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Thomaskantor

Thomaskantor (Cantor at St. Thomas) is the common name for the musical director of the Thomanerchor, now an internationally known boys' choir founded in Leipzig in 1212. The official historic title of the Thomaskantor in Latin, Cantor et Director Musices, describes the two functions of cantor and director. As the cantor, he prepared the choir for service in four Lutheran churches, Thomaskirche (St. Thomas), Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas), Neue Kirche (New Church) and Peterskirche (St. Peter). As director, he organized music for city functions such as town council elections and homages. Functions related to the university took place at the Paulinerkirche. Johann Sebastian Bach was the most famous Thomaskantor, from 1723 to 1750.

Position[edit]

Leipzig has had a university dating back to 1409, and is a commercial center, hosting a trade fair first mentioned in 1165. It has been mostly Lutheran since the Reformation. The position of Thomaskantor at Bach's time has been described as "one of the most respected and influential musical offices of Protestant Germany.^[1]

The readings and required music of the Lutheran services in Leipzig were regulated in detail. The Church Book (Complete Church / Book / Containing / The Gospels and Epistles / For Every Feast-, Sun-, and Apostle Day Of the Entire Year ...) lists the prescribed readings, repeated every year.^[2] The church year began with the First Sunday in Advent and was divided in feast days, fasting periods and the feast-less time after Trinity Sunday. For music, there was mainly no concert music such as a cantata during the fasting times of Advent and Lent. Modest music was performed during the second half of the church year, and rich music with more complex instrumentation and more services per day on feast days. Christmas, Easter and Pentecost were celebrated for three days each, and many other feast days were observed.^[3] The library of St. Thomas contained works in vocal polyphony from the fifteenth century onward.^[4]

The Thomaskantor reported to the city council, the rector of the Thomasschule and the church superintendent.^[5] He had the duty to prepare the choir for service in the city's four Lutheran churches:^[6] the main churches Thomaskirche (St. Thomas) and the Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas),^[7] and also the Neue Kirche (New Church) and the Peterskirche (St. Peter).^[8][9]

As cantor, the Thomaskantor had to compose and take care of copying, rehearsals and performances.^[10] He also had to teach music and general subjects.^[6] He took part in the admission process for new students to the school.^[11] The choir was divided in groups: the most advanced singers performed a cantata every Sunday, alternating between St. Thomas and St. Nicholas, a second group sang at the other church, beginners on feast days at the smaller churches. On high holidays, the cantata was performed in both churches, a morning service in one and a vespers service in the other. To earn additional funding, the choir performed also for weddings and funerals.^[12]

As director of music, the Thomaskantor was Leipzig's "senior musician", responsible for the music on official occasions such as town council elections and homages.^[6] Functions related to the university took place at the Paulinerkirche.

Today, the Thomaskantor leads the music in services at the Thomaskirche, including weekly afternoon services called Motette which often contain a Bach cantata. He also conducts the choir in recordings and on tours.

• 
  Thomaskirche,
  1885
• 
  Nikolaikirche, ca. 1850
• 
  Neue Kirche,
  1749
• 
  Peterskirche, before 1886
• 
  Paulinerkirche,
  1749

Known holders of the position[edit]

The following table shows the names of the known people in the position, and their time of service, in chronological order from the Reformation to now.

No.	No. after Bach	Image	Name	Tenure	Born	Died	Notes
1			Georg Rhau	1518–1520	c. 1488 inEisfeld	6 August 1548 inWittenberg
2			Johannes Galliculus	1520–1525	c. 1490 inDresden	c. 1550 inLeipzig
3			Valerian Hüffeler	1526–1530
4			Johannes Hermann	1531–1536	1515 inZittau	22 April 1593 inFreiberg
5			Wolfgang Jünger	1536–1539	c. 1517 inSayda	4 March 1564 inGroßschirma
6			Johannes Bruckner	1539–1540
7			Ulrich Lange	1540–1549		1549 inLeipzig
8			Wolfgang Figulus	1549–1551	c. 1525 inNaumburg	1589 inMeißen
9			Melchior Heger	1553–1564	in Brüx (today Most)
10			Valentin Otto	1564–1594	1529 in Markkleeberg	April 1594
11			Sethus Calvisius	1594–1615	21 February 1556 in Gorsleben	24 November 1615 inLeipzig
12			Johann Hermann Schein	1615–1630	20 January 1586 inGrünhain	19 November 1630 inLeipzig
13			Tobias Michael	1631–1657	13 June 1592 inDresden	26 June 1657 inLeipzig
14			Sebastian Knüpfer	1657–1676	6 September 1633 in Asch	10 October 1676 inLeipzig
15			Johann Schelle	1677–1701	6 September 1648 in Geising	10 March 1701 inLeipzig
16			Johann Kuhnau	1701–1722	6 April 1660 in Geising	5 June 1722 inLeipzig
17[a]			Johann Sebastian Bach	1723–1750	21 March 1685 inEisenach	28 July 1750 inLeipzig
18	1		Johann Gottlob Harrer	1750–1755	1703 inGörlitz	9 July 1755 inKarlsbad
19	2		Johann Friedrich Doles	1756–1789	23 April 1715 inSteinbach-Hallenberg	8 February 1797 inLeipzig	Longest-serving in the role.
20	3		Johann Adam Hiller	1789–1801	25 December 1728 inWendisch-Ossig	16 June 1804 inLeipzig	1781–1785 Gewandhauskapellmeister
21	4		August Eberhard Müller	1801–1810	13 December 1767 inNortheim	3 December 1817 inWeimar	1810–1817 Großherzoglich-Sächsischer Hofkapellmeister
22	5		Johann Gottfried Schicht	1810–1823	29 September 1753 inReichenau	16 February 1823 inLeipzig
23	6		Christian Theodor Weinlig	1823–1842	25 July 1780 inDresden	7 March 1842 inLeipzig	1814–1817 Kreuzkantor
24	7		Moritz Hauptmann	1842–1868	13 October 1792 inDresden	3 January 1868 inLeipzig
25	8		Ernst Friedrich Richter	1868–1879	24 October 1808 inGroßschönau	9 April 1879 inLeipzig
26	9		Wilhelm Rust	1880–1892	15 August 1822 inDessau	2 May 1892 inLeipzig
27	10		Gustav Schreck	1893–1918	8 September 1849 inZeulenroda	22 January 1918 inLeipzig
28	11		Karl Straube	1918–1939	6 January 1873 inBerlin	27 April 1950 inLeipzig
29	12		Günther Ramin	1939–1956	15 October 1898 inKarlsruhe	27 February 1956 inLeipzig
30	13		Kurt Thomas	1957–1960	25 May 1904 inTönning	31 March 1973 inBad Oeynhausen
31	14		Erhard Mauersberger	1961–1972	29 December 1903 inMauersberg / Marienberg	11 December 1982 inLeipzig
32	15		Hans-Joachim Rotzsch	1972–1991	25 April 1929 inLeipzig	24 September 2013 inLeipzig
33	16		Georg Christoph Biller	1992–2015	20 September 1955 inNebra	27 January 2022
34	17		Gotthold Schwarz	2016–2021	2 May 1952 inZwickau
35	18		Andreas Reize	2021	19 May 1975 inSolothurn, Switzerland		First Swiss and the first Catholic

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Dürr, Alfred (1971). Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach (in German). Vol. 1. Bärenreiter-Verlag. OCLC 523584.
• Petzoldt, Martin (2013). "Liturgy and Music in Leipzig's Main Churches" (PDF) (in German). bach-cantatas.com.
• Wolff, Christoph (1991). Bach: Essays on His Life and Music. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05926-9.
• Wolff, Christoph (2002). Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-32256-9.
• "Peterskirche Leipzig / Geschichte" (in German). St. Peter, Leipzig. 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
• Stefan Altner: Das Thomaskantorat im 19. Jahrhundert. Bewerber und Kandidaten für das Leipziger Thomaskantorat in den Jahren 1842 bis 1918. Quellenstudien zur Entwicklung des Thomaskantorats und des Thomanerchors vom Wegfall der öffentlichen Singumgänge 1837 bis zur ersten Auslandsreise 1920. Passage-Verlag, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-938543-15-9.
• Johann Gottfried Stallbaum: Über den innern Zusammenhang musikalischer Bildung der Jugend mit dem Gesammtzwecke des Gymnasiums. Eine Inauguralrede, nebst biographischen Nachrichten über die Cantoren an der Thomasschule zu Leipzig. Fritzsche, Leipzig 1842.
• Corinna Wörner: Zwischen Anpassung und Resistenz. Der Thomanerchor Leipzig in zwei politischen Systemen. Studien und Materialien zur Musikwissenschaft, Bd. 123. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2023. (Abstract) ISBN 978-3-487-16232-4.

External links[edit]

• Ordnung / Der Schule / zu S. Thomæ, Leipzig 1723 (PDF, in German)
• The Leipzig City Council’s Statutes for St. Thomas School, Leipzig 1723 (PDF)