Allein Gott | in d‹er› Höh seÿ Ehr |
Nic: Hasse | Conscript: à Fr[atre]: | Maurit[io].
Pelplin Tablature
(Frater Mauritius, ca 1650–1680)
(Frater Mauritius, ca 1650–1680)
Nicolaus Hasse I (1610–1671) was the son of Peter Hasse, who was organist of St Mary’s Church in Lübeck before Tunder and later Buxtehude succeeded him, and who is thought to have studied with Sweelinck. Nicolaus was organist of St Mary’s Church in Rostock, another North German city, from 1642, and in addition to what he presumably would have learned from his father, is known to have taken a brief trip in 1661 to study with both Scheidemann in Hamburg and Tunder in Lübeck. Though he wrote collections of chamber music and songs, his known organ output consists of only four pieces preserved in one manuscript – but this source includes important, and for this period rare, indications for the use of three different manuals of the instrument and the changing of pedal stops to highlight phrases of the melody in the bass voice. Hasse’s relatively simple setting of ‘Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr’ (for more about which, click here) is considerably enriched by the scribe’s performance indications, creating a lively dialogue among as many as six different combinations of stops: the ‘accompaniment’ on the main manual division, the coloratura treble alternating on Rückpositiv and Brustwerk, and the pedal with the Cornet (probably a 2' reed) and Posaune (probably a 16' reed) seemingly added in alternation to a fundamental registration (though the indications are not entirely clear, and it is possible that the unmarked phrases in the first half should also be played with the Posaune).