Johann Schop († 1667) was probably born around 1590 as the son of the Hamburg council musician Fabian Schop, who is documented as a trombonist in Hamburg from 1572 to 1595, and his wife Margarethe Wohlers. From 1621 Schop was a member of the eight-member Ratsmusik in Hamburg and from 1630 until the new cantor Thomas Selle took over this position in 1642 he was also cantor of the Dom. In 1663 Schop also received the patronage right to a vicary at Hamburg Dom, the transfer of which had already been confirmed to him in 1639 by the cathedral chapter and which had become vacant in 1660 through the death of Dietrich Meyer. Even though Schop was described by his contemporaries as „dero löblichen Stadt Hamburg wolbestalten Capellmeister“ or „principalster Rahts-Musicante“, Schop was primus inter pares, but officially held no leading position in council music. […]
Schop dedicated his first wedding music in 1627 to the Hamburg cantor Sartorius, an occasion to which Hieronymus Praetorius also contributed music, and an addressee to whom Schop dedicated music again ten years later at his second wedding. Both works stand in a long tradition of wedding music by musicians for musicians, which was testified to in Hamburg by Sweelinck's music for the wedding of Jacob Praetorius, and which Schop later remained committed to with his music for the weddings of the later council musician Balthasar Becker and the Güstrower Kapellmeister Albert Schop. […]
Schop's wedding music ranges from the transfer of the wedding ceremony to the town houses to the prohibition of printed wedding poems and music. In contrast to the preceding wedding music in Hamburg, Schop set a German text to music as early as 1627, thus initiating a change of preferred language [...]. In addition, both of the music for the weddings of the cantor Sartorius are secular texts, as are some later compositions.
In the years 1630-1640 Schop was the most productive composer in this field in Hamburg with a total of eight printed wedding music works. Before 1640, all of Schop's wedding music were pure vocal compositions, the first still in motet style without, all others with basso continuo as concerts. In 1640 he then presented for the first and only time a wedding music containing an instrumental suite for dance, and also for the first time music with the participation of instruments, a practice which he continued in the following years. Between 1645 and 1652, Schop then contributed four more pieces for Hamburg weddings and a wedding piece for the Hamburg office of Ritzebüttel at irregular intervals. Schop's last wedding music, written in 1657 for the wedding of his son Albert in Güstrow, has a singular position. It contains a liturgical movement, which Schop used as a canon of proportions for the upper voices, reflecting the different performance conditions in Güstrow (wedding ceremony in the church) and the profession of his son.
Excerpts from the preface to this volume by Oliver Huck
