Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

Neander, Alexius

(b Kolberg, Pomerania [now Kołobrzeg, Poland], c1560; d between Würzburg and Rome, in or before 1605). German composer. In 1580 he enrolled at the University of Frankfurt an der Oder. He entered the seminary at Würzburg on 26 April 1590 and was ordained on 21 September 1591. He then became music prefect at the Collegium Kilianum at Würzburg. He died while on a journey to Rome. His four printed volumes, consisting entirely of motets, were brought out after his death by his pupil Wolfgang Getzmann.

WORKS

Liber primus [30] sacrarum cantionum, 4–8, 12vv (Frankfurt, 1605); 4 in D-Mbs, 1 in Rp

Liber secundus [32] sacrarum cantionum, 4–24vv (Frankfurt, 1605); 6 in Mbs

Liber tertius [23] sacrarum cantionum, 5–12vv (Frankfurt, 1606); 7 in Mbs

Cantiones, 4, 5vv (Frankfurt, 1610)

4 motets, 1600^2 (1 in Rp), 1613^2, 1618^1

Te Deum laudamus, 6vv, Rp

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GöhlerV

WaltherML

G. Draudius: Bibliotheca classica (Frankfurt, 1611, enlarged 2/1625)

M. Sack: Leben und Werk Heinrich Pfendners (diss., Free U. of Berlin, 1954)

AUGUST SCHARNAGL/CLYTUS GOTTWALD

Neander, Joachim

(b Bremen, 1650; d Bremen, 31 March 1680). German theologian, poet and composer. He grew up in his native city and attended the Gymnasium Illustre, where he studied Calvinistic theology. In 1670 he was converted to Pietism by the Pietist revivalist Theodor Undereyck, the pastor of St Martini, Bremen, who obtained for him a private tutorship at Frankfurt. From there he went on to the University of Heidelberg with several of his pupils. From 1673 he was again in Frankfurt where he was in personal contact with Philipp Jakob Spener, the leading Pietist of the day, and also with the Pietist lyric poet J.J. Schütz. In 1674 he became headmaster of the Calvinist school in Düsseldorf, where he worked successfully until he got into difficulties in 1676 over his support for Pietist conventicles. He was first of all forbidden to preach and in 1677 evaded his dismissal from office only by signing a new school agenda, which he had fiercely attacked before. In 1679 he obtained another position, as morning preacher at St Martini, Bremen; he died there ten months later.

Neander published an extremely influential work: Joachimi Neandri Glaub- und Liebesübung: aufgemuntert durch einfältige Bundeslieder und Danck-Psalmen: neugesetzt nach bekant- und unbekandte Sang Weisen: … zu lesen und zu singen auff Reissen, zu Hauss oder bey Christen-Ergetzungen im Grünen (Bremen, 1680, lost; 2/1683 and several later editions); in addition to the later editions of the whole work, the Bundeslieder (covenant songs, named after the covenant of God with Man) were adopted, complete or in part, as a self-contained section in the hymnbooks of many established churches.

With F.A. Lampe and Gerhard Tersteegen, Neander contributed significantly to the demise of the exclusive use of Calvinist hymns in Low Germany; although in the first place his songs were certainly not intended for community singing, they were soon put to this use, especially as most of them were written in the verse forms of the Genevan Psalter and could thus be sung to the corresponding tunes. He intended his 58 original melodies (with continuo) only as an alternative. The most popular of his hymns, which is still used today, is Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, his melody for which is based on an earlier tune. Wunderbarer König, which is also still sung today, has an even finer text and melody. After Neander’s death his poetry was repeatedly provided with new melodies, of which the 66 with continuo that G.C. Strattner published in 1691 are particularly outstanding.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ADB (Bertheau)

R. Vornbaum: Joachim Neanders Leben und Lieder (Elberfeld, 1860)

C. Krafft: ‘Joachim Neander: eine hymnologische Studie’, Theologische Arbeiten aus dem rheinisch-westfälischen Prediger-Verein, iv (1880), 46–106, 157–8

C. Mahrenholz and O. Söhngen, eds.: Handbuch zum evangelischen Kirchengesangbuch, ii/1–2 and suppl. (Göttingen, 1957–8)

W. Blankenburg: ‘Geschichte der reformierten Kirchenmusik’, in F. Blume: Geschichte der evangelischen Kirchenmusik (Kassel, 2/1965), 343–400

Lobe den Herren 1680–1980: Bremer Gesangbücher und Kirchenlieddichter, Bremen Landesmuseum fur Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte, 27 Jan – 16 March 1980 (Bremen, 1980) [exhibition catalogue]

H. Ackermann: Joachim Neander (Düsseldorf, 1980)

M. Rössler: ‘Lobe den Herren … (EKG 234)’, Das tiefe Wort erneuern: Festgabe für Jürgen Henkys (Berlin, 1989), 40–46

H.-J. Schrader: Literaturproduktion und Büchermarkt des radikalen Pietismus (Göttingen, 1989)

J. Stalmann and J. Heinrich, eds.: Handbuch zum evangelischen Kirchengesangbuch, Liederkunde (Göttingen, 1990), ii

WALTER BLANKENBURG/DOROTHEA SCHRÖDER

Neander, Valentin (i)

(b Treuenbrietzen, nr Berlin, c1540; d probably at Treuenbrietzen, after 1583). German composer, writer on music, schoolmaster and civic official, father of valentin Neander (ii). From 1553 to 1557 he attended the Gymnasium in the Old Town at Magdeburg, where he was taught music by Martin Agricola. Between 1557 and 1559 he lived at Lüneburg and became acquainted with Lucas Lossius. In October 1559 he matriculated at the University of Wittenberg, where he got to know Melanchthon (who died within a few months) and later the poet Paul Eber, author of many lieder, who wrote a prefatory poem for his Cantiones sacrae. After his studies he returned to Treuenbrietzen, where he became schoolmaster and later town clerk too. The chief source of biographical details about him is his book Elegia de praecipuis artificibus et laude musices (Wittenberg, 1583), in which he treated of the divine destiny of music. His only printed musical work is XII sacrae cantiones, for four to six voices (Wittenberg, 1567); an expanded edition, Cantiones sacrae (Wittenberg, 1584, 2 ed. in Michael Praetorius: Gesamptausgabe, 1928–40/R, vol. vi), including Eber’s preface, is very probably an unaltered reprint of the now lost edition of 1569, the year of Eber’s death. The later edition is more than double the size of the first and consists of 21 Latin and four German pieces. Various emblems to be found in it show that Neander must have had a strong grounding in humanism. There are two manuscript works by him, Missa super ‘In honore Christi’ (in D-LÜh) and a motet (in D-Bsb), both for five voices.

WALTER BLANKENBURG