GEORG DIETRICH
LEYDING 1664-1710

 The most complete information about Georg Dietrich Leyding is to be found in Johann Gottfried Walther's "Musikalisches Lexikon" from 1723:

"Leyding (Georg Dietrich) was born on February 23, 1664 in Buecken, in the region of Hoya.....Since he
 demonstrated an exceptional natural gift of music already at an early age he received instruction in the practice of
 music in 1679 while still very young, at the age of 15, from Jacob Boelsche, the organist in Brunswick.  He studied
 intensely with him for five years and therefore travelled to Hamburg and Lübeck in 1684 to benefit from the
 extremely famous organists Reincken and Buxtehude.  While Leiding was still in Lübeck Boelsche informed him
 of his illness and asked him to take his place during the time of that illness.  Leiding accepted his offer and that
 proved to be a wise decision because Boelsche died that summer, 1684, and the leadership of church music in  St.
 Uldaric and St. Blaise fell to Leiding.  Thereafter he studied composition under Theile, a director of music, and
 several years later was offered the post of organist even in St. Magnus Church.  He accepted this post and
 enjoyed great fame and popularity until the year 1710 when he died on the 10th of May.  Most of his
 compositions are for the organ (which can be seen from the many compositions he has written for
 keyboard instruments) and he is especially remembered for being a humble and peaceful man who never
 spoke ill of others and who admired decency in his fellow man."  This article is obviously based on the
 material Walther received from his friend who was the church musician in  Wolfenbümel, Bokenmeyer.  In a letter
 dated August 6, 1729 Walther inquires about the spelling of his last name (Leyding or Leiding), as well as the
 possibility of collecting Leyding's compositions.  Walther chose to use �Leiding' in his lexicon but continued
 to write �Leyding' in letters and manuscripts.  A letter from 1731 shows that Walther had received copies of
 Leyding's works but doesn't reveal how many works it was a question of.

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