Samuel Scheidt was a German composer, organist, and teacher of the early Baroque period. He was a key figure in the development of Protestant church music and instrumental composition in Germany. Scheidt studied in Amsterdam under the influential organist Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, whose contrapuntal techniques and expressive organ writing had a lasting impact on him.

Returning to his native Halle, Scheidt became court organist and later Kapellmeister to the Margrave of Brandenburg. He was instrumental in shaping Lutheran church music, composing numerous chorale settings, motets, and sacred concertos. His most significant work, the Tabulatura Nova (1624), was a groundbreaking collection of organ music that abandoned traditional organ tablature in favour of modern staff notation. This helped standardise organ composition in Germany and influenced later composers, including Bach.

Scheidt also contributed to instrumental music, writing suites and variations for ensembles. His works often displayed a fusion of polyphonic textures and expressive harmonies, characteristic of the early Baroque. Despite political and economic hardships during the Thirty Years’ War, he continued composing and teaching, leaving a lasting legacy in German sacred and instrumental music.