Thomas Selle

Thomas Selle

Thomas Selle (23 March 1599 – 2 July 1663) was a seventeenth-century German baroque composer.

Life

Selle was born in Zörbig but received his first instruction in 1622 in Leipzig where he was a pupil of Johann Schein. It was around this time that he encountered the works of Thomaskantor Sethus Calvisius. Selle was cantor in Heide (Holstein) in 1624 and in 1625 in nearby Wesselburen. From 1634 he was cantor in Itzehoe and from 1641 Music Director at the Johanneum of the four main churches of Hamburg; from 1642 as well as minor canon at St Mary's. While in Hamburg, he premiered his Passion nach dem Evangelisten Johannes, which garnered favorable reviews. He died in Hamburg after serving 22 years in his position as music director.

Works

Thomas Selle’s contributions to the German Passion tradition include his use of intermedia, which are poly-choral motets that are interspersed within the Passion story to summarize and comment on the narrative. These were the first non-gospel texts that were included as part of the Passion tradition. Selle, himself, allowed for the removal of these intermedia to accommodate more conservative churches.

Sacred

• Hagio-deca-melydrion, 1–4vv, bc (1627)
• Monomachia harmonico-Latina … et ritornellis, congressus prior, 2, 5, 6vv, bc (1630)
• Monophonia harmonico-Latina, 1–3, 6vv, bc (1633)
• Concertuum binis vocibus … decas, 2vv, bc (1634)
• Concertuum trivocalium germanico-sacrorum pentas, 3vv, bc (1635)
• Concertuum Latino-sacrorum … pentas, 2, 4vv, bc (1635)
• Concertuum Latino-sacrorum … liber primus, 2, 4, 5vv, bc (Rostock, 1646)
• 58 works in J. Rist. Sabbathische Seelenlust (Lüneburg, 1651)
• 52 works in J. Rist: Nene musikalische Festandachten (Lüneburg, 1655)
• Monomachia harmonico-Latina … et ritornellis, congressus posterior, 2, 5, 6vv, bc, 1630
• Passio in dialogo secundum Matthaeum, 10vv, bc, 1642
• Passio secundum Johannem cum intermediis, 12, 5, 4vv, bc, 1643
• Passio secundum Johannem, sine intermediis, 6, 5vv, bc, after 1643
• Die Aufferstehung Christi nach den 4 Evangelisten, 8, l4vv, bc
• Contrapunctus simplex, 4, 5vv, bc
• Chorus fidicinius etlicher Kirchen-Psalmen, 2-7vv, bc
• 10 motets, 8vv

Secular

• Concertatio castalidum, a 3 (1624)
• Deliciae pastorum arcadiae, 10 Pastorellen, a 3 (1624)
• Deliciarum juvenilium decas harmonica-bivocalis, 2vv, bc (1634)
• Amorum musicalium … decas I, a 3 (1635)
• Monophonetica, hoc est, Allerhand lustige … Liedlein, 1v, bc (1636)
• 25 wedding songs
• 7 funeral songs
• 2 songs

Theoretical works

• Kurtze doch grüntliche Anleitung zur Singekunst, D-Hs

Editions

• 6 geistliche Konzerte, bearbeitet von A. Egidi, Berlin 1929
• Passion nach dem Evangelisten Johannes mit Intermedien, herausgegeben von R. Gerber, Wolfenbüttel 1933

References

• German Wikipedia article
• Werner Braun and Juergen Neubacher article in New Grove Dictionary of Music

• S. Günther: Die geistliche Konzertmusik von Thomas Selle nebst einer Biographie. Dissertation Gießen 1935
• J. Birke: Die Passionsmusiken von Thomas Selle (1599 - 1663), Dissertation Heidelberg 1957
• W. Braun: Thomas Selles Lasso-Bearbeitungen, Jahrbuch der Kirchenmusik XLVII, 1963
• Thomas Selle (1599-1663). Beiträge zu Leben und Werk des Hamburger Kantors und Komponisten anlässlich seines 400. Geburtstages. Herzberg 2000

External links

• Stadt Zörbig, Berühmte Söhne der Stadt Zörbig Template:De icon
• Free scores by Thomas Selle at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)