Heinrich Albert (composer)

There, he also continued his studies in music, probably with Johann Hermann Schein, a friend of Schütz, who worked as Thomaskantor in Leipzig.

Albert was a member of the Königsberg Poetic Society together with Simon Dach, Robert Roberthin, Georg Mylius, Martin Opitz, et al.

The poets would convene at the Kürbishütte, an arbor in Albert's garden, where the Linde dyke flows into the river Pregel.

Numerous occasional compositions have survived that he penned for weddings and funerals, as well as homages to distinguished persons, and songs about nature, wine, and love.

Some of his sacred songs are still part of German Protestant hymnals, e.g., Gott des Himmels und der Erden and Ich bin ja, Herr, in deiner Macht.

Albert set his own poetry and that of his friends to music and published them as scores in eight volumes, mainly, as from 1638, labelled Arien oder Melodeyen, totaling 170 songs.

He provided these volumes with prefaces, offering detailed instructions for performance (he demanded e.g., that one should not play continuo "like hacking a cabbage".

Endowed with a strong sense of his copyright, he tried to protect his compositions against pirated prints by means of privileges which he gained from the duke of Prussia and from the Polish king.