Samuel Scheidt
Biography
German composer Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) was a significant contemporary of Schütz who likewise sought a fusion between German contrapuntal practice and the Italian manner. Born in Halle, Scheidt spent his entire career there with the exception of five years spent in Amsterdam studying with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Scheidt is best known for an organ publication, Tablatura Nova (1620-1624). After the Thirty Years' War, Scheidt was advanced to kapellmeister of Halle, and apart from a break in the 1630s, held this position the rest of his life. He lost his family during an outbreak of the plague in 1636.