Johann Baptista Serranus

Johann Baptista Serranus, also known under the variants Seger, Seeger or Säger, was a German composer born in Lehrberg, near Ansbach, around 1540, and who died in Vincenzenbronn, also in the vicinity of Ansbach, in August 1600. His significance lies chiefly as an example of Lutheran music in the second half of the sixteenth century, although his known output is brief.

As a boy he was a member of the court choir at Ansbach. In 1560 he enrolled at the University of Wittenberg to study theology, with financial support from the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, at least from 1565 onwards. It is recorded that he neglected his studies in favour of music, and his tutor Paul Eber reported him to the margrave. In 1568 he was appointed Kantor at St John's and at the Latin school in Ansbach. From 1573 until his death he served as pastor of Vincenzenbronn.

Between 1565 and 1568 several of his works were published, both individually and in anthologies, mostly in Wittenberg, among them the six-part motet on the hymn Erhalt uns, Herr. His most notable piece is Das Gebet Josaphat, for five voices, which sets a poem by Eber to the melody of the Ten Commandments from the Genevan Psalter. A four-voice version also survives, as well as an arrangement for organ. His popularity was considerable: Marpurg cited it in the eighteenth century as a model of sixteenth-century compositional technique.

His legacy is modest, but his activity as a composer seems to have been concentrated in his years as a student, and it is precisely at that stage that his work acquires its greatest interest for the history of the Lutheran chorale.