Matthias Greiter

A probable music student of Spohr at Freiburg University Greiter became a monk and Kantor at Strasbourg Minster. With the Protestant and Catholic upheavals in Germany it is not surprising that Greiter went from Catholicism to Protestantism and back to Catholicism again. He served Strasbourg in a number of capacities including Minster, St Thomas', St Stephen's and Old St Peter's. Musically his compositions were noted for melody and poetry. The melody written for the motet "Es sind doch alle selig" in his setting of Psalm 119 was employed by Calvin for Psalms 36 and 68. Greiter experimented with modulations going through the entire circle of fifths for one of his motets. (Willaert was the only person to precede Greiter in this accomplishment.) ~ Keith Johnson