Friedrich Weißensee was born around 1560 in Schwerstedt (Thuringia). The exact date is difficult to determine as well as the place and circumstances of his musical and theological education. Around 1590, he became rector at the Latin school in Gebesee (Thuringia) before being appointed cantor at the old town Latin school in Magdeburg around 1596. In this prestigious position, he succeeded such famous cantors and musicians as Martin Agricola, Gallus Dressler and Leonhart Schröter. One of his most important pupils in Magdeburg was Daniel Friderici. In 1602, Weißensee moved to Altenweddingen as a pastor, where he died in 1622.
Friedrich Weißensee is considered one of the most prominent figures in Protestant church music of his time. His compositions demonstrate a high level of technical skill. His main compositional work, the ''Opus melicum'', contains 72 Latin and German motets for four to twelve voices with instruments. Weißensee thus proves to be an outstanding representative of the Venetian choral style in the manner of Adrian Willaert and the two Gabrieli, whose pupils he may even have been. Weissensee established the then new style of Venetian polychoral music in Magdeburg. As was customary in St. Mark's Basilica in Venice at the time, the various sound groups are either arranged together in a concertante manner or alternately placed against each other. Architectural criteria of the space determine the use, grouping and disposition of the solo or choral sound groups (more detailed information on Venetian polychoral music can be found here).
The musicologist Samuel Kümmerle made the following assessment of Weissensee in 1895: “Thus he was no longer able to achieve the full freedom of polyphonic melodic guidance of the voices that characterizes the works of Leonhard Schröter and Hans Leo Haßler; but in his eight-part movements in the ''Florilegium Portense des Bodenschatz'' he nevertheless placed himself worthily alongside the best masters among his contemporaries, a Melchior Vulpius, Demantius and others” (cit. according to Jacobs 1910).
In addition to song motets, Weißensee wrote German proverb motets as well as eight-part motetic-madrigalesque songs, occasional and wedding music commissioned by high-ranking personalities.
From: Saxony-Anhalt Music Case
