Christoph Demantius

In 1604 Christoph Demantius became Kantor of the Cathedral and school at Freiberg, Saxony, and remained in that position for 39 yrs until his death in 1643.  Most of his large output of creative work was produced there culminating in his ‘St John’s Passion’ in 1631.  That was the year that the Thirty Years’ War came to Saxony.  It was apparently so disruptive and destructive as to inhibit his work for the next 12 years when he died 5 years before the War’s end at age 75  He lived at a time of considerable turmoil, not only in the socio-political sphere but also in the musical world.  He probably knew what was happening to music in Italy at the hands of Monteverdi, Caccini and others, but he realized one could still create an expressive and dramatic work using six independent voices as he amply demonstrates in his ‘Johannespassion”.