Severus Gastorius (1646-1682) was a

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. Cantor as a profession generally refers to those leading a Jewish congregation, although it also applies to the lead singer or choir director in Christian contexts. ...

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

. The son of a Weimar school teacher, Severus was born with the family name Bauchspiess (later Latinised to Gastorius) in Oettern, near

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

. In 1667, he started studying at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The university was established in 1558 and is cou ...

. From 1670, he deputized for cantor Andreas Zöll in Jena and married his daughter the following year. Gastorius assumed Zöll's position after his death in 1677. One of his friends, Samuel Rodigast, wrote the hymn " Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan" for Gastorius when he was sick (to cheer him up as Rodigast writes in his dedication). Even before he recovered, Gastorius set it to music based on a melody by Werner Fabricius. The cantor's students sang it every week at Gastorius' door, on his request, as well as when they returned home. The hymn became widely known in Germany. Gastorius was buried on 8 May 1682 in Jena's Johanniskirche cemetery. Gastorius had requested that the hymn "Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan" be sung at his funeral. Gastorius is also credited with composing music for the funeral

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 preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

''Du aber gehe hin bis das Ende komme''. It was sung at the funeral of the Jena professor of medicine Johann Arnold Friderici on 2 June 1672.Arne zur Nieden, "Severus Gastorius (1646–1682)"
Forschungsstelle für Personalschriften, Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz. Retrieved 13 September 2012.

References

The article is largely based on Wikipedia's Swedish version.

External links

Bibliography

* Reinhold Jauernig, ''Severus Gastorius'', in: 8, 1963, p. 163 et seq. * Siegfried Fornaçon, ''Werke von Severus Gastorius'', in: Jahrbuch für Liturgik und Hymnologie 8, 1963, p. 165-171. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gastorius, Severus German Protestant hymnwriters German male classical composers German male singers 1647 births 1682 deaths 17th-century German classical composers 17th-century hymnwriters 17th-century male musicians