Program
- Selig sind die Toten, Geistliche Chormusik (1648)
- Die Seele Christi heilige mich, Kleine geistliche Konzerte (1639)
- Konzert in form einer deutschen Begräbnis, Musikalische Exequien (1636)
- O lieber Herre Gott, Kleine geistliche Konzerte (1639)
- Auf dem Gebirge, Geistliche Chormusik (1648)
- Das ist je gewisslich wahr, Geistliche Chormusik (1648)
- Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe, Musikalische Exequien (1636)
- O süsser, o freundlicher, Kleine geistliche Konzerte (1639)
- An den Wassern zu Babel, Psalmen Davids (1619)
- Ich liege und schlafe, Kleine geistliche Konzerte (1639)
- Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener in Frieden fahren, Musikalische Exequien (1636)
In the midst of the tragic Thirty Year War, Prince Heinrich Posthumous of Reuss, a humanist prince prepares for his death and his funeral in Gera; he has biblical texts inscribed inside his coffin. Schütz is to create a funerary composition, which he organizes in three movements. The first consists of texts that take the form of a German mass, the second is a double choir and the third, a unique piece: while a choir sings Simeon’s canticle that was dear to the Prince’s heart, three voices that come from the tomb, launch into Selig sind die Toten (Blessed are the dead).
The programme opens with these words, with the motet for six voices taken from Geistliche Chormusik that appeared in 1648, the year that marked the end of the Thirty Year War. As in Das ist je gewisslich wahr this motet, composed for the death of his friend Schein, is marked by Schütz’s genius, that combines the art of polyphony with baroque rhetoric and Italian influences.
In the excerpts of the Sinfonia sacrae and the Psalmens Davids, we hear a more extrovert composer, who has certainly been stimulated by his travels to Italy and the time he spends with Gabrieli and then maybe Monteverdi. We can easily imagine the kind of theatre Schütz would have produced!
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