Samuel Scheidt

His keyboard writing favours contrast and cumulative invention: echo pieces that trade forte and piano manuals, variation sets on popular songs, fugues, dance suites on a shared ground bass, and chorale preludes in which each phrase takes a new rhythmic figure until the climax. Sacred vocal works range from a cappella to continuo-backed settings. On record his In dulci jubilo sits among lesser-known seasonal repertoire, the chorale plain against a more elaborate surround, while organ Echo and Dutch-song variations sit naturally beside Pachelbel and Buxtehude. Cut off from Italian models after the Reformation, he wrote a Protestant organ and choral idiom later north German composers would build on.