Works For Organ Volume 2

During the seventeenth century Hanseatic Hamburg was a thriving town with a strong economy and a flourishing culture. The town's location close to the river Elbe and the different seas made it ideal for merchants from a variety of ports. Organists were highly esteemed in these prosperous times, and the Scheidemann family surely benefited from the city's goodwill. Young Heinrich must have impressed the congregation's elders directly, as from 1611 to 1614 the parish of the Catharinenkirche supported Heinrich during his studies with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck in Amsterdam. Not much else is known about Heinrich Scheidemann until 1629, when he succeeded his father as organist at the Catharinenkirche, serving also as clerk for the congregation. A further indication of the organist's high status was the congregation's arrangement with the city to exempt Scheidemann from taxes and from conscription. He enjoyed a considerable reputation as an organist, composer and teacher during his lifetime, and his students included his successor Johann Adam Reinken and Jacob Lorentz, the grandson of Scheidemann's colleague Jacob Praetorius. He died in 1663, probably a victim of the plague that ravaged Hamburg during this period.