Johann Hermann Schein

German composer Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630) served as Kantor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig 100 years before J.S. Bach was named to the job. Educated primarily in Dresden, Schein was employed, like Bach, by the Duke of Weimar before he accepted the post in Leipzig. Like Schütz, Schein sought to merge Lutheran German music with modern Italian style, fathering the German Baroque sacred concerto; he also published the first volume of German madrigals with continuo. Schein's enormous output is overwhelmingly vocal, but his small output of instrumental music, including the publication Banchetto Musicale (1617), is significant.