Biography
Born: c1649
Died: October 30, 1712
Erich Daniel was a German organist and composer. His family probably came from Lübeck, where his father, also Daniel, was a lutenist and maker of stringed instruments. In 1677 St Mary's Church bought a tenor viola da braccio from his father for Dietrich Buxtehude's use in concerted works from the choir loft. In these, the son played continuo on the positive organ from 1675 to 1679, strengthening Gerber's assertion that he was a pupil of the Lübeck master. Erich became organist of the parish church in Güstow, south of Rostock, where he was unsuccessful in persuading the church to have Arp Schnitger rebuild the organ. However, he gave the opening recital on the new organ Schnitger had built for the castle church at Dargun in 1700 and was celebrated in a poem written for the occasion: ‘So come then, Master Erich, thou son of Buxtehude in the fair art he has entrusted to you, come and display your fruit from this head of the muses on this organ which here has been built’.
Only a few of his chorale settings survive, each one adopting a different technique. Allein zu dir follows Buxtehude's practice of Vorimitation while Christum wir sollen loben schon, presumably a pleno setting, employs the chorale as a bass. Es ist das Heil is a three-part manualiter setting which dissolves the chorale melody in a much more abstract manner. The six verses to Von Gott will ich nicht lassen give ample proof that Erich was not only fluent in the keyboard idioms of his time, but also aware of the variation technique of his northern predecessors such as Samuel Scheidt.
