Andreas Hammerschmidt

The impact of historical images on the traditional image of great personalities can hardly be overestimated. Every era created its own images of politicians, artists, philosophers, and other heroes, often incorporating images from previous generations. The book series "Picture Biographies" by the Klaus-Jürgen Kamprad publishing house is dedicated to the lives and afterlives of great personalities of the past in words and pictures. The depth of the text and the richness of the visual material complement each other.

Andreas Hammerschmidt (1611-1675) is considered an important and influential composer of the German Baroque period, yet his life and work are only marginally known to today's general public and have rarely been studied in detail. This pictorial biography addresses significant gaps in research based on documents about Hammerschmidt's life and work that have been made accessible by the author. It is worthwhile to explore the numerous traces that the composer left in Central German music history, particularly at his three main places of activity: Freiberg, Weesenstein Castle, and Zittau.

Andreas Hammerschmidt was a central figure in the baroque musical life of the city, especially in bourgeois Protestant Zittau, where he served as the organist of the main church of St. Johannis for 36 years. Through his numerous printed music, often published in several editions, he influenced music far beyond the boundaries of his respective places of employment. His work was also highly regarded by notable figures of the time, such as the North German poet Johann Rist and the Dresden court conductor Heinrich Schütz. In addition to his role in church music and his compositional activities, this volume presents concrete evidence of Andreas Hammerschmidt's other areas of activity in a comprehensive form for the first time—a richly illustrated supplement to the Gesamtausgabe der klangschönen Musik, which is being published concurrently.