Luogo e data di registrazione		Evangelische Kirche, Séon (Svizzera) - 18-20 gennaio 1979
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Gerd Berg / Klaus L. Neumann / Johann-Nikolaus Matthes
	Prima Edizione LP		EMI Electrola "Reflexe" - 1C 069-46 405 - (1 lp) - durata 45' 00" - (p) 1982 - Analogico
	Prima Edizione CD		EMI "Classics" - 8 26527 2 - (1 cd) - durata 45' 00" - (c) 2000 - ADD
	Note		Aufgenommen in Zusammenarbeit mit WDR.

Even today, some people still include Johann Hermann Schein among the minor masters of the Baroque, which is without doubt a false evalutation. This mis-judgement cannot be blamed on musicologists, yet Schein, Kantor of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig 1616-1630, continues to maintain but a pallid existence in our modern, practical musical awareness, as indeed does his friend and contemporary, the Sweelinck pupil Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) from Halle -together with Heinrich Schütz, Scheidt and Schein made up the "three famous S’s" of the 17th century (W. C. Printz, Historische Beschreibung der Sing- und  Klingkunst, “Historical description of vocal and instrumental art”, 1690). Students of music always had to learn ’the three great S’s’ parrot fashion, put investigation of Schein and Scheidt rarely went much deeper. In the wake of the Bach Renaissance, Schein vvas respectfully mentioned from time to time as an important ’predecessor‘ of Bach’s, as the composer who ’blended‘ the traditional late Netherlandish-German stylistic heritage with the Italian achievements of the stile nuovo. Among some postwar precentors, who found Bach too superficial for their simple, strict ecclesiastical pretensions (after the total renunciation of Romanticism), Schein enjoyed an austere revival: it is pleasing to find many of his canzonas and intradas in the music volumes of amateur groups and church brass choruses, and many a keen music teacher includes one or another of the fresh-sounding Wald Liederlein in his choral repertoire. But that of course remains rather piecemeal. Likevise, the selection on this record can only hint at the diversity and the intellectual depth and purity of Schein’s œuvre; but it is perhaps extensive enough to whet one’s appetite and convey some idea of this singular and important composer on the threshold of the German Baroque. Johann Hermann Schein was born the son of a parish priest in Grünhain nearAnnaberg, in the Erzgebirge region of Saxony, on 20th January 1586. He enjoyed a well-founded humanist education, first as a choirboy ot the Hofkapelle, the court chapel, in Dresden (from 1599), then as, the holder of a scholarship awarded by Elector Christian the Second at the electoral Landeschule in Pforta (from 1603), and finally as a student at the University of Leipzig (frorn1608),where he studied “the fine arts and also jurisprudence". After the completion of his studies in 1612, Schein spent two years as ,"preceptor to their young lordships and director of house music" at Schloß Weißenfels before travelling to Weimar to take up the post of Hofkapellmeister to Duke Johann Ernst the Younger. Not long after, however, on 19th August 1616, he was appointed to the coveted post of Thomaskantor, which had lain vacant since the death of Calvisius in the previous year. A degree of shock is - particularly for the modern reader - the only possible reaction to the details of his and his families’ lives. Schein himself, who was married twice, suffered early on from various illnesses, from “gout and kidney stones” as well as consumption, of which he eventually died before reaching the age of 45. His friend Heinrich Schütz, who visited the dying Schein, wrote the six-part parentation motet Das ist ja gewisslich wahr in accordance with Schein’s express wish. The funeral sermon, which was later printed, was read before a large group of mourners, and has presen/ed an abundance of biographical information for posterity. After the Venus Kräntzlein (Wittenberg 1609) there appeared at regular intervals - alongside a large number of occasional compositions written for the most part in Leipzig - a magnificent series of collections of works both secular and sacred. Thus Cyrmbalum Sionium sice Cantiones sacrae (Leipzig 1605), Banchetto Musicale (Leipzig 1617), Opella nova (1617/1626), Musica boscareccia, Wald Liederlein (1621/1626/1628) and its sacred parody Musica boscareccia Sacra (1644/1651) with sacred texts by E. Leichner, Fontana d'Israel, Israels Brünnlein (1623), Diletti pastorali, Hirtenlust (1624), Studenten-Schmauß (1626), Cantional oder Gesangbuch Augsburgischer Confession (1627). Schein’s equal propensity towards “Christian devotion in church services and to amusement and diversion at honest meetings of friends” represents a synthesis of life and work, of deep piety sociable worldliness, a joje de vivre whose sanguine warmth is irresistible. The Ricercare Ensemble, following Schein’s own suggestion and early 17th century practice, performed the vocal and instrumental pieces recorded here “on all kinds of instruments” - some pieces are played by a single family of instruments (recorders, shawms, crumhorns), while others are performed with mixed scoring. The listener’s ear is particularly struck by the close relationship with the registers of the Renaissance organ. Schein’s suites, all of which have the movements Padouana - Gagliarda - Courante - Allemande (with Tripla), are socalled variation suites - in other words, they are written in one key, and medify uniform thematic material to suit the character of the individual dance movements. This attempt to link the individual movements more closely by the use of variation elements - a technique that also features in the works of Thesselius and Peuerl - was not pursued by later composers. Just as Schein the composer knew how to combine imitative-polyphonic principles splendidly with homophonic and concertante elements, so Schein the poet created a genial synthesis of Italian Renaissance poetry and the sound and emotional strength of the German folk song. Schein absorbed everything new (i.e. Italian) that his era had to offer with great sensitivity, but never renouced his native tradition. His composition is always marked by artistry and informal logic, yet free of any unwieldiness. His handling of texts is often passionate and florid, yet always contained within a supremely controlled form. A German master of the early Baroque, in other words, well worth remembering. Gerd Berg, 1982 Translation: Clive R. Williams
EMI Electrola "Reflexe"