Johann Heinrich Buttstett

Johann Heinrich Buttstett was a German Baroque organist and composer. Although he was Johann Pachelbel’s most important pupil and one of the last major exponents of the south German organ tradition, Buttstett is best remembered for a dispute with Johann Mattheson.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Johann Heinrich Buttstett.

From the period sources

Johann Heinrich Buttstett, born in Bindersleben near Erfurt in 1666, was a celebrated organist and a pupil of the renowned Pachelbel, according to the Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1886). He served successively as organist at the Reglerkirche (1684), the Kauffmannskirche (1687), and the Hauptkirche (1691) in Erfurt, where he was also known as a composer of organ and church music. Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1904) notes that Buttstett published a volume of harpsichord music, Musicalische Clavier-Kunst, in 1716, and a book of four masses in 1720, alongside some choral-preludes for organ. His most notable contribution, however, was his attack on Mattheson’s Neu-eröffnetes Orchestre (1713), published in 1717 under the title Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, tota musica. This work, a defense of the principles of solmisation, was ultimately “demolished” by Mattheson’s rejoinders, establishing “the rights of modern musicians,” as Grove’s records. Buttstett died in Erfurt on December 1, 1727, and his post as organist of the Evangelical church was subsequently filled by Jacob Adlung, who was known for his masterful playing, according to A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1879).