(Grünhain-Beierfeld, 20 January 1586 – Leipzig, 19 November 1630)
Johann Hermann Schein (Grünhain-Beierfeld, 20 January 1586 – Leipzig, 19 November 1630), together with Heinrich Schütz and Samuel Schütz, was the greatest German composer of the first half of the 17th century. One of his famous works is the Musical Banquet, composed in Leipzig in 1617, comprising nineteen Suites for various instruments. Other collections he published include Cimbalum Sionium, Israelis Brünnlein, Opella Nova I and II, and Venus Kräntzelein.
He was the fifth son of the Protestant pastor Hieronymus Schein, originally from Dresden. He spent his early years in Grünhain, in the Erzgebirge.
After the pastor died in 1593, the mother returned with her son to her parent's home in Dresden, partly because the new pastor needed the house in Grünhain and partly because she could barely earn a living in that small town. In Dresden, Schein developed his talent for singing in the children's choir of the Dresdner Hofkapelle, part of the choir of the principality, under the guidance of Rogier Michael and was a soprano until 1603. After his voice had changed, he was sent to further his education at the principality's state school in Pforta, where he was admitted on 18 May 1603. Here, he learned the fundamentals of musical knowledge very well. However, he returned to Dresden in April 1607.
He had already been enrolled at the University of Leipzig since 1603, so he could not begin until 1608. He studied law and liberal arts and received a scholarship as a former member of the princely choir. Although he had taken up the study of law seriously (he graduated in 1612), his interest lay more in poetry and music, and he began to compose. In 1609, he published his first musical work, Das Venus Kräntzlein (The Crown of Venus), a secular piece for choirs of five to eight voices and instrumental parts.
In 1613, Schein became a music teacher in Weissenfels to Gottfried von Wolffersdorf, who had met him in Pforta, after which he was appointed the family's musical director. He had not, however, given up composing, and in 1614, he published Cymbalum Sionium, a work in the form of sacred motets in Latin and German. In the autumn of 1616, Schein was appointed Sethus Calvisius' successor as Thomaskantor of the Thomasschule and music director of Leipzig. The considerable commitments associated with the role of cantor and music director of the Thomasschule, which included liturgical service in the churches of St. Nicholas and St. Thomas and accompanying weddings, baptisms, funerals, and city events, significantly weakened his health.
In Weimar, he married Sidonia, daughter of the official of the Saxon principality Eusebius Hösel. Three daughters died in infancy, and Sidonia herself died in 1624 at the birth of her third daughter; only the two sons survived their father.
In 1625, he married Elisabeth von Perre, daughter of the painter Johann von der Perre. Of the five children born to this marriage, four died in infancy.
In the second edition of 1645 of his Cantionale, which Schein began compiling in 1629, there are 58 pieces composed by the Author himself, including funeral songs dedicated to his first wife and seven of his children.
He himself was often ill. Despite suffering from lung disease and kidney problems, he continued to work as a teacher, choirmaster, organist, and composer. He twice sought treatment in the city of Karlsbad but received no relief. He died before he was 45 years old. Heinrich Schütz composed a funeral lament in his honor. He was buried in his hometown, where an epitaph can be found in the church of St. Nicholas; a monument in front of the church commemorates the musician.
Israelis Brünnlein ("The Fountains of Israel") are spiritual madrigals performed by Gli Angeli Geneve, a baroque ensemble based in Geneva.
Schein was one of Bach's most illustrious predecessors at St. Thomas in Leipzig. His work, long eclipsed by the historical stature of his contemporary Heinrich Schütz, is today recognized as one of the jewels of the Protestant sacred repertoire. Composed "in the manner of an Italian madrigal," the celebrated Fountains of Israel give the Old Testament texts an extraordinarily pertinent and varied musical vision; this way of putting a whole range of means derived directly from Italy at the service of German-language religious music achieves here surprising appropriateness.
