Schop, Johann (EN)

Schop Johann, *ca. 1590 Hamburg, †1667 Hamburg, German composer and instrumentalist. In 1614, he was accepted into the court orchestra in Wolfenbüttel, where he made a name for himself as a lutenist, cornetist, trombonist and outstanding violinist. From 1615, he was a musician in the orchestra of King Christian IV of Denmark in Copenhagen, from where he escaped the plague in 1619 together with the English violist William Brade. In 1621, he received a well-paid position as violinist for the city of Hamburg and director of the local Ratsmusik, with the right to go on concert tours. In 1634, together with H. Schütz and H. Albert, he played at the wedding celebrations of Crown Prince Christian in Copenhagen, winning a contest with the French violinist Jacques Foucart. Despite attempts to recruit him for the Danish orchestra, Schop remained a city violinist in Hamburg until his death and was a central figure in the musical life of the city. His son Johann Schop II (1626–after 1670) was a violist at the court in Schwerin, while Albert Schop (1632–after 1667) was an organist in Güstrow.

Schop was one of the first composers of German violin music. His instrumental compositions show the influence of English violinists (W. Brade and Th. Simpson) and Italian violinists working in Germany (C. Farina and B. Marini). His dance compositions were not published in the form of suites, unlike those of J. Rosenmüller, but in separate groups according to genre and number of voices. In his sacred compositions, he used the concertante (Geistliche Konzerte) and chorale (Choral Konzerte) techniques, drawing on the experience of H. Schütz and M. Praetorius; he also introduced independent instrumental parts. Together with Th. Selle, he founded the Hamburg school of song for solo voice with basso continuo; his songs to texts by J. Rist (e.g. Lasset uns den Herren preisen; Wach auf, mein Geist, erhebe dich; O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort) remained in the Protestant music repertoire for a long time. Polyphonic wedding songs to sacred and secular texts have a similar structure to church concertos.

Literature: A. Moser Johann Schop als Violinkomponist, in the commemorative book of H. Kretzschmar, Leipzig 1918; T. Baranowa Rękopiśmienna tabulatura lutniowa ze zbiorów Biblioteki Akademii Nauk ZSSR w Leningradzie, “Muzyka” 1989 No. 34; F. van Ingen Philipp von Zesen und die Komponisten seiner Lieder in: Studien zum deutschen weltlichen Kunstlied des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, esd. G. Busch, A. Harper, Amsterdam 1992; T. Synofzik Eine unbeachtete Quelle zur Claviermusik des 17. Jahrhunderts aus der Sammlung Wagener, “Revue belge de musicologie” LIII, 1999; A. Spohr Wind instruments in the Anglo-German consort repertoire, ca. 1630–40: A survey of music by Johann Schop and Nikolaus Bleyer, “Historic Brass Society journal” XVI, 2004; W. Jarecki Neues aus dem Leben des Komponisten Johann Schop (†1667), “Die Musikforschung” LX, 2009.