Simon Lohet


Simon Lohet was a Flemish composer and organist of the late Renaissance, active in Germany. He is best known as one of the earliest exponents of the keyboard fugue.

Life

Lohet's father was a certain Jean de Liège, so the family originates from Liège and Simon was probably born in the area. Loxhay is the Walloon version of his surname. He was appointed organist of the Württemberg court at Stuttgart on 14 September 1571, assisting Utz Steigleder and H.F. Fries until both went into retirement. Lohet then assumed full responsibility for the chapel services. He was also somewhat active as a teacher, his pupils included his own son Ludwig and, most importantly, Adam Steigleder. Lohet made several trips to the Low Countries in the 1570s and to Venice in 1581 to buy instruments and music. In 1601 he retired from his post. He remained in Stuttgart until his death in summer 1611.

Works

's Nova musices organicae tabulatura contains all of Lohet's known works. The bulk of his small surviving output consists of twenty keyboard fugues, which are also his most historically important works. Most of them are short, averaging 20-25 bars, and eight are monothematic, which is very different from contemporary examples of imitative counterpoint and very close, also because of frequent use of stretto entries, diminution and other contrapuntal devices, to the classic fugue of the late Baroque. A full list follows, with the number of sections given in parentheses:
  1. Fuga prima
  2. Fuga secunda
  3. Fuga tertia
  4. Fuga quarta
  5. Fuga quinta
  6. Fuga sexta
  7. Fuga septima
  8. Fuga octava
  9. Fuga nona
  10. Fuga decima
  11. Fuga undecima
  12. Fuga duodecima
  13. Fuga decima tertia
  14. Fuga decima quarta
  15. Fuga decima quinta
  16. Fuga decima sexta
  17. Fuga decima septima
  18. Fuga decima octava
  19. Fuga decima nona
  20. Fuga vigesima
Single-section fugues are all monothematic. Their subjects are typical ricercar subjects: slow, sustained, moving in whole, half- and quarter notes. In two section fugues either both sections are imitative, or the second one is in free counterpoint. Fuga quinta's three sections are all imitative, but the rest of three-section fugues feature an imitative section, a stretto/canzona subject section and a free counterpoint section for the ending. In all, Lohet's pieces represent some of the earliest keyboard fugues in the modern understanding of the word.
Lohet's other works are a canzona, two chorales and keyboard transcriptions of a motet and a chanson. The chorales are written in a style reminiscent of the later south German tradition, with the first line set imitatively.

Editions