The article examines the music of a number of Northern German composers worked in the three largest regional centers (Hamburg, Danzig and Lubeck) in the second half of the 17th century. The peculiarities of organization of church music in these cities and the factors that influenced the style of spiritual compositions are revealed. On the material of the existing publications and of the manuscripts transcribed by the author the comparative characteristics of the spiritual concerts by selected composers are given. The influence of Italian music is most noticeable in the works of M. Weckmann and Ch. Bernhard (Hamburg): the details of composition (mainly its melody) are created in relation with the scriptural text, and the use of means of musical rhetoric is especially widespread. The concerts by K. Forster and B. Erben (Danzig) display the extensive use of polyphonic methods and the predominance of neutral, feebly individualized melodies, that indicates the relationship of the both authors’ style with Franco- Flemish polyphony of the 16th century which was popular in their city. Works by F. Thunder and D. Buxtehude (Lubeck) occupy an intermediate position between conservatism of Danzig tradition and innovation of Hamburg authors. The deep originality of the genre of spiritual concert in each of the Northern Germany cities identified and described in detail in the article suggests the further studies of the vocal-instrumental Church music of the region as a set of different local traditions; single “school”, the existence of which it is conventional to speak of in the sphere of Northern German organ music, in this case is not found.
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