Johann Wanning

Johann Wanning (also known as Johannes Wanningus, Wannigk, Wannicke or Wangnick) (1537 – 23 October 1603) was a Dutch composer, kapellmeister and singer who worked for most of his career in the Prussian city of Danzig. He wrote a number of cycles of motets to be performed through the church year, as well as being the composer of the first known musical epithalamium.

Little is known about his early years or education. He was born in Kampen in the then Habsburg Netherlands and went to the university at Königsberg in the Duchy of Prussia in 1560. He sang as an alto in the ducal choir and gained a reputation as a composer. A few years later he moved to the port city of Danzig, where he was appointed to the role of kapellmeister at St. Mary's Church. He held the position until his death in 1603, though his health had progressively deteriorated since 1593; in 1599 the composer Nikolaus Zangius took over Wanning's duties, while Wanning himself was given what amounted to a pension of 50 marks paid quarterly.

Wanning is today most noted for being "the first Protestant composer to write cycles of de tempore motets for the whole church year," and his work inspired a number of later composers to create similar cycles of Evangelienmotetten or Spruchmotetten. He composed over 100 motets in Latin, published between 1580 and 1590. They were published in two cycles, the first appearing in two parts published in 1580 and 1584 respectively (and republished in 1590) and the latter published in 1590. The first volume, Sacrae Cantiones quinque, sex, septem et octo voces compositae, et tum vivae voces, tum musicis instrumentis aptatae, contains twenty-seven motets for six voices, for saints' days and festivals. A further fifty-two motets are contained in the second volume, Sententiae insigniores quinque, sex et septem voces ex evangeliis dominicalibus excerptae atque modulis musicis ornatae, for from five to seven voices. They were to be sung on days from the first Sunday in Advent through to the twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity. They have been described as "lively" by Hans J. Moser, who praises Wanning's expressive power, and Rudolf Eller highlights the motets' solid polyphony, colourful sound, and richness of expression.

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