Peter Heydorn

Peter Heydorn the Elder was probably born between 1650 and 1660 in Uetersen and died in 1715. The first-born son of his brother Johann Peter Heydorn (1674-1702) also bore the name Peter Heydorn and was organist at St. Martin’s Church in London. Various spellings of the name have survived; including Peter Heidorn (Codex E. B. 1688), Peter Heÿdorn (Johann Gottfried Walther) und Petrus Heydorn.

Biography

Peter Heydorn was elected organist of the Pesthofkirche in Hamburg on June 21, 1678. There is no information about Heydorn‘s teachers. The church of the Hamburg Pesthof was a new construction of the older church built in 1636, carried out by the building yard inspector Johannes Kopp. The new Pesthofkirche was located on today’s Budapester Straße and was consecrated on November 1, 1769, after the laying of the foundation stone on May 17, 1768. The octagonal building could seat 960 people and had external dimensions of 24 meters. On January 3, 1814, the Pesthofkirche was burned down by French troops. The organ at the Pesthof was smaller than that of St. Peter in Krempe. The Pesthofkirche was administered jointly by representatives of all Hamburg main churches. Not only the organists of the main churches, but also various persons from Hamburg’s musical life acted as experts in questions concerning music or the organ. After six years in office at the Pesthofkirche, Peter Heydorn resigned from his position and can be found in Krempe from October 1684. A protocol from June 4, 1684 informs about Heydorn‘s absence. Only three years later his appointed substitute Hinrich Berlin was given the office of organist of the Pesthofkirche.

In Krempe, Peter Heydorn succeeded Peter Ruge, who is documented as organist at the new Arp Schnitger organ in Elmshorn since October 1684. A disposition of the Krempe organ from Heydorn‘s time is not available, but there are records from 1830 about the condition of the two-manual instrument. It is possible that the organ in Krempe had only an attached pedal in Heydorn‘s time. The Christian Koch organ of St. Laurentii in Itzehoe was completed in 1689. The three-manual instrument had several 16' stops in the manual and was the only North German instrument outside of Hamburg and Lübeck that was designed with 32' stops at the beginning. The instrument was highly praised by all four reviewers, including Peter Heydorn. In a subsequent examination of whether the previous organist of the positive Johann Rogge could also master the new large organ, the experts unanimously came to the conclusion that the organist from Itzehoe could neither sufficiently play an assigned fugue, a four-part movement, nor a basso continuo, or tune reed pipes correctly. Shortly thereafter, Peter Heydorn was appointed organist in Itzehoe on September 14, 1689. His high salary of 20 Reichstaler was justified by his outstanding qualities. However, there were irregular and insufficient salary payments in Itzehoe. In the Krempe town account, however, Peter Heydorn can be found as payee until February 16, 1692. This is probably a mistake; in the baptism entry of Johann Heydorn‘s son Jochim of February 28, 1691, Peter Heydorn is listed as the organist in Itzehoe. A baptismal register entry from Uetersen lists Peter Heydorn four days after his appointment in Itzehoe as father of an illegitimate child and as organist in Krempe.

Eggert Fehrs, a brother-in-law of Peter Heydorn, states towards the end of 1718 that the organist had become engaged to Fehrs‘ sister Dorothea in 1692, but an illegitimate son was born. The mother sued the father for marriage and won the case on October 27, 1693. Heydorn appealed unsuccessfully. A judgment of May 24, 1694, ordered the jurats of the Itzehoe church under threat of punishment to pay the remaining “410 Mk. Salarien und Hauß Häuer-Gelder” to “Dorothea Heydorns” - the jurats, however, obtained a withdrawal of the judgment already on July 11, 1694. Thus, it can be assumed that Peter Heydorn left his wife, his son and his organist post in Itzehoe after his lost trial. However, already 14 days before the first court decision, Johann Pachelbel‘s pupil Johann Conrad Rosenbusch was appointed as Peter Heydorn‘s successor by the Itzehoe monastery via a patronage right without any agreement. A lawsuit of the city against the monastery because of the patronage right shows that Heydorn was no longer acceptable for the monastery because of his life situation. Peter Heydorn‘s brother Johann Heydorn lent the organist money to secretly build a new existence in London. This seemed to have succeeded, but the repayments did not come until Peter Heydorn‘s death in 1715. In 1711 Heydorn stayed again in the region around Itzehoe. Further life data cannot be found. For example, the proposal of 1698 to consider Peter Heydorn as successor of Christian Flor in Lüneburg besides Georg Böhm and Martin Wilhelm Hochgesang - beyond them there was a multitude of applicants - refers to Peter Heydorn the younger.

Works

Organ works by Peter Heydorn

Source	Title	Incipit	Notes	Ref.
Lowell Mason Codex p.151-159	Toccata in C		"Ortsangabe Krempe"
Lowell Mason Codex p.147-151	Fuga ex g		"Ortsangabe Krempe"
D-B Mus.ms. 40644 f.33v-35r	Fuge d		"Theme Reinkianum"
D-Mbs Mus.ms. 5368	Fuge G
D-B Mus.ms. 40644 f.35v-38r D-Mbs Mus.ms. 5368	Fuge g

Links

• Peter Heydorn on IMSLP.