ordinary we can read that »The organist 5 and the schoolteacher need to be in agreement about In 1964, six Magnificat cycles by Jacob Praetorius performing per vice or in alternatim in order for (two of which are included in this recording) were dis- everyone to know precisely when to begin singing or covered in the castle of Clausholm in Denmark.