Matthias Henriksen Schacht

Matthias Henriksen Schacht (Visby, Gotland, 1660 – Kerteminde, Fyn, 1700) was a Danish scholar whose work on music is of interest above all for its pioneering character. Born on the Swedish island of Gotland, then under Danish occupation, his interests spanned almost every field of knowledge of his time.

After enrolling at the University of Copenhagen in 1678 and completing his training at German universities, he returned in 1682 to his former school in Visby as a teacher. The following year, Bishop Thomas Kingo appointed him cantor at the Latin school in Odense; in 1686 he took over the running of the school in Kerteminde, where he also served as municipal musician. He researched the castles of Hungary, the topography of Gotland, zoology, botany, mathematics and history. He published little; much of his work remained in manuscript, among them the treatise Musicus danicus eller Danske sangmester, completed on 1 January 1687 and edited by G. Skjerne in 1928.

This work, divided into four parts devoted to singing, theory, composition and basso continuo, opens with a biographical dictionary of musicians, the first known attempt of its kind. E. L. Gerber used it for his Tonkünstler-Lexicon (1790–92), although his hypothesis that Schacht relied on a lost work by Meibom is without foundation. Schacht composed music, but none of his compositions survives.