Hammerschmidt, Andreas (EN)

Hammerschmidt, Hammerschmid, Hammerschmied, Hammerschmiedt, Andreas, *1611 or 1612 Brüx (now Most, Czech Republic), †29 October 1675 Zittau, German composer and organist of Czech origin.

In 1626, the entire Hammerschmidt family emigrated to Freiberg due to the Thirty Years’ War. There is no information about Hammerschmidt’s education. From July 1633 to October 1634, he was organist in the service of Prince Rudolf von Bünau at Wesenstein Castle (Saxony), and then organist at St. Peter’s Church in Freiberg; it was there that his first publication containing dances “auff Violen” appeared in 1636. After the death of Ch. Schreiber, Hammerschmidt was appointed organist at St. John’s Church in Zittau on April 26, 1639, a position he held until the end of his life. From 1639 he engaged in wide-ranging compositional, publishing, organisational, and pedagogical activity, gaining recognition as a musician of talent equal to H. Schütz and J. Rist. Hammerschmidt’s duties as the principal organist of the church in Zittau included composing and performing vocal works with organs (at that time, there were three instruments in the church, which created perfect conditions for performances in concertato style), conducting a choir (composed of students from the local gymnasium) and an instrumental ensemble consisting of local musicians. In addition, he taught keyboard instruments and was often asked to provide expert opinions on organs. One of Hammerschmidt’s closest friends was Christian Keimann, a poet and rector of the local Johanneum Gymnasium, who provided the composer with lyrics. In the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Cross, there is a tombstone with an inscription praising Hammerschmidt as the “Orpheus of Zittau.”

Hammerschmidt’s compositional output is dominated by vocal-instrumental music, with the exception of three collections – sacred music, which uses various musical forms and techniques: from motets (Musikalischer Andachten…, part 2, Missae “pro coro” from 1663) and sacred madrigals (Musikalischer Andachten…, parts 2 and 5) to concertos and arias; from choral homorhythm (Fest- und Zeit-Andachten…) to concertante technique. Hammerschmidt referred directly to the works of H. Schütz (Kleine geistliche Konzerte, Geistliche Chor-Musik) and the Italian few-voiced concerto (the manner of ornamentation in the collection of motets from 1649). In his church concertos, Hammerschmidt did not go beyond Schütz’s formal models, but his dialogical and aria works represent an important stage in the development of the German cantata.

The collection Musikalische Gespräche (59 dialogues for Sundays and holidays throughout the church year) contains multi-section works, composed of a series of self-contained fragments, anticipating the multi-sectional form of the Baroque cantata and oratorio. This type of Hammerschmidt’s dialogue structure is associated with a specific disposition of texts (usually paraphrases of Bible passages), distributed among the parts of individual performers; there appear also reflective and didactic conversations (Dialogi…). The composer also uses sections of choral text (e.g. Surrexit Christus hodie in the dialogue Wer wälzet uns den Stein from Musikalischer Andachten…, part 4). The composer usually also introduces an instrumental ensemble into the dialogues. As a songwriter (3 collections of Weltliche Oden…), Hammerschmidt belongs to the Hamburg school of songwriters, as evidenced by the simple, coloratura-free melodic with a lyrical expression, the folk origins of some of the melo-rhythmic phrases, the refrain structure, the frequent use of larger intervals, the considerable variation in rhythmic values, and the use of texts referring to folk patterns (sometimes in dialect). Similar compositional techniques and unconventional harmonics are also found in the arias (especially in Musikalische Andachten…, part 2). None of Hammerschmidt’s organ compositions have survived, so the three collections of dances for string ensemble are the only examples of his instrumental music.

Literature: G. Schünemann Beiträge zur Biographie Hammerschmidt, “Sammelbände der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft” XII, 1910/11; E. Richter Die Dialoge Andreas Hammerschmidt, “Die Singgemeinde” I, 1924/25; H. Kümmerling Über einige unbekannte Stimmbücher der “Paduanen, Galliarden etc” von Andreas Hammerschmidt, “Die Musikforschung” XIV, 1961; H.E. Smither A History of the Oratorio, vol. 2, Chapel Hill 1977; E. Schumann Hammerschmidt bei den mastersingern, “Die Musikforschung” no. 59–2, 2006; N. Detering Andreas Hammerschmidt’s Weltliche Oden (1642) and their poet Ernst Christoph Homburg, “Die Musikforschung” no. 66–4, 2013.