Vincent Lübeck (1654-1740)
- Kantate 'Ich hab hie wenig guter Tag' (1693)
Performers: David Cordier (contratenor); Graham Pushee (contratenor);
Harry Geraerts (tenor); Harry van der Kamp (bass); New College Choir
Oxford; Fiori Musicali; Thomas Albert (conductor)
Further info: Vincent Lübeck (1654-1740) - Organ works
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German composer, organist and teacher. He was the son of another Vincent
Lübeck (?-1654), who had worked as an organist in Glückstadt and, from
1647, at the Marienkirche, Flensburg, where he was succeeded in 1654 by
Caspar Förckelrath. Förckelrath married the widow and was the younger
Vincent’s first teacher; according to Syré (1999), Vincent may also have
studied with Andreas Kneller, with whose keyboard music his own shows
parallels. Towards the end of 1674 Lübeck became organist of St Cosmae
et Damiani, Stade, near Hamburg, marrying, as was a custom, his
predecessor’s daughter, Susanne Becker. The fine organ that Arp
Schnitger completed there in 1679 was no doubt a factor that persuaded
him to remain until 1702. His brilliant reputation then won him the
appointment of organist of the Nikolaikirche, Hamburg, which he held
until his death. It too had a Schnitger organ, a four-manual instrument
of 67 stops, one of the largest in the world, that was considered the
best in a prosperous musical city. In his postscript to F.E. Niedt’s
Musicalische Handleitung (Hamburg, 2/1721), Mattheson summed up as
follows: ‘This extraordinary organ … also has an extraordinary organist.
But how to extol someone who is already greatly renowned? I need only
give his name, Vincent Lübeck, to complete the whole panegyric’.
Numerous contemporary documents attest to his wide reputation as an
organ consultant throughout north Germany. He attached particular
importance to reed choruses, even in smaller organs. On several
occasions he passed judgment on Schnitger’s work, not only in the
churches of large cities such as Hamburg (Nikolaikirche, Georgenkirche,
Jacobikirche) and Bremen (St Stephani Cathedral), but also in those of
Oberndorf (Georgenkirche), Hollern (St Mauritius), Sittensen (St Dionys)
and other smaller places. As a teacher he was much sought after and
commanded as much as 20 thaler a month from articled pupils, more than
he received in salary as organist. His most important pupils included
C.H. Postel and M.J.F. Wiedeburg; he also taught two of his sons, Peter
Paul Lübeck (1680-1732), who followed him at Stade, and Vincent Lübeck
(1684-1755), also composer and organist.
