Millist muusikat kirjutas Johann Valentin Meder Tallinnas? Mõtisklusi Mederi teoste dateeringute põhjal

Abstract

Few of the 26 extant compositions by Johann Valentin Meder (1649–1719) can be linked unequivocally to any one of his main places of activity, namely Tallinn (1674–83), Gdańsk (1687–99) and Riga (1684–87 and 1699–1719). To draw conclusions about the work and activity of Meder in his different positions and locations it is first necessary to consider the dating of his compositions; only after this does it become possible to reach some general conclusions about his oeuvre. Two sacred pieces from Meder’s years in Tallinn, Ach Herr, straffe mich nicht (for which Johann Rosenmüller’s work of the same title would seem to have served as a model) and In principio erat verbum represent two trends which appear to have been rather characteristic of the composer’s early and middle works: sacred concertos and Latin pieces modelled on Roman patterns. However, the existence of the printed text of an occasional piece, the music for which has not survived, suggests that Meder’s oeuvre during his years in Tallinn may well have been more varied than his surviving works from the same period would suggest, and might already have included other more dramatic cantata-like compositions on mixed texts.