Partita über “Antidotum Tarantulae” (2016)

Raimund Schächer (b. 1960) — Partita über “Antidotum Tarantulae” (2016) for organ

“Partita über ‘Antidotum Tarantulae’” is based on a theme by the Renaissance polymath Athanasius Kircher (1602–1608). Kircher was one of the first to document the Mediterranean folk belief that the musical tarantella was a dance performed by the victim of a tarantula bite in order to drive the poison out of the body. In his treatise “Mages sive de arte magnetica” (1641), Kirchner notates several tarantellas and also provides a small musical “antidote” (a lyrical theme) for the tarantula bite. The Kircher theme is followed by Schächer’s five variations “in the old style.”

German composer and organist Raimund Schächer (b. 1960) was born in Hersbruck and was educated at the Meistersinger-Konservatorium in Nuremburg and the Academy for Protestant Church Music in Bayreuth. He has served as a church musician in Hersbruck, Pappenheim, Treuchtlingen, and Heidenheim. As a composer, Schächer has written a number of organ, choral, and chamber works. He has also been widely active as an editor of early keyboard music, and his editions have been published by Cornetto, Carus, Pro Organo, and Strube Verlag.