Samuel Scheidt’s Echo transcribed for Clarinet Octet, (8 part Clarinet Ensemble/Choir).

The music of Samuel Scheidt is a beautiful fit for modern instruments and Keith Terrett has done a magnificent job with this arrangement which can be performed by moderately advanced performers.

The work is about 2 minutes in length and shows off the antiphonal effects of having two separated choirs with contrasting dynamics and technical effects.

Samuel Scheidt (baptized 3 November 1587- 24 March 1654) was a German composer, organist and teacher of the early Baroque era.

He was born in Halle, and after early studies there, he went to Amsterdam to study with Sweelinck, the distinguished Dutch composer, whose work had a clear influence on Scheidt’s style. On his return to Halle, Scheidt became court organist, and later Kapellmeister, to the Margrave of Brandenburg. Unlike many German musicians, for example Heinrich Schütz, he remained in Germany during the Thirty Years’ War, managing to survive by teaching and by taking a succession of smaller jobs until the restoration of stability allowed him to resume his post as Kapellmeister.

Scheidt was the first internationally significant German composer for the organ, and represents the flowering of the new north German style, which occurred largely as a result of the Protestant Reformation. In south Germany and some other countries of Europe, the spiritual and artistic influence of Rome remained strong, so most music continued to be derivative of Italian models. Cut off from Rome, musicians in the newly Protestant areas readily developed new stylistic ideas which were much different from the practice of their neighbours.