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Hinrich Niewerth

Lutenist at the Royal Swedish Court

Kenneth Sparr

Stockholm, Sweden 1998
2009-12-01

*Lutenists at the Swedish court 1620-1720*	*Hinrich Niewerth - biography*	*Hinrich Niewerth - the musician*
*The music of Hinrich Niewerth*	*Notes*	Kenneth Sparr´s Home Page

Lutenists at the Swedish court 1620-1720

This article has earlier been published in The Lute Vol. XXIV, Part 2, 1984 pp. 69-75. It has however been updated with new information. In this article I will particularly deal with one of the many lutenists employed at the Royal Swedish Court during the 17th century: Hinrich Niewerth. My reason for this choice is the hitherto unobserved connection between Niewerth and some music in the important MS Mus. saec. XVIII-54, Universitätsbibliothek Rostock. To this has been added recent findings of music by Niewerth in two other lute tablature manuscripts.

Through the careful research done by Erik Kjellberg and presented in his dissertation "Kungliga musiker i Sverige under stormaktstiden..." we are quite well informed about musicians at the Swedish court in Stockholm between 1620 and 1720.⁽¹⁾ Among these musicians several were lutenists and Kjellberg gives interesting biographical information about them. The lutenists in service at the Swedish court can be divided into two categories: those who were employed in the Hofkapelle and those who were employed on other terms. The latter category was as a rule better paid: in fact some of them belong to the highest-paid musicians in any category during this period. The following lutenists are to be found in the Hofkapelle:

*Name*	*Length of service*
Michael Biener	1620-1623
Zacharias Krause	1621-1638
Frantz Behr	1635-1638
Georg Weber	c. 1639-1644
Bechon	1644-1647
Johan Bengtsson	1644-1648, 1656-1673
Hinrich Niewerth	1666-1699
Gustav Düben the younger	1685-1688

The following lutenists were employed on other terms:

*Name*	*Length of service*
Samuel Reimisch	c. 1618-1622
Christopher Ritz	1623
Joachim Reinhollt	1623
Giouan Battista Veraldi	c. 1622-1631
Gottschalk Behr	c. 1643
Bethune with brother and son	1649-1651
Picquet	1650-1652

During 1651-1653 even a lute maker was employed: Noël Alliamez from Paris. To this we may also add other musicians with a more or less strong connection with the lute and other plucked instruments:

*Name*	*Length of service*
Hans Adamson, bandora player	1613-1636
Alexandre Voullon	1646-1653
Joseph Chabanceau de la Barre	1650-1653
Ann Chabanceau de la Barre	1650-1654?
Pierre Verdier	1651-1706
Thomas Baltzer	1652-1654
Angelo Michele Bartolotti	1652-1654
Pietro Francesco Reggio	1652-1654
Johan Arent Bellman	1679-1680
Jakob Kremberg	1680
Reinhold de Croll	1700-1710
Johan Zellinger	1711

Other musicians with some connection to the lute are:

Gustav Witte (dead 1758-10-19) participated in the funeral 1742 of Ulrika Eleonora
Johann Gotthard Sander (dead 1748)
Ferdinand Zellbell d.ä. (1689-1765)^1a

All these names indicate several things: in the first place that the lute had its given place in the music at the Swedish court; secondly that Sweden was heavily dependent on foreign musicians (mainly from Germany and France) and thirdly that some of these are of importance also outside Sweden.

Hinrich Niewerth - biography

Hinrich Niewerth is one of the many foreign musicians mentioned above. There are some variations in the spelling of both his Christian name (Hinrich, Hindrich) and his surname (Niewerth, Neuwerth, Niewardt and Niewardh). I have used his own spelling of his name as a norm in this article. Niewerth was employed as "musician and lutenist" in the Swedish Hofkapelle in Stockholm from 1 January 1666 until his death, which occurred before November 1699. His length of service, almost 33 years, can be viewed as symptomatic of the stability in the organisation of the Hofkapelle during the period after Queen Christina's abdication in 1654. No letter of Niewerth's appointment seems to be preserved and we don't know from where he came but he probably was of German origin. A "Bernhart Neuwirth" was musician and lutenist at the court of Halle 1658-1677. A "Heinrich Niewerth" was town musician 1631 and 1636 in Reval (Tallinn, nowadays) in Estonia, which during this period was in Swedish possession. A possible identity between our Niewerth and the Niewerth in Reval doesn't seem plausible with regard to the dates mentioned and any connection with Bernhart cannot be established. More likely is the connection to Henricus Neuwerth, who was student at the University of Strasbourg in 1656.^1b On 22 November 1666 Niewerth married Ursula Düben, a younger sister to Gustav Düben the elder, then master of the Hofkapelle. Gustav Düben the elder is one of the more prominent characters in the history of Swedish music. Along with his activities in the Hofkapelle he also was a composer and furthermore laid the foundation of the important collection of music (Düben Collection), now in the Uppsala University Library. Whether or not it was Gustav Düben who recruited Niewerth is difficult to tell, but it is quite possible. The marriage between Hinrich Niewerth and Ursula Düben produced three daughters between 1668 and 1675.

According to the population register in Stockholm of 1676 the Niewerth family then lived, together with two maids, in the house of the master tailor Johan Londt at Södermalm. In March 1680 Niewerth bought a house from Anna Schönfelt at the price of 12,000 copper daler. This acquisition is rather startling considering the large sum of money in comparison with Niewerth's annual salary of about 1,350 copper daler. This house was situated in the Hornsgatan at Södermalm, between the houses of the chamber counsellor Wilhelm Drakenhielm and the distiller Per Larsson, and quite close to the St. Mary Magdalene church. The house was still in the possession of the Niewerth family in 1702.

The St Mary Magdalene church and its surroundings. Detail from an engraving by Sigismund von Vogel c. 1650.

Hinrich Niewerth appears to have been rather well to do as he also was able to lend the resident H. G. Gottlieb 10,995 copper daler in cash shortly before he bought the house. In 1699 Niewerth was at strife with other people concerning some claims of his. Niewerth died before November 1699 and was buried in the Düben family vault at St. Mary Magdalene church.

Hinrich Niewerth - the musician

No particulars are known about Niewerth's activities in the Hofkapelle, but we can assume that he took part in its ordinary work and performances. In the last four decades of the 17th century the Hofkapelle consisted of 16-18 musicians of which two were primarily lutenists, along with Niewerth also the Swede Johan Bengtsson. Niewerth belonged to the highest-paid musicians in the Hofkapelle. His yearly salary amounted to 450-500 silver daler (the equivalent of 1,350-1,500 copper daler) and there were only one to five musicians that reached this level. His fellow lutenist, Johan Bengtsson, was paid 300-400 silver daler. The Hofkapelle had several duties and they are summarised in some of the letters of appointment:

... in der Kirchen, zue hoffe und zue Dische, auch sonsten an Ort vndt stelle, wo Wirs befehlen oder befehlen lassen werden, zue wasser vnd lande, bey Tagk undt nacht, mit seinen Instrumenten vliessigk vfwarten vndt in seiner Kunst vnvordrossen zue Jederzeit sich betzeigen...

The Hofkapelle of course took part, often reinforced with other musicians, at more important occasions. A good example is the accession to the throne of Charles XI in 1672. From the concluding banquet is reported:

Rund ümbher im Saal waren Chöre und logen, von welchen man die Heerpawcken Trompetten und andere schöne Music hörete...

From this particular banquet we even have a picture which shows the musicians. The engraving was not completed until c. 1680, but its documentary evidence is supported by the fact that the number of musicians corresponds exactly to that of the Hofkapelle in 1672. There are two lutenists depicted and it is possible that we here may find portraits of Hinrich Niewerth and Johan Bengtsson.

The part of the Hofkapelle on the left gallery at the banquet 1672.

The part of the Hofkapelle on the right gallery at the banquet 1672.

The musicians of the Hofkapelle were also engaged outside the court, particularly in the German church not far from the royal palace. They worked as music teachers both within the court and probably off duty. Though we have no documentary evidence it is quite possible that Hinrich Niewerth instructed Gustav Düben the younger on the lute. The latter also studied in Paris in the 1680s and was employed as lutenist in the Hofkapelle 1685-1688.

The music of Hinrich Niewerth

As I said in the beginning of this article the possible connection between Hinrich Niewerth and some pieces of music in the Rostock lute tablature MS Mus. saec. XVII-54 has hitherto not been observed. The following pieces in the MS have significance in this context:

*Page*	*Title/composer*	*Concordances*
57	Pavane d'Espagne par N.W.	None known.
65	Allemande NeuWart	D-LEm Ms. II.6.24, f. 21v-22r, "Allem"
66	Courante NeuWart	None known.
67	Sarabande de NeuWart	D-LEm Ms. II.6.24, f. 23, "Sarab".
124	Courante de la Roÿne mise par Henry	None known.
148	Chanson Si vous me voulez me guerir [transcription of a 4-part Air by François de Chancy (from RISM A/I C 1842, f. 6v]	None known.
196f	Courante de Hen. NeuWert	None known.

These connections have been observed by the editor, Klaus-Peter Koch, in the facsimile-edition of Mus. Saec. XVII-54 (abbreviated to Ros 54 in the following), but Koch gives no clues to the identity of "NeuWart".⁽²⁾ Curiously enough, Koch also seems to be unaware of Wallace John Rave's dissertation "Some Manuscripts of French Lute Music 1630-1700...", which among other things contains the most extensive description of and research on Ros 54 so far.⁽³⁾ However, Rave must have misread the names "NeuWert" and "NeuWart", he spells them "Keuwert" and "Keuwart.⁽⁴⁾ By this misreading he accordingly fails to identify "N.W." with "NeuWert".

"Courante de Hen. NeuWert" from the MS Mus. Saec. XVII-54, Rostock.

I think that there is good reason to believe that "Hen. NeuWert" is identical with Hinrich Niewerth, lutenist at the Swedish court. But I would not go so far as the editors of "Oeuvres des Dubut" do. They suggest in their short description of Ros 54 that "Neuwerth", "sans doute", is the compiler of this MS, but they do not present any facts in support of this opinion.⁽⁵⁾ As Tim Crawford recently has pointed out the courante and the sarabande on pp. 196-197 in fact begins with a quotation of the first phrases of pieces by the French lute composer François Dufault.^(5b)

All this leads us to questions about the provenance and dating of Ros 54. Rave suggests that it dates from 1660-1670 and is of German origin.⁽⁶⁾ The editors of "Oeuvres des Dubut" are of the opinion that Ros 54 is of Alsatian origin considering the many pieces by Strobel and Gumprecht.⁽⁷⁾ Koch agrees, but also points to the presence of two "Polish dances", the intabulations of songs by Heinrich Albert (active in Prussia from the 1630s) and two pieces with a Swedish connection: "La Suedoise" and "Courante suedoise de du Faut". These details could hint that Ros 54 originated in the Baltic region, but Koch is careful enough not to draw this conclusion.⁽⁸⁾ There is another interesting feature of Ros 54 that may have some implications: the many pieces by Bechon. Bechon is a composer-lutenist only known from the Milleran MS ("Msr bechon: les 2 freres") and as lutenist at the Swedish court 1644-147.⁽⁹⁾ In my opinion the present location of Ros 54 and most of the facts suggest a Northern German origin. Koch's opinion about the dating of Ros 54 corresponds with Rave's and he shows that the MS must have been compiled after 1668.⁽¹⁰⁾

At the time of the compilation of Ros 54 Niewerth was working in Sweden and the presence of music by him, together with almost all the major lute composers of the 17th century, in this MS raises many questions and inspires one to look for more music by him. The few samples given in Ros 54 show, in my opinion, that Niewerth was a competent composer well within the French tradition of lute music at that time. As Rave already has stated there are concordances in the MS II.6.24 in the Musikbibliothek der Stadt Leipzig to the courante and sarabande on pages 66-67 in Ros 54. Unfortunately I've not been able yet to consult this source, nor the MS 40264, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, which contains some pieces attributed to a "N." on pp. 179-198.⁽¹¹⁾

Of the pieces in Ros 54 which could be by Niewerth the "Courante de la Roÿne mise par Henry" is the most doubtful. The name "Henry" also appears in the MS 279152, Bibliothèque Municipale, Besançon (Saizenay lute book I) where you on page 150 find "La Promenade Courante de Mr Henry". This particular courante has a concordance in the MS Vm7 6214, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, fol. 38v-3, this time attributed to "Enriq" according to Rave. ⁽¹²⁾ Michel Brenet gives the spelling "Enricj".⁽¹³⁾ This non-French spelling could suggest a composer of foreign origin. Interestingly enough another variant of the name appears in a Swedish keyboard tablature MS (Katedralskolans musiksamling 493b, Diocesan and Regional Library, Skara). Here you can find a piece titled "Sarabande Henrecÿ" on fol. 33v-34. This may be of some significance as this MS was compiled by Gustav Düben the elder, Niewerth's brother-in-law. The MS dates from 1659 (some parts are added later, including tablature for the guitar), seven years before Niewerth was employed in the Hofkapelle, and its contents shows that Düben was familiar with the music of Gaultier, Pinel and Mercure.⁽¹⁴⁾ It is quite possible that this MS was used for teaching purposes at the court of the Queen Mother Hedvig Eleonora c. 1660-1670. We know of one guitar-teacher, Jean l'anis, between 1671 and 1673, one unidentified lute-teacher from 1662 and Gustav Düben as teacher on the clavichord. Düben was also paid for the repairing of a guitar and for a packet of lute-strings.⁽¹⁵⁾

The connection between Hinrich Niewerth and "Henry" (Enriq, Henrecÿ) is of course very uncertain. The name "Henry" is and must have been very common, but to my knowledge no lutenist-composer with this surnamne has hitherto been identified. Some of the attributions could perhaps allude to Henry de Launay by whom on the other hand only one work is known: an allemande in the Milleran MS. Another possibility is that "Henry" stands for Henri de Lenclos, but no works of his hand are known. François-Pierre Goy has pointed out to the possibility that "Enrecij" maj be identical with Jean Henricy, a musician in Paris and that the sarabande by Henricy also is to be found in F Pn Rés. Vm7 370, the courante La promenade is to be found in F Pn Vm7 6214 and F B Ms. 279152. As François-Pierre Goy also has remarked an evidence against the attribution to Niewerth of the " Courante de la Roÿne" is, that the compiler of the Rostock MS never uses the Christian name of the composers only. When Christian names are given they are always followed by the surname. Goy also means that the attribution of the "Courante de la Roÿne" to Jean Henricy is strengthened (and consequently that to Niewerth weakened) by the fact that the F Pn Vm7 6214, F Pn Rés. Vm7 370 and F B 279152 are all exclusively French MSS.

In the Milleran MS there is another small detail which deserves to be mentioned. In the list of "les principaux de ces maitres" is mentioned a "Mr Niver". In the same list Milleran shows that he knows of several German lutenists: Reusner, Kremberg, Strobel, Gumprecht, Ravenau (?), Otto (?), Berens (?).⁽¹⁶⁾ "Niver" could of course stand for Guillaume Gabriel Nivers, the famous organist, who in 1666 published a tutor for voice and guitar. Rave, on the other hand, is quite sure that they cannot be the same person.⁽¹⁷⁾ The identity of Hinrich Niewerth with "Mr Niver" is probable, but cannot be established with certainty.

New manuscript sources of music by Hinrich Niewerth has recently been discovered by Tim Crawford, François-Pierre Goy and Jerzy Zak. The first one, Danzig Stadtbibliothek MS 4230, now in the possession of the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, has several features which points to a strong Swedish connection.⁽¹⁸⁾ This MS contains three contreparties, probably composed by Niewerth, to movements of a Dufault suite as well as three other contreparties attributed to Niewerth and which fits with solo lutemusic in another manuscript listed below:

*Folio*	*Title/composer*	*Concordances*
37-38	47 // Contrepartie de Nievert // sur Marechal Linde Allem: [F. Dufaut]	[The first lute part to this contrepartie is No. 16 in the CNRS Dufaut edition.]
38v-39	48 Courante du mesme	[The first lute part to this contrepartie is No. 37 in the CNRS Dufaut edition.]
39v-40	49 Sarabande du mesme	[The first lute part to this contrepartie is No. 57 in the CNRS Dufaut edition.]
41v-42	51 // Contrepartie de l'Allemande de Nievert // sur le grand Connestable // Mons. le Comte Wrangel	"Contre partie de l'Allem" in GB Lbl Ms. Sloane 2923, f. 34.
42v-43	52 // Contrepartie Courante // du mesme	"Courant" in GB Lbl Ms. Sloane 2923, f. 35.
43v-44	53 // Contrepartie Sarabende // du mesme	"Saraband" in GB Lbl Ms. Sloane 2923, f. 36.

The dedicatees of the Niewerth-pieces in the Danzig MS can probably identified with Lorens von der Linde (1610-1670) and Carl Gustaf Wrangel (1613-1676), two prominent figures during the Swedish Great Power period. Lorens von der Linde was born in Stockholm, studied at the Leyden University in 1627, made a military career and ended as field marshal, appointed in 1665. He was a near friend to Carl Gustav Wrangel and he was highly esteemed by Queen Christina. In 1654 he dined with the English envoyé Bulstrode Whitelocke in Uppsala and chocked Whitelocke with his outspokeness about the later King Karl Gustav's affairs with women in Germany. He lived in Elbing (not far from Danzig) in the 1660s and was appointed commander-in-chief in Prussia in 1660. Besides residing in Germany he lived like a real nobleman at his manor Malmvik in Sweden, where among other things a French envoyé was received with music and other pleasures. His portrait painted by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl shows a magnificent person. If he is the Linde mentioned in the Danzig MS the manuscript must have been written after 1665 and most probably after 1676.⁽¹⁹⁾ "Le grand Connestable Mons. le Comte Wrangel" is probably identical with count Carl Gustav Wrangel, who was born at Skokloster castle in Sweden and died at his manor Spieker on Rügen in Germany. Wrangel studied navigation and shipbuilding in Holland and later in France. As von der Linde he made a military career and in 1651 he was appointed count. He was one of the most renowned and famous commanders during the Swedish Great Power period. In 1674 he was appointed commander for the Swedish troops in Germany. We know that the lute was played at his castle in Sweden from a note in the account books, where a musician named Dunkart in January 1674 recieved 52,16 copper dollars for the lutes of the countess. This musician's full name was David Dunkart (or or Duncker) was also a servant at the castle. The countess may have been Maria Julian, daughter to Carl Gustaf Wrangel.^(19b) Another Swedish connection in this manuscript is the "Contrepartie Allemande sur le mort Roÿ Carl Gustav" on fol. 19v-20. The Swedish King Karl X Gustav died 13 February 1660. He had succeeded his cousin Queen Christina on the throne after her abdication in 1654.

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Lorens von der Linde

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Carl Gustaf Wrangel

The other manuscript which contains music by Hinrich Niewerth is Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Rés. Vmc ms. 61.⁽²⁰⁾ This manuscript is dated 1712 and probably of Polish-German origin. As François-Pierre Goy and Tim Crawford already has pointed out the solo pieces attributed to "Nivert" in this manuscript fit perfectly with the contreparties no. 51-53 in the Danzig manuscript mentioned above:⁽²¹⁾

*Folio*	*Title/composer*	*Concordances*
46v	Le Parnasse Allemande / de Nivert	None known.
46v	Courante de / Nivert	None known.
46v	Sarabande / du meme	None known.
47	Gigue de / Nivert	None known.

There are still many questions to be answered but I think that we in Hinrich Niewerth have identified another one of all these minor composers that appear so frequently in the lute MSS of the 17th and 18th centuries. Niewerth's music is a good example of the impact French lute music had all over Europe. The presence of some pieces by Niewerth in Ros 54 and two other manuscripts indicates a certain reputation and shows a skilled lute composer. His employment at the Swedish court probably isolated Niewerth from the mainstream of European lute music and this could be one explanantion for the fact that he has not left any musical trace in Sweden.

Notes

1. E. Kjellberg: Kungliga musiker i Sverige under stormaktstiden (Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet, 1979). I'm greatly indebted to Kjellberg's dissertation. Unless otherwise specified the information on the Hofkapelle and Niewerth's biography is taken from this dissertation.

1a. Helenius-Öberg, Eva. 'En drottnings jordafärd Hovkapellet vid Ulrika Eleonoras d.y. begravning 1742'. Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 84(2002) pp. 27-50

1b. Meyer, Christian. 'Die Verbreitung der Lautenmusik im 17. Jahrhundert - Einige Bemerkungen zum Werk des Lauteisten Johann Gumprecht', Die Laute. Jahrbuch der Deutschen Lautengesellschaft V(2001), p. 6.

2. Französische Tänze und Arien für Laute. Faksimileausgabe nach der handschriftlichen Tabulatur Mus. Saec. XVII-54 der Universtitätsbibliothek Rostock. Mit einer Einführung von Klaus-Peter Koch. (Leipzig, 1983) p. 8 and pp. 17-27.

3. Wallace John Rave Some Manuscripts of French Lute Music 1630-1700. An Introductory Study. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (University of Illinois, 1972) pp. 215-227.

4. Rave, op. cit. p. 215.

5. Oeuvres des Dubut. Edition et transcription par Monique Rollin et Jean-Michel Vaccaro. (Paris, 1979) p. XXVII.

5b. Crawford, Tim 'The historical importance of François Dufault and his influence on musicians outside France', Luths et luthistes en Occident. Actes du colloque 13-15 mai 1998. Paris 1999 pp. 201-216.

6. Rave, op. cit. p. 224 and p. 242

7. Oeuvres des Dubut. op. cit. p. XXVII.

8. Französische Tänze... op. cit., pp. 9-10.

9. Manuscrit Milleran. Tablature de luth française c. 1690 (Bibliothèque National, Paris, Rés. 823) Introduction de François Lesure. (Genève, 1976) fol. 2. Kjellberg, op. cit. Pp. 378-379.

10. Rave, op. cit. p. 371 and p. 142

11. Rave, op. cit. p. 371 and p. 142.

12. Rave, op. cit. p. 261.

13. M Brenet, 'Notes sur l'histoire du Luth en France', Rivista Musicale ItalianaVI(1899) p. 24.

14. J. O Rudén, Music in tablature. A thematic index with source descriptions of music in tablature notation in Sweden (Stockholm, 1981) p. 76.

15. Kjellberg, op. cit. p. 274-277.

16. Manuscrit Milleran, op. cit. p fol. 2.

17. Rave, op. cit. p. 267.

18. Crawford, op. cit. Unpublished inventory made by François-Pierre Goy.

19. In his unpublished inventory François-Pierre Goy assumes that the manuscript was compiled after 1676 with reference to these pieces probably being "Tombeaux".

19b. Pettersson, Monica, De dansanta grevebarnen på Skokloster. Tidig Musik 2003 No. 3 p. 7

20. Crawford, op. cit. Sources manuscrites en tablature. Luth et theorbe. Vol. I. (Baden-Baden, 1991) p. 106ff.

21. Crawford, op. cit. Unpublished inventory of the Danzig MS by François-Pierre Goy.

Additions, corrections are most welcome to