Joachim Burmeister (1564 in Lüneburg – 5 May 1629 in Rostock) was a German composer, cantor, and music theorist active in northern Germany during the late Renaissance. He is noted for his writings on music as rhetorical-poetic composition ().
Life Burmeister was the eldest of five children born to a beadworker and townsman of Lüneburg. His brother Anton (d. 1634) became the cantor of St. Michaelis, Lüneburg, succeeding Christian Praetorius.
He attended the University of Rostock, where he earned a master's degree, and became cantor at the and St. Mary's Church, Rostock. He then taught grammar, Latin, rhetoric, and poetry at the Rostock Gymnasium (Scholae Rostochiensis Collega Classicus), where he was acquainted with humanists including , , , and .
Writings In his writings, Burmeister argued for the dignity of music as an art of eloquence.See Agathe Sueur, Le Frein et l'Aiguillon. Eloquence musicale et nombre oratoire (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle), Paris, Classiques, Garnier, 2014. In his treatments of , including Musica autoschédiastikè ("Extemporaneous music") and Musica poetica ("Poetic composition in music"), he describes musical solecisms, ornaments, and figures, as well as formal and stylistic categories. He also addresses musical phrasing and rhetorical propriety. His works draw on Greek and Latin sources and cite authors such as Erasmus, , and Philip Melanchthon.
Works 1601 published a collection of four-voiced psalms. 1605 published in Rostock a German-language comedy titled "Christ Revealed" (Χριστὸς πεφασμένος, der geoffenbarte Christus, Comödia), available online. 1606 published "Musica poetica," in which he explains his musical-rhetorical figure theory, available online. 1609 issued "Musica mathematica" by Heinrich Brucaeus (1531–1593) under the title "Musica theorica".
References
Agathe Sueur, Vie de Joachim Burmeister, Paris, Rhuthmos, 2019. Joachim Burmeister, Poétique musicale. Suivi de David Chytraeus – De la Musique, French translation, notes and lexicon by Agathe Sueur et Pascal Dubreuil, Paris, Rhuthmos, 2017. Joachim Burmeister, Musica poetica (1606) augmentée des plus excellentes remarques tirées de Hypomnematum musicae poeticae (1599) et de Musica autoschédiastikè (1601), introduction, Latin text and French translation, notes and lexicon by Agathe Sueur and Pascal Dubreuil, Wavre, Mardaga, 2007. Preview of this book online Agathe Sueur, "La grande éloquence musicale: lamprophonie et chalcophonie chez Joachim Burmeister (1564–1629)", Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric, Vol. 36 No. 2, Spring 2018, pp. 132-159. Martin Ruhnk: Joachim Burmeister: ein Beitrag zur Musiklehre um 1600. Bärenreiter-Verl., Kassel 1955. Schriften des Landesinstituts für Musikforschung, Kiel, Bd.5. Arrey von Dommer, Wilhelm Scherer: Burmeister, Joachim. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Band 3, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, S. 628 f. Hans-Heinrich Unger: Burmeister, Joachim. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, S. 54. Ralf Böckmann: Burmeister, Joachim. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Band 32, Nordhausen 2011, (Gekürzte Onlinefassung).
External links