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Johannes Christoph Demantius (1567-1643)

Johannes Christoph Demantius (1567-1643) was a German composer, writer, and poet. Among his achievements is the publication of the first alphabetical musical dictionary, which took Michael Prætorius’ Syntagma musicum as a stepping-stone, but revised and almost doubled the number of definitions. Demantius started his studies at the University of Wittenberg, and then moved to Lei pzig for a few years before becoming chapel master at Zittau, Saxony, first, and then at Freiberg in 1604. He was soon granted citizenship, a proof of his local success and renown. Like J.S. Bach in Leipzig, once he had landed a satisfactory job he stayed there until the end of his days. His family life was not a happy one-he was married four times and most of his children did not outlive him, partially as a result of t he Thirty Years War.

Despite his sharing birth and death dates with the Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (who shepherded the Baroque period and the new modern style into the Italian music scene), Demantius’ music sounds dramatically different, conservative and, of course, more Germanic. For example, while after the 1590s virtually all music by Monteverdi contained a basso continuo line, only one piece by Demantius uses the new baroque technique. Similarly, while most modern music was associated with the concertato style of joining vocal and instrumental forces, no sacred concerti by Demantius are known to exist.

Demantius composed both secular and sacred music, especially devoting himself to music for choral societies. He composed many Lutheran motets but also Gospel motets, notable especially for their scoring: where most other composers, such as Vulpius and Franck, composed such motets for four voices at most so that churches with limited resources could perform them, Demantius scored them for a six-voice ensemble, thus a vailing himself of the numerous musicians present in affluent Freiburg. All of his motets, despite being formally in an older style, have great emotional depth and are crafted to express the text extremely effectively. In this he is clearly a worthy successor of the great composer Orlando di Lasso.

Vocal Works Performed by SFBC


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