Johann Sigismund Scholze

Life

Little is known about the life of Scholze. He was the son of a clerk, and attended school in Liegnitz until the beginning of his studies in Leipzig. In 1729 he was in Leipzig, where on 3 January, he got married with the widow from Halle, with whom he had begun a relationship. The children died young. Only one survived him. His wife died on 12 February 1738. His own funeral in poorer shape was on 30 September 1750. Stolze published under the pseudonym of Sperontes. We owe the discovery of the real identity of the poet to the musicologist Philipp Spitta, who published in 1885 a fundamental work Sperontes.

Works

• Sperontes, singende Muse an der Pleisse, Leipzig, 1736
• Das Kätzgen, ein Schäferspiel, Leipzig 1746
• Die Kirms, Leipzig 1746
• Das Strumpfband, Leipzig 1748
• Der Frühling
• Der Winter

Sources

• Robert L. Marshall and Dianne M. McMullen's article in new Grove Dictionary of Music
• P. Spitta: 'Sperontes "Singende Muse an der Pleisse": zur Geschichte des deutschen Hausgesanges im 18. Jahrhundert', 1885
• A. Kopp: 'Gedichte von Günther und Sperontes im Volksgesang', Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, xxvii, 1895
• J.W. Smeed: German Song and its Poetry, 1740–1900, 1987
• S. Kross: Geschichte des deutschen Liedes, 1989)

Notes

References

1. Reinhard Kade: Johann Sigismund Scholze. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Band 32, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, S. 231–233.
2. Philipp Spitta: ''Sperontes' „Singende Muse an der Pleiße“'', Vierteljahresschrift für Musikwissenschaft 1 1885, S. 35–126 und 350–355
3. "The Face of Bach by Teri Noel Towe".