Unger M.P. Historical Dictionary of Choral Music

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St. Olaf Christmas Festival, aired internationally on radio and televi-

sion, and through its extensive tours.

SAINT PAUL’S CATHEDRAL CHOIR OF LONDON. A choir of

boys and men responsible for singing the services at St. Paul’s An-

glican church in London—the cathedral of the Diocese of London.

The church’s associated school is home to the boys of the choir. The

present building, designed by court architect Sir Christopher Wren

after the Great Fire of London destroyed its predecessor in 1666, saw

its first service in 1697. Notable music directors and organists of the

past have included Thomas Morley, Jeremiah Clarke, Maurice

Greene, and John Stainer.

SAINT-SAËNS, CAMILLE (9 OCTOBER 1835–16 DECEMBER

1921). French composer, organist, and self-taught polymath. Having

shown great musical promise early in life, he became a prolific com-

poser who worked in all genres. From 1857 until 1877 he was organ-

ist at La Madeleine, where he became renowned for his organ impro-

visations. During his early career, he was regarded as a progressive

composer—he was much influenced by Franz Liszt, and he initially

defended the music of Richard Wagner. However, he was also an

ardent French patriot. From 1871 he served as a founding member

of the Société Nationale de Musique, established to promote French

instrumental music. In 1886, when César Franck and others took

control of the society in order to program foreign music, he resigned.

From about this time, his adherence to classical traditions (not to

mention a caustic tongue) served to marginalize him. Although an

innovator in several respects, he resisted the modernism of Claude

Debussy and Darius Milhaud. His own works are of a generally

conservative style, the most distinctive aspect being their imaginative

harmonic language. Counterpoint is pervasive.

While best remembered for his instrumental works, Saint-Saëns

also composed a significant amount of vocal music, including a mass

(1856) and a Requiem (1878), both of them for solo voices, chorus,

and orchestra; 3 complete oratorios inspired by George Frideric

Handel: Oratorio de Noël (1858), Le Déluge (1875), and The Prom-

ised Land (1913); some 40 Latin motets (most with organ; many of

them for soloists rather than chorus); 9 French canticles; and some

40 small secular works, among them, a handful of cantatas and a

dozen pieces for unaccompanied male voices.

382 • SAINT PAUL’S CATHEDRAL CHOIR OF LONDON

SALAMUNOVICH, PAUL (7 JUNE 1927– ). American choral direc-

tor. As a youthful chorister, he was grounded in the singing of chant,

which influenced both the repertoire in which he later specialized and

the techniques he used. In 1949 he became director of music at St.

Charles Borromeo in North Hollywood, where he remained through-

out his career. For more than two decades, he worked closely with

Roger Wagner; succeeding him at St. Charles, and serving as his

assistant conductor for both the Roger Wagner Chorale and the Los

Angeles Master Chorale. In 1991 he was appointed director of the

latter, a position he retained until 2001, when he was named music di-

rector emeritus. For 18 years he taught at Mount St. Mary’s College,

and for 27 he was at Loyola Marymount University. He oversaw the

choral music in more than 100 films and television productions, and

he extended his influence through countless choral workshops.

SALIERI, ANTONIO (18 AUGUST 1750–7 MAY 1825). Italian

composer who spent much of his life in Vienna. Born in Italy, he was

taken to Vienna in 1766 as a protégé of the composer Florian Leop-

old Gassmann, who had been visiting Venice. Through Gassmann’s

influence he gained the patronage of Emperor Joseph II, allowing

him to establish himself as a composer of opera, not only in Vienna,

but later also in Italy and France. Upon Gassmann’s death in 1774,

Joseph named him Kammerkomponist and music director of the

Italian opera. In 1788 he appointed him court Kapellmeister. While

Salieri had been acting as his ailing predecessor’s deputy for some

time, the new appointment (which he retained until retiring in 1824),

caused him to focus increasingly on sacred music. Many composers

took lessons from him, among them, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz

Schubert, and Franz Liszt. Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

evidently became rivals after the latter moved to Vienna, but there is

no evidence for the popular legend that Salieri poisoned Mozart.

Salieri’s choral works include some 100 sacred pieces, which were

not widely disseminated. Among them are 5 complete masses (4 with

orchestra, 1 unaccompanied), 1 complete Requiem, 3 Te Deums,

2 Magnificats, and about 80 other liturgical pieces (graduales, of-

fertories, psalms, litanies, and introits). Generally, they embrace

the democratic liturgical ideals of the time (made explicit in the

Josephine reforms), which emphasized simplicity and intelligibility.

Thus, they avoid the vocal extravagances of opera. He also wrote

SALIERI, ANTONIO • 383

secular choruses with piano or instrumental accompaniment, more

than 180 vocal canons (mostly for three voices), and many duets,

trios, and quartets (mostly unaccompanied).

SALMANOV, VADIM (4 NOVEMBER 1912–27 FEBRUARY

1978). Russian composer. A graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory,

he returned there to teach, after serving in World War II. Although

best remembered for his instrumental oeuvre, he also wrote choral

works, some of them influenced by folk melodies. Compositions

include Lebyodushka [The Hen Swan], choral concerto no. 1; Do-

brïy molodets [A Good Lad], choral concerto no. 2, for chorus, eng.

hn., and accdn.; In memoriam, De profundis, for S, chorus, and org.

(1973); and many unaccompanied pieces.

SANDSTRÖM, SVEN-DAVID (30 OCTOBER 1942– ). Swedish

composer. He studied with Ingvar Lidholm, György Ligeti, and

Per Nørgård at Stockholm’s Royal College of Music, where he

later taught. For 20 years he sang in the Hägersten Motet Choir of

Stockholm. His works include many expressive choral compositions.

Examples include A Cradle Song/The Tyger (1978); Requiem “De ur

alla minnen fallna” [The Totally Forgotten], for S, A, T, Bar., girls’

choir, SATB, orch., and tape (1979); High Mass, for 3 S, 2 Mez.,

SATB, org., and orch. (1994); the oratorio Moses, for S, A, T, Bar.,

B, SATB, and orch. (1997); among numerous smaller pieces.

SARTI, GIUSEPPE (BAPTIZED 1 DECEMBER 1729; DIED 28

JULY 1802). Italian composer. He was one of the foremost opera

composers at the end of the 18th century. From 1755 until 1765, he

was Kapellmeister at the court of King Frederik V in Copenhagen,

where he also became director of the Italian opera company. After

the king’s death, he spent some years in Italy, serving for a time as

choirmaster at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice. He returned to

Copenhagen in 1768, where he rejoined the royal chapel until 1775,

when he was dismissed for political reasons. In 1779 he became

maestro di cappella of Milan Cathedral, where his students included

Luigi Cherubini. In 1784 be succeeded Giovanni Paisiello as di-

rector of the Russian imperial chapel in St. Petersburg. During the

early 1790s, he was exiled to the Ukraine due to court intrigues, but

in 1793 Catherine the Great restored him to favor, appointing him

director of a music conservatory that was based on Italian models.

He remained in Russia for the rest of his career.

384 • SALMANOV, VADIM

Sarti’s extant choral music includes masses (some with orchestra;

one, which he submitted for the Milan competition, is for eight unac-

companied voices); individual mass movements; a handful or more

each of Requiems, Magnificats, Te Deums, and oratorios (among

them, a Russian Te Deum with orchestra and cannons, as well as

a Russian oratorio, Tebe cheruvimy i serafimy vzyaiut strunnymi

golosami [Cherubim and Seraphim Sing to You Like String Instru-

ments], for 2 choirs, orch., and cannons); a complete setting of the

Russian liturgy for two unaccompanied choirs; and many other mo-

tets, psalms, Lamentations, hymns, antiphons, and introits.

SATEREN, LELAND (13 OCTOBER 1913–10 NOVEMBER

2007). American composer and conductor of Norwegian Lutheran

cultural heritage. From 1946 he taught at Augsburg College in Min-

neapolis, where he directed the Augsburg Choir. From 1950 he also

served as chair of the music department, retiring in 1979. In addition

to promoting Scandinavian choral works, he composed hundreds of

pieces himself, some of them employing nontraditional procedures,

including aleatorism. His influence on the music of the American

Lutheran Church supplemented that of others such as Paul Fetler

(1920– ), Walter Pelz (1926– ), Carl Schalk (1929– ), and Paul Manz

(1919– ).

SCANDELLO, ANTONIO (17 JANUARY 1517–18 JANUARY

1580). Italian composer and cornet player. He joined the Dresden

court chapel in 1549. A few years later, he converted to Lutheran-

ism, and in 1568 he became court Kapellmeister. His surviving com-

positions include at least 8 masses, about one dozen Latin motets; 3

printed collections of sacred and secular Lieder, a St. John Passion,

an Easter historia (which influenced Heinrich Schütz’s setting); and

2 volumes of canzoni.

SCARLATTI, ALESSANDRO (2 MAY 1660–22 OCTOBER 1725).

Italian composer, best known for his cantatas and operas. He is often

regarded as the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera in the 18th

century; nevertheless his operas were criticized in their day for being

too complex, and not entertaining enough.

Much of his youth was spent in Rome, where his musical talent

attracted powerful patrons. In 1684 he became music director at the

court of the Viceroy of Naples where, despite resistance from na-

tive musicians, he was able to elevate opera to rival that in Venice

SCARLATTI, ALESSANDRO • 385

(1684–1702). Pressed by financial concerns, he continued to look

for other positions, however. From 1703 until 1708 he worked in

Rome, composing mainly oratorios and cantatas, since the political-

religious climate in Rome at the time was not supportive of opera. In

1708, following the Austrian takeover of Naples (due to the intrigues

of Cardinal Vincenzo Grimani, Austrian ambassador to the Holy See,

who now became the new viceroy of Naples), Scarlatti was able to

regain his former position in that city. He was based there for the rest

of his life, although commissions and opera productions occasionally

drew him back to Rome.

Scarlatti was equally fluent in the stile antico and the modern

concertato style. Almost all of his surviving oratorios are for vocal

soloists; among those with choir is a Latin St. John Passion setting,

for A, B, SATB, str., and bn. (c. 1680). Of 10 masses that survive

complete, five are unaccompanied and three are with continuo alone;

among the latter is a Requiem setting. Only two masses (one of

them for double choir) call for strings. Of some 100 extant complete

motets (often for SATB or SSATB), almost all are with violins and

continuo, or with organ. Also extant are 8 unaccompanied madrigals

for SSATB. See also SCARLATTI, DOMENICO.

SCARLATTI, DOMENICO (26 OCTOBER 1685–23 JULY 1757).

Italian composer and harpsichord player, son of Alessandro Scar-

latti. In 1798 he began serving Maria Casimira, the former Queen

of Poland, who was living as an exile in Rome. In 1713 he became

assistant director of the Cappella Giulia, and in the following year,

he advanced to the position of maestro when that position became

vacant. In 1714 he also began working for the Marquis de Fontes, the

Portuguese ambassador, an engagement that led in 1719 to appoint-

ment as director of the royal chapel at the court of João V in Lisbon.

There he taught members of the royal family. When one of these, the

Infanta Maria Barbara, married Spanish Crown Prince Ferdinando

in January 1729, Domenico remained in her employ. He followed

the couple to Spain, where he spent the rest his career, continuing to

serve Maria Barbara and Ferdinando after they acceded to the throne

in 1746.

While he is best remembered for his many keyboard sonatas, Do-

menico Scarlatti also composed choral pieces, primarily during his

Roman and Lisbon periods, when he was working as a church musi-

386 • SCARLATTI, DOMENICO

cian. Among surviving works are two complete masses (one with

organ, the other unaccompanied), an unaccompanied Magnificat, a

Te Deum in eight parts, a Stabat mater in 10 parts with continuo

(which, like the accompanied mass, mixes older and newer stylistic

elements), and some one dozen other motets, most of them with

continuo, or unaccompanied.

SCAT SINGING. A vocal jazz technique in which singers improvise

melodies to nonsense syllables.

SCHAFER, R. MURRAY (18 JULY 1933– ). Canadian composer

and writer. He worked as a freelance journalist and BBC interviewer

in Europe from 1956 until 1961, when he returned to Canada.

Largely self-taught in composition, he was composer-in-residence at

Simon Fraser University (1965–75), before retiring to rural northern

Ontario. His iconoclastic music is often inspired by philosophical,

literary, or mythological sources. It demonstrates an interest in the

cultures of other peoples, and is particularly preoccupied with the

nature of sound in all its manifestations, its effect on human beings,

and the phonetic qualities of language.

Schafer’s works are often strikingly original, employing extended

vocal techniques, the acoustic use of space, electronic sound, graphic

notation, and aleatoric techniques. Examples of his choral pieces in-

clude Gita, for SATB, brass, and tape (1967); Threnody, for 5 child

spkrs., youth chorus, youth orch., and tape (1966); Epitaph for Moon-

light, for SATB and bells (1968); Miniwanka (Moments of Water),

for youth SA/SATB (1971); Gamelan, for 4 vv. (1979); Seventeen

Haiku, for SATB (1997); and the dramatic oratorio Apocalypsis (in

two parts: John’s Vision, for soloists, choruses, winds, perc., and org;

and Credo, for 12 SATB choirs and tape (1977).

SCHEIDT, SAMUEL (BAPTIZED 3 NOVEMBER 1587; DIED

24 MARCH 1654). German composer and organist. Along with

Heinrich Schütz and Johann Hermann Schein, he helped establish

Italian vocal styles in Protestant Germany, combining traditional

counterpoint with the new Italian concerto style.

He worked as organist at the Mortizkirche in his hometown of

Halle, then in 1609, after studies in Amsterdam with Jan Piet-

erszoon Sweelinck, became court organist at the court of Margrave

Christian Wilhelm of Brandenburg in Halle. In 1618 he collaborated

SCHEIDT, SAMUEL • 387

with Michael Praetorius and Heinrich Schütz to provide special

concerted music for Magdeburg Cathedral. The following summer,

he met the two again when he gave the dedicatory recital for the new

organ at the Stadtkirche in Bayreuth. In late 1619 or early 1620 he

was appointed court Kapellmeister in Halle. After 1625 he suffered

personal and professional misfortune due to the Thirty Years’ War,

despite his being appointed in 1628 to the newly created civic post of

director musices, which included oversight of the music at the Markt-

kirche, the city’s principal church. By 1638 peace had returned, and

Scheidt was able to resume duties as court Kapellmeister.

Scheidt published seven volumes of sacred works. Over 180 com-

positions survive, many of them in multiple parts (for a total of over

250 separately catalogued pieces). The Cantiones sacrae of 1620

contains polychoral motets for eight voices without continuo on

Latin and German texts. Since some of the bass parts are very low,

instrumental substitution and/or doubling was probably intended.

Nearly half of the pieces are settings of German chorales. Pars

prima concertuum sacrorum (1622) contains grand Venetian-style

sacred concertos (including two reworkings of motets from the Can-

tiones sacrae and three Magnificat settings), for solo voices, chorus,

and instruments (i.e., continuo and obbligato parts, as well as speci-

fied instrumental doublings). On the other hand, the four volumes of

Geistliche Concerte (1631–40) are small-scale concertato settings,

most of them for three (presumably solo) voices with continuo. Many

are settings of German chorales: the third volume, in particular, fo-

cuses on chorales, arranging them according to the liturgical calendar;

it also includes three Magnificat settings for Christmas, Easter, and

Pentecost, each with seasonally appropriate German interpolations.

In the second (1634) volume of Geistliche Concerte, the composer

provides an index of six projected volumes, noting that the motets to

be included are reductions of previous versions for multiple choirs

and instruments (almost all presumably lost). Also intended for solo

performance are the 12 intimate sacred concertos of Liebliche Krafft-

Blümlein (1635), for two voices and continuo.

SCHEIN, JOHANN HERMANN (20 JANUARY 1586–19 NO-

VEMBER 1630). German composer and poet. With Samuel Scheidt

and Heinrich Schütz he was influential in introducing Italian sty-

listic elements (monody, concertato writing, figured bass) into the

388 • SCHEIN, JOHANN HERMANN

music of Protestant Germany. He was a chorister in Dresden at the

court chapel of the Elector of Saxony, then from 1603 until 1607 he

attended an electoral school in Schulpforta, where the Kantor had

recently been Erhard Bodenschatz—the compiler of a collection of

Renaissance motets that was later expanded under the name Florile-

gium Portense (1618–21). After four years of study at the University

of Leipzig, he worked briefly in Weissenfels, before obtaining a po-

sition in 1615 as Kapellmeister at the Weimar court. The very next

year he was named Kantor of the Thomasschule in Leipzig, a post he

retained until his early death.

Schein composed both sacred and secular vocal music, publishing

similar sacred and secular volumes in alternation. More than 100 mo-

tets survive in various collections: Cymbalum Sionium . . . (1615) in-

cludes 30 Latin and German works in traditional polyphony, ranging

in scoring from five vocal parts to polychoral textures in eight and

12 parts; Opella nova . . . , for three to five voices and continuo (an

instrumental bass line duplicating the continuo is counted as one of

the “voices”), is a 1618 collection containing mostly chorale-based

pieces; Fontana d’Israel, Israelis Brünlein . . . , for five to six voices

and continuo, is a 1623 collection of highly expressive settings in the

style of Italian madrigals with basso seguente; and Opella nova,

ander Theil . . . , for three to six voices, insts., and continuo, is a

1626 volume comprising primarily settings of biblical texts (a third

of the volume is devoted to chorale-based pieces). In addition, Schein

published over 200 chorale harmonizations with figured bass in Can-

tional oder Gesangbuch Augspurgischer Confession, for four to six

voices (1627, enlarged 1645), dozens of which have text, melody,

and harmonization by Schein himself.

Schein’s secular publications (for which he supplied his own texts)

include Venus Kräntzlein, a collection of homophonic partsongs for

SSATB with the melody in the top voice, along with some instrumental

pieces (1609); Musica boscareccia, oder Wald-Liederlein, strophic

settings of pastoral poetry for SSB (the bass line is both texted and

figured) in three successive volumes (1621, 1626, 1628), which may

be performed in various vocal and instrumental configurations, thus

reflecting the traditions of both the villanella and small vocal concerto;

Diletti pastorali, Hirten Lust, comprising madrigals for SSATB with

(dispensable) continuo (1624)—the first collection of its kind published

in Germany; Studenten-Schmauss, five homophonic drinking songs

SCHEIN, JOHANN HERMANN • 389

for SSATB (1626), whose vocal bass parts are figured; and some oc-

casional pieces.

SCHELLE, JOHANN (BAPTIZED 6 SEPTEMBER 1648; DIED

10 MARCH 1701). German composer. He was Kantor of the Thom-

askirche in Leipzig and music director of the city from 1677 until his

death, when he was succeeded by Johann Kuhnau. One of his im-

portant achievements was replacing the Latin pieces performed after

the Gospel reading with German Gospel cantatas (and later chorale

cantatas), despite determined opposition from the mayor. His surviv-

ing vocal works include about 50 German church cantatas, 5 motets,

a Magnificat, and a few Latin works. Characteristic of his cantatas

is modern poetry, five-part vocal writing, stylistic diversity, and a

simpler counterpoint than that offered by his predecessor, Sebas-

tian Knüpfer. Some of his works are grand in scale and effect: one

is the 26-part cantata Lobe den Herrn, for 10 voices (double choir)

and large orchestra including 4 trumpets (clarini), 3 trombones, and

2 cornettinos.

SCHICKELE, PETER (17 JULY 1935– ). American composer, ar-

ranger, and humorist. After lessons with Roy Harris and Darius

Milhaud, he studied at the Juilliard School with Vincent Persichetti,

later teaching there himself (1961–65). He is most famous for invent-

ing the persona of “P. D. Q. Bach,” through which he lampoons

historical musical conventions with clever parodies. Representative

choral works under this pseudonym include the cantata Iphigenia

in Brooklyn, for bargain-Ct., 3 double reeds, tpt. mouthpiece, wine

bottle, str. qt., and hpd.; Liebeslieder Polkas, for SATB and pf. 5

hands; the dramatic oratorio Oedipus Tex, for S, A, T, B, SATB, and

orch; and the oratorio The Seasonings, for S, A, T, B, SATB, 2 slide

whistles, 2 kazoos, tromboon, windbreaker, shower hose, foghorn,

2 tpt., timp., and str. Works published under his own name include

Mass for Men’s Voices, for BBB (1957); Three Choruses from Cum-

mings, for SATB (1960); The Flow of Memory, for Mez., fl., b. cl.,

vn., and pf. (1963); Ceremony, a cantata for Bar., SATB, and jazz

ens. (1985); among others.

SCHMELZER, JOHANN HEINRICH (BORN C. 1620–23; DIED

1680). Austrian composer and violinist, active in Vienna. Few

biographical details about him are known with certainty. In 1671 he

390 • SCHELLE, JOHANN

became vice Kapellmeister at the Hapsburg court, advancing to Ka-

pellmeister toward the end of 1679, at which time the court moved

to Prague to escape the plague. Despite these precautions, Schmelzer

caught the disease and died shortly thereafter.

Over 170 sacred vocal works listed in the catalog of Emperor Leo-

pold I’s private collection are lost. Surviving works include some 13

masses, and about as many other liturgical pieces. Also extant are a

few sepolcri (Passion reenactments popular in Vienna).

SCHMIDT, FRANZ (22 DECEMBER 1874–11 FEBRUARY 1939).

Austrian composer. A highly respected cellist and pianist, he taught

at the Vienna Conservatory, then became its director (1925–27) and

later its rector (1927–31). He was influenced by Austrian compos-

ers such as Anton Bruckner and Max Reger, and by his German-

Hungarian parentage. Of his few choral works, the most significant is

the apocalyptic oratorio Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln (1937).

SCHMITT, FLORENT (28 SEPTEMBER 1870–17 AUGUST

1958). French composer, pianist, and critic. He studied with Théo-

dore Dubois, Jules Massenet, and Gabriel Fauré at the Paris Con-

servatoire (1889–1900), winning the Prix de Rome in his final year.

During this time he also began a lifelong friendship with Maurice

Ravel. Independent of mind, eager to travel, and open to new ideas,

he wrote in a forceful style that preferred passion over sentimentality,

extreme contrast over lyricism, and vivid (even exotic) instrumenta-

tion. Influenced by the works of Richard Strauss, he in turn helped

prepare the way for the music of Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel,

and Arthur Honegger. Not surprisingly, his music did not escape

criticism.

Among one dozen choral works with orchestra is Psalm 47

(Psalm 46 in the Vulgate), op. 38, for S, 8-part chorus, orch., and

org. (1904)—a highly expressive French setting, featuring imitative

counterpoint, but also unconventional elements such as agitated

rhythms, wild accents, adventurous harmonies, and bold contrasts.

Some nine works with chamber ensemble or keyboard include a

Mass, op. 138, for four voices and organ (1958). Among another

nine unaccompanied works are a set of five motets, op. 60 (1914–17

[orig. with organ]) and Psaume 112 et 2 cantiques, op. 135, for male

chorus/4 male vv. (1956).

SCHMITT, FLORENT • 391