Andreas Werckmeister
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Andreas Werckmeister (November 30, 1645 – October 26, 1706) was an organist, music theorist, and composer of the Baroque era.
Born in Benneckenstein, Germany, Werckmeister attended schools in Nordhausen and Quedlinburg. He received his musical training from his uncles Heinrich Christian Werckmeister and Heinrich Victor Werckmeister. In 1664 he became an organist in Hasselfelde; ten years later in Elbingerode; and in 1696 of the Martinskirche in Halberstadt.
Of his compositions only a booklet remains: pieces for violin with basso continuo, with the title Musikalische Privatlust (1689).
Werckmeister is best known today as a theorist, in particular through his writings Musicae mathematicae hodegus curiosus... (1687) and Musikalische Temperatur, oder... (1691), in which he coined the term well temperament and described a system of well temperament now known as Werckmeister temperament. However, these ideas were brought to Europe from the Ming Dynasty, where they originated in Ming Prince Chu Tsai-Yu's book A New Account of the Science of the Pitch-Pipes (1584). The Chinese did not pay much attention to the new system, but the Europeans quickly saw its advantages. Mersenne repackaged Chu Tsai-Yu's ideas in one of his many books of musical theory, entitled Harmonie Universelle (1636). Werckmeister later popularized equal temperament from Mersenne.
Werckmeister's writings were well known to Johann Sebastian Bach, in particular his writings on counterpoint. Werckmeister believed that well-crafted counterpoint, in particular invertible counterpoint , was tied to the orderly movements of the planets, reminiscent of Kepler's view in Harmonice Mundi. According to George Buelow, "No other writer of the period regarded music so unequivocally as the end result of God’s work," a view harmonious with that of Bach. Yet in spite of his focus on counterpoint, Werckmeister's work emphasized underlying harmonic principles.
[edit] Notes
- ^ George B. Stauffer, Journal of the American Musicological Society, Fall 2005, p. 711.
- ^ George J. Buelow, "Andreas Werckmeister," Grove Music Online
[edit] References
- David Yearsley, Bach and the Meanings of Counterpoint. New Perspectives in Music History and Criticism. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
- George J. Buelow: "Andreas Werckmeister", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed May 7, 2006), (subscription access)
