Andreas Raselius

At the approximate age of eighteen. Raselius entered Heidelberg University becoming a teacher two years later. He left Heidelberg for religious reasons and became the Kantor at the Gymnasium in Regensburg. Raselius is considered "the" Protestant Kantor almost without peer from the late sixteenth century. Many of his works were scored specifically for the church service but betray a pedagogical interest like "Teutscher Spruche auss den sontaglichen Evangelis durchs gantze Jar." Raselius was the first to compose a cycle of motets for the entire church year in German. His chorale music is interesting, and more advanced than Osiander's because of the five-voice arrangements and the interest which Raselius paid to the middle voices. The tenor is often written with longer valued notation when it held the cantus firmus. The composer was also familiar with the Italian penchant for scoring for more than one choir and demonstrated a marked understanding of alternating homophony and polyphony for effective purposes. ~ Keith Johnson