Lesser-Known Composer of the Month: Johann Heinrich Schmelzer

Wait, Who?

Schmelzer was the most prominent and influential composer of instrumental music in the generation of German-speaking musicians before Biber (who according to some traditions was his pupil, although no evidence is known to support the claim).

Little is known about Schmelzer's early life, but he probably studied with one of the composers at the imperial court in Vienna.  Early records note him as a cornett player, but it was as a violinist and a composer that he gained his greatest notoriety.  By 1659 he was noted as the director of instrumental music for the coronation of Leopold I, and for a time he was responsible for creating ballet suites for the court.

In 1671 he was appointed vice-Kapellmeister of the imperial court, although since his superior was ailing he assumed many of the Kapellmeister's duties.  The emperor granted Schmelzer's petition for ennoblement in 1673, and he was finally appointed Kapellmeister when the incumbent,  Giovanni Felice Sances, died in November 1679.  The promotion came too late for Schmelzer to profit much by it, as he died of plague early the following year.

Although Schmelzer is mostly remembered for his instrumental music, he also composed a number of vocal works, including several operas, serenatas, and other dramatic works.  In his role as vice-Kapellmeister he produced numerous masses and a handful of other surviving liturgical works, as well as nearly two hundred other sacred works now lost and known only from their listing in the catalogue of Leopold I's private collection.

Schmelzer was a prolific composer of dance music, producing 150 dance suites, either for dramatic use or for court dancing, which for a time was one of his main responsibilities.  Some of them feature programmatic titles referring to one or more of the movements such as "Die Fechtschule" (The Fencing School).

Other works include roughly 100 sonatas for various combinations of two to eight instruments, some of which were published in three collections respectively containing trio sonatas, sonatas for varied ensembles, and sonatas for solo violin (under the title Sonatae unarum fidium, the first collection of violin sonatas published in German-speaking lands, an example of which is played in the video at the top of this page).