Demantius was a hugely prolific composer, though many of his works have been lost. Stylistically he was a successor to
Lassus, who was also working in Germany during the first part of Demantius's life. He wrote most of his music before the Thirty Years' War; it is probable that the hardships of the war, including lack of performing musicians, made it difficult to compose and publish. In the realm of sacred music Demantius wrote
motets,
masses,
Magnificat settings,
psalm settings,
hymns, and a splendid setting of the
St. John Passion, one of the most significant
passion settings of the late Renaissance. This work, for six voices, is considered to be the last in the development of the German motet passion; those composed later were to be of the more dramatic kind, culminating in the
St John Passion of
J.S. Bach. Demantius's setting includes a setting of
Isaiah chapter 53 in addition to the usual text from the
Gospel of St. John. His motets are of a late Renaissance type, and all Lutheran; some are in
German and others
Latin. They are conservative in that they avoid some of the
Italian Baroque innovations such as the
stile concertato and the
basso continuo, both of which were becoming widely used in Germany by 1610; but he also created a highly individual musical language using traditional forms and means, quite distinct from the
Palestrinian polyphony adopted by the other composers of the time commonly regarded as "conservative." He also wrote secular music, both vocal and instrumental, including
threnodies, dances,
epithalamia, and numerous other occasional works. Most likely he wrote the poetry for his own music. As a music
theoretician he is famous for compiling the first dictionary of musical terms in the German language. He also published a textbook for teaching music in school,
Forma musices, in 1592, at Bautzen. ==References and further reading==