Schicht, Johann Gottfried

views updated

Schicht, Johann Gottfried

Schicht, Johann Gottfried, German keyboard player, conductor, and composer; b. Reichenau, Saxony, Sept. 29, 1753; d. Leipzig, Feb. 16, 1823. In 1776, already well trained as an organist and pianist, he matriculated at the Univ. of Leipzig as a law student; he concurrently played in Hiller’s “Grosses Concert.” Giving up the law, he played in Hiller’s Musikubende Gesellschaft. In 1781 he became a violinist in the Gewandhaus concerts, succeeding Hiller as their conductor in 1785. He was founder-conductor of the Singakademie (1802–07), then music director of the Univ. (from 1808) and Kantor of the Thomasschule (from 1810). He publ. Grundregeln der Harmonie nach dem Verwechslungssystem (Leipzig, 1812).

Works

VOCAL : Oratorios : Die Feier der Christen auf Golgotha; Moses auf Sinai; Das Ende des Gerechten. Other : Masses; motets; Te Deums; the 100th Psalm; several chorale-motets (Nach einer Prüfung kurzer Tage, Jesus meine Zuversicht, Herzlich lieb hob’ ich dich, o Herr, etc.); 9 settings of Leo’s Miserere a 4–8; an excellent book of chorales (1819; of 1, 285 melodies, 306 are original). Piano : Concerto; sonatas; caprices; etc.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire