Sebastian Anton Scherer (3 October 1631 – 26 August 1712) was a German composer and organist of the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

era. Scherer was born in Ulm, where he resided until his death. On 17 June 1653 he was elected town musician, and it was also around that time that he became assistant to Tobias Eberlin, then organist of the famous Ulm Münster. Sherer probably started studying with Eberlin at the same time, later married his daughter and in 1671 succeeded him as organist of the cathedral. Sources disagree on whether Scherer was later appointed organist or simply organ consultant at St. Thomas (''Église Saint-Thomas'') in

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

, but it was most probably the latter case, since apparently he remained Ulm's cathedral organist until his death in 1712. Scherer's surviving works are few, as is typical for the era. They include a collection of sacred vocal music (

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

s, mass movements and psalm settings) somewhat notable for its imaginative word-setting in some of the pieces, fourteen trio sonatas published as one volume in 1680, all of considerable quality, and a two-part volume of

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

music. This latter publication exhibits Italian influence, particularly that of Frescobaldi, which was typical for the south German tradition Scherer represented. The first part, written out entirely in tablature, is titled and contains 32 short versets, four for each church mode, so that each mode has an ( toccata-like, with extensive use of pedal point), ''secunda'' (imitative), ''tertia'' (toccata-like) and ''quarta'' (imitative). The second part contains eight toccatas, all of which are sectional pieces that make heavy use of pedal point and contain much imitative counterpoint as well as free writing. Other works include sacred and secular vocal music; and there is evidence that a set of

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...

suite Suite may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Suite (music), a set of musical pieces considered as one composition ** Suite (Bach), a list of suites composed by J. S. Bach ** Suite (Cassadó), a mid-1920s composition by Gaspar Cassadó ** ''Suite' ...

s was published in Augsburg, but those pieces are lost.

List of works

*''Musica sacra (...) missae, psalmi, et motetti'', Op. 1 (Ulm, 1657). For 3-5 voices and instruments. *''Operum musicorum secundum, distinctum in libros 2'', Op. 2 (Ulm, 1664). Organ music. *''Traur- und Klaggesan'' (Ulm, 1664). Secular vocal music for 5 voices and

basso continuo Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...

. *''Sonatae'', Op. 3 (Ulm, 1680). Trio sonatas for 2 violins, viola da gamba and basso continuo. *Jubilate Deo, O quam mirabilis (vocal works in manuscript sources)

Media

References

* Apel, Willi, trans. H. Tischler (1972), ''The History of Keyboard Music to 1700'' (Bloomington, Indiana) * Beechey, Gwilym. "Scherer, Sebastian Anton", ''

Grove Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

'', ed. L. Macy
grovemusic.com
* Guilmant, Alexandre and Pirro, André (1907), ''Archives des maîtres de l’orgue,'' viii (Paris) * Neumann, Frederick (1983), ''Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music: With Special Emphasis on J. S. Bach'' (Princeton, New Jersey)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scherer, Sebastian Anton 1631 births 1712 deaths German Baroque composers Organists and composers in the South German tradition German classical organists Composers for lute 18th-century keyboardists 18th-century classical composers German male classical composers 18th-century German composers 18th-century German male musicians German male classical organists