[Suevus], a Franciscan of Weingarten and Constance (works, 1634-56); Ambrosius Reiner (d. 1672), archducal choirmaster at Innsbruck, with masses, motets and litanies (1643-56), in some of which instruments were combined with novel effect; Georg Arnold, organist at Bamberg (works, 1651-72); J. K. Kerll (d. 1693), the great organist at Munich and Vienna (see sec. 105), with important masses, etc. (1669-89), besides dramas and keyboard works; Johann Melchior Gletle, choirmaster at Augsburg, with many masses and motets (1667-84), often including elaborate vocal and orchestral combinations; and Steffani (d. 1728), the opera-writer (see sec. 87), pupil of Kerll, from 1667 at Munich and court-organist from 1675, and from 1688 choirmaster at Hanover, with important works (few published, 1674-85).
The centre of activity in Protestant music was naturally
Saxony and the neighboring states. Here we encounter a
series of composers who united great technical skill with a
deep insight into the possibilities of sacred song apart from the
Catholic ritual. Being without controlling traditions, they experimented
freely with many forms from simple part-songs and
solos to extended counterpoint. They evidently felt that there
was no fixed boundary between the sacred and the secular, and
many of them were eminent in both fields. Yet few of them
had to do with the opera, though not wholly averse to dramatic
styles. Even when they essayed to treat church music dramatically,
their innate German earnestness held them back from
triviality or excess.
In the annals of German Protestant music the title 'Cantor' often
appears. This is practically equivalent to Kapellmeister as earlier used,
except that it belongs not to a princely court or a cathedral, but to a
municipality, implying some measure of responsibility for civic education.
The office has existed in most German towns and cities, sometimes with
duties confined to a single church or school, sometimes involving the
care of all the official music of the community—churches, schools, choral
societies and bands of players—the incumbent often having the title of
'Town-Musician.'
In many ways the most famous instance has been in the Thomasschule at Leipsic (see secs. 117, 193), where the list of cantors begins early in the 15th century and is complete from 1531 to the present time. In the 17th century the cantors here were from 1594 Calvisius, from 1616 J. H. Schein, from 1631 Tobias Michael, from 1657 Sebastian Knüpfer, from 1677 Johann Schelle, followed in 1701 by Kuhnau and in 1722 by J. S. Bach—all dying in office after an average term of 22 years.
Christoph Demantius (d. 1643), from 1597 cantor at Zittau and from 1604 at Freiberg (Saxony), was an abundant and versatile composer of both Latin and German church music (from 1602), many secular songs and canzonets
