Johann Valentin Meder

Who was Johann Valentin Meder?

Johann Valentin Meder was a German composer, organist, and singer.

Meder was born in Wasungen, Thuringia to a musical family with his father and four brothers all being organists or Kantors. He studied theology at Leipzig in 1669 and then at Jena but soon became a professional singer.

He was employed as court singer at Gotha in 1671, Bremen in 1672–1673, Hamburg in 1673 and Copenhagen and Lübeck where in 1674 he met Buxtehude, whose work influenced Meder's own sacred compositions. From 1674 to 1683 he was Kantor at the Gymnasium at Reval.

After a sojourn in Riga, in 1685-1686 he succeeded Balthasar Erben as Kapellmeister at the Marienkirche in Danzig in 1687. In 1698 the Danzig city council refused to allow a performance of his opera Die wiederverehligte Coelia. He had it performed instead in the nearby town of Schottland, which led to his being dismissed from his post. After being briefly employed as Kantor at the cathedral at Königsberg, he went in 1700 to Riga, where he served as Kantor until his death in 1719.