Johann Valentin Meder

Johann Valentin Meder
(b Wasungen, nr Meiningen, bap. 3 May 1649; d Riga, end of July 1719). German composer, organist and singer.

He came from a musical family, 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 1672–3, Hamburg in 1673 and Copenhagen and Lübeck (where he met Buxtehude) in 1674. From 1674 to 1680 he was Kantor at the Gymnasium at Reval (now Tallinn). After a sojourn in Riga in 1685–6 he succeeded Balthasar Erben as Kapellmeister at the Marienkirche, Danzig, in 1687. In 1698 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 briefly being employed as Kantor at the cathedral at Königsberg, he went in 1700 to Riga, where he held a similar position until his death.