Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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254 SCHEIDT SCHEIDT
III. Tertiaet ultima pars, continens Kyrie Dominicale,
Credo in unnm Deum, Fsalmuin de Coena Domini sub
Communione, Hymnos praeoipuorum Pestorum totius
anni, Magniflcat 1-9 toni, modum ludendi pleno
Organo et Benedicamus ... In gratiam Organistarum,
praedpue eorum qui mnsice pure et absque celerrimis
coloraturia Organo ludere gaudent . . .
The last words mark an important difference
between the third part and the two preceding.
In the first two parts the composer appears to
wish to show how he could beat the ' Colourists
on their own ground, his figures and passages,
however, not being like theirs, absolutely meaningless
and void of invention, but new and
varied, and having an organic connection with
the whole composition to which they belong.
He shows himself still as virtuoso, desirous to
extend the technique of organ-playing, while
at the same time displaying his contrapuntal
mastery. So far as technique is concerned,
there is to be noticed in Scheldt the extended
use of the pedal, so different from Freacobaldi's
occasional use of it for single notes merely, also
the imitation of orchestral effects, such as what
he himself terms ' imitatio violistioa,' the imitation
of the effects of the different ways of bowing
on the violin, and the imitation of an organ
tremulant itself by the rapid interchange of the
fingers of the two hands on one and the same
key('Bicinium imitatione tremula organi duobus
digitis in una tantum clave manu turn dextra,
tum sinistra'). The first two parts contain a
mixture of sacred and secular pieces, the secular
pieces, however, being marked off as for domestic
rather than for church use by the absence of a
pedal part. The sacred pieces consist of ten
fantasias or sets of variations on chorale melodies,
with a few fugues or fantasias on another
motive, among which is a fantasia fuga quadruplici,
' on a madrigal of Palestrina's, which Ritter
'
describes as a masterpiece of contrapuntal art.
four subjects from the madrigal being treated
first singly and then together, and with contrary
motion and other devices. The secular
pieces consist chiefly of variations on secular
melodies, among which appears one entitled an
English song de fortuna ' ' {i.e. the famous
'
Fortune, my foe '). The third part of the
'
Tabulatura Nova ' stands, however, on a higher
level than the first two. The composer expressly
renounces the virtuoso ; he writes, as the
title-page says, for those who delight to play
the organ purely musically, and without mere
ornamental and passage work. In this third
part he givtes very full directions with regard
to registering both for manuals and pedal. It
is intended entirely for church use, and both
by the choice of pieces, and the manner in which
they are arranged, it gives us an insight into
the way in which the organ was very frequently
employed in the church services of those days.
It was not then generally used to accompany
or sustain the voices of the choir or congregation,
but rather to alternate with them. Thus,
for instance, between each verse of the Magnificat'
sung by the choir without accompani-
'
ment, the organ would come in independently
with some variation or changing harmonies on
the plain-song melody. A further use of the
organ was even to take the place of the choir
in making the responses to the ecclesiastical
intonations of the officiating clergy when tliere
was no' proper choir to do this. Frescobaldi's
works (especially Fieri Musicali,' 1635) furnish
'
instances of this use of the organ in the Roman
Church. Thus when the priest had intoned
the Kyrie of the Mass, in the absence of a proper
choir, the organist would answer, as Ambros
expresses it, when speaking of Frescobaldi's
works of the kind, with a kind ' of artisticallyennobling
and enriching echo ' ( ' mit einer Art
von kiinstlerisch-veredelnden und bereiohernden
Echo '), that is to say, the organist, taking up
the plain-song theme, would not just harmonise
it note by note, but treat it in the form of a
short polyphonic composition for the organ.
(See the quotations from Frescobaldi in Ambros's
Geschichte der Musik, iv. pp. 444-50.) The
third part of Scheldt's Tabulatura ' ' shows that
this usage was not confined to the Roman
Church, but was also retained for a considerable
time in the Lutheran. It opens with twelve
short movements based on the plain-song of the
different sections of the Kyrie and Gloria of the
Mass, and the remark, or rubric, as we might
call it, 'Gloria canit Pastor,' shows that they
were expressly intended as responses made by
the organ to the intonation of officiating clergy.
The ' Magnificat ' follows, in all the church
tones, one verse sung by the ecclesiastic and
every alternate verse arranged to be played by
the organ in lieu of a choir. This way of treating
the ' Magnificat ' prevailed in Lutheran
Churches, even up to Pachelbel's time (1706),
though the plain-song was more and more put
into the background, and the practice became
simply an excuse for interludes on any motive.
After the Magnificat came a series of hymns
common to both Roman and Lutheran churches,
with their plain - song melodies treated in
a similar fashion. The book further contains
Luther's version of the Creed ('Wir glauben
AH' an einen Gott') with its Doric melody,
John Huas's Communion Hymn, arranged to
be played instead of being sung during Communion.
The two last pieces in the book are
6-part movements for the full organ, meant to
be played at the end of Vespers. Interwoven
with the last is the liturgical melody of the
Benedicamus. In all these compositions Scheldt
has faithfully adhered to the original plain-song
melodies when they appear as Cantus Firmus,
but in the further working out has not been
content simply to harmonise them according to
the laws of the Church modes, but has so far
altered them in accordance with the new ideas
of harmony then beginning to make way. But