'This is an excellent book, whose argument is well arranged [and] well written...' Early Music Review This book is a welcome addition to sources about early seventeenth-century keyboard literature and Heinrich Scheidemann's music in particular. It is meticulously researched and organized, and well-written in a style in which very technical information can be clearly understood. The charts and ... Read morelists of compositions are invaluable for any student of keyboard literature... a major source in the English language. Renaissance Quarterly The aim of this book is [...] that Heinrich Scheidemann should be regarded as 'the paramount figure in North German organ music of the first half of the seventeenth century, equalled only by Buxtehude in the second half'. That the book does indeed put forward persuasive arguments in favour of this assertion is testimony to the author's skilfully applied, and impressively extensive research methodology, and his painstaking collation and evaluation of evidence. The Consort ... highly recommended for the library of any university, college, or conservatory that cares about early keyboard music. It is an exemplar of through-going scholarship relative to an important keyboard composer about whose work little has heretofore been written, and contains nuggets of real gold for the scholar seeking greater understanding of the music of Scheidemann's milieu. The American Organist Peter Dirksen's fine study ... is a welcome addition to the literature on the Hamburg composer... As one might expect, a labyrinthine study such as this can make for demanding reading, but the author greatly facilitates the reader's task with a lavish supply of tables, examples and figures, and the helpful appendices include a tentative chronological classification of Scheidemann's works, a map of the north German region showing places associated with different manuscripts and musicians, and two fragmentary works from the Zellerfeld Tablature Ze2. Show Less