Georg Dietrich Leiding (Composer)

Born: February 23, 1664 - Bücken, near Hoya an der Weser, Germany
Died: May 10, 1710 - Braunschweig, Germany

Georg Dietrich Leiding [Leyding] was a German composer and organist. He was the son of a retired riding master of the French lifeguards. He showed a marked propensity for music at an early age. In 1679 he went to Brunswick to study with the organist Jacob Blsche and in 1684 visited Hamburg and Leipzig to obtain further instruction from Johann Adam Reincken and Dietrich Buxtehude. Soon, however, he had to return to Brunswick, where he deputized for the ailing Blsche. After Blsche's death in the same year he succeeded him in the posts of organist of St Ulrich and St Blasius, and he later became organist of the Magnikirche as well. At the end of the 1680's he took composition lessons with Johann Theile, Hofkapellmeister at nearby Wolfenbüttel.

According to Johann Gottfried Walther, Georg Dietrich Leiding was ‘primarily a composer for the organ (to which … his many extant keyboard pieces bear testimony)’. Only five of his works survive, however (ed. K. Beckmann, Sämtliche Orgelwerke, Wiesbaden, 1984). Among them are three preludes, in B, C and E, which are noteworthy for the virtuosity of their pedal parts. The other two are a set of chorale variations, Von Gott will ich nicht lassen, and a setting, likewise for organ, of the chorale Wie schön leucht’ uns der Morgenstern (possibly a fragment of a chorale fantasia).

Source: Grove Music Online, © Oxford University Press 2006, acc. 5/24/06 (Author: Horst Walter)
Contributed by Thomas Braatz (January 2006, May 2006)

Use of Chorale Melodies in his works

Title

Chorale Melody

Year

Variations on Von Gott will ich nicht lassen for Organ

Von Gott will ich nicht lassen

Links to other Sites

Bibliography

FrotscherG | GerberNL | WaltherML
A.G. Ritter : Zur Geschichte des Orgelspiels, vornehmlich des deutschen, im 14. bis zum Anfange des 18. Jahrhunderts, i (Leipzig, 1884/ R), 183
M. Seiffert : ‘Das Plauener Orgelbuch von 1708’, AMw , ii (1920), 371-93
J. Wolgast : Georg Bِhm: ein Meister der Übergangszeit vom 17. zum 18. Jahrhundert (diss., U. of Berlin, 1924), 121, appx 11-15
E. Bruggaier: Studien zur Geschichte des Orgelpedalspiels in Deutschland bis zur Zeit Johann Sebastian Bachs (diss., U. of Frankfurt, 1959), 98