Schutz: German Requiem / Seven Last Words of Christ
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Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) Musicalische Exequien Die sieben Worte Jesu Christi Die mit Tranen saen So fahr ich hin zu Jesu Christ The...
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)
Musicalische Exequien Die sieben Worte Jesu Christi
Die mit Tranen saen So fahr ich hin zu Jesu Christ
The leading German composer of the seventeenth
century, Heinrich Schütz lived through one of the most
difficult periods in the history of the German lands. He
was born in Kostritz, near Gera, in 1585, the son of the
former town clerk of Gera, who had taken over the
running of the family inn in Kostritz, and his second
wife, daughter of the burgomaster of Gera. In 1590 he
moved with his family to Weissenfels, where his father
later became burgomaster. As a boy Schütz was
recruited by the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel as a
chorister, in spite of some opposition from his parents,
and had his academic and musical training at Kassel,
before entering the University of Marburg. With the
encouragement and support of Landgrave Moritz he was
able to move to Venice to study with Giovanni Gabrieli,
then near the end of his life, remaining there into a
fourth year. On Gabrieli's death in 1612 or in the
following year he returned to Germany to join the
Landgrave's Hofkapelle, while his family did their best
to dissuade him from a career as a musician. In 1615,
during a period of court mourning at Kassel, he was
invited to spend some time at Dresden in the Hofkapelle
of the Elector of Saxony, Johann Georg I, in whose
service he took on the duties of Kapellmeister, a position
he occupied formally from 1619, remaining in Dresden
in spite of the repeated attempts of the Landgrave Moritz
to persuade the Elector to allow his return to Kassel.
During a long career that brought work in other
court musical establishments, when his patron allowed
it, Schütz made frequent attempts to secure his
retirement from the Dresden court. Nevertheless he was
compelled to remain in the service of Johann Georg I
until the latter's death in 1657, directing the court
Kapelle through periods of extreme privation, as the
Thirty Years War, in which Saxony was finally
involved, took its course. On his accession the new
Elector, Johann Georg II, gave much responsibility to
the Italian musicians that he had recruited, while Schütz
retained his title, now as principal Kapellmeister, with
occasional calls on his services. He moved first to
Weissenfels and continued to respond to demands on his
abilities from various princely musical establishments
with which he had had earlier connections. He returned
to Dresden in about 1670 and died there in 1672.
Schütz was a composer of the greatest importance,
linking the traditions of Gabrieli's Venice with the
music of Protestant Germany. The greater part of his
music was in sacred choral works. Here, like Bach and
Handel a century later, he provided a synthesis of
Italian, Netherlands and German Protestant traditions in
a large number of compositions, written during the
course of an exceptionally long active life.
Schütz wrote his Musicalische Exequien for the
funeral in Gera of Prince Heinrich Posthumus of Reuss,
the composer's native region, on 4th February 1636. The
music was seemingly at the request of the Prince, who
had followed custom by arranging his funeral
ceremonies before his death. The work was published in
the same year, with a tribute, in verse, to the Prince who
was himself a musician of some ability. The first of the
three movements has the title Concert in Form einer
teutschen Begrabnis-Missa (Concerto in the form of a
German Funeral Mass) and is intended for six singers,
with organ. These voices can be reinforced by other
singers in the sections marked capella, based largely on
chorales, which alternate with those for solo voices. It is
followed by a motet for eight voices, two choirs, which
may be performed unaccompanied. Finally there is a
setting of the Nunc dimittis in a movement for two
choirs, the second singing the text Selig sind die Toten
(Blessed are the dead). Schütz explains in his
introduction, that the texts that he sets in the opening
section, the first of which correspond to the Kyrie eleison,
are those that Prince Heinrich had had inscribed on his
sarcophagus. The words of the motet had been chosen
by the Prince as a text for his funeral sermon, and the
words of the Nunc dimittis had also been the Prince's
choice.
Die sieben Wortte unsers lieben Erlosers und
Seeligmachers Jesu Christi so Er am Stamm des
Heiligen Creutzes gesprochen (The Seven Words of our
dear Redeemer and Saviour Jesus Christ that He spoke
on the Holy Cross) dates from 1645. At the head of the
score are the words:
Lebstu der Weltt, so bistu todt,
Und kranckst Christum mit schmertzen,
Stirbst'aber in seinen Wunden roth,
So lebt er in deim Hertzen.
If you love the world, then you are dead,
And wound Christ with pain,
But if you die in his red wounds,
Then he lives in your heart.
The work, setting the traditional texts drawn from
all four evangelists, starts with the Introitus for five
voices and continuo, a setting of the first verse of a
chorale, avoiding the traditional melody. The following
Venetian Symphonia is for five instruments and
continuo. The Evangelist, an alto, sings the recitative
followed by the words of Christ, sung by the second
tenor and accompanied by the two upper instruments
and continuo, a procedure that is followed with the later
words of Christ. The narrative is continued by the first
tenor and the second with the words of Christ to his
mother and to his disciple John. The first tenor is
followed by the soprano in the continued narrative,
leading to the words of the two malefactors, the alto to
the right and the bass to the left. The latter addresses
Christ, who promises him heaven. Four voices lead to
Christ's cry of ¡¥Eli, Eli lama asabthani', which is
translated, introduced now by four voices as the
Evangelist. The alto provides the narrative link to the
words ¡¥I thirst', and the tenor tells of a soldier offering
Christ a sponge filled with vinegar and, by a slip of the
composer's memory, hyssop, this last the reed of St
Mark (a sprig of hyssop in St John). After the final
words of Christ, the four voices end the narrative. A
Symphonia follows, leading to the final chorale,
accompanied, as throughout, by the organ continuo and
ending in final contrapuntal writing.
The five-voice setting of verses from Psalm XXVI,
Die mit Tranen saen (They that sow in tears), is the tenth
of the works included in the Musicalia ad Chorum
Sacrum or Geistliche Chor-Musik published in 1648 as
Opus 11. This was dedicated to the city fathers of
Leipzig and intended, in part, as a model of the older
polyphonic style, in particular for the choir of St
Thomas in Leipzig and the Thomasschule. The works
included seem to reflect a recent controversy, from
which Schütz had largely kept away, between Paul
Siefert and Marco Scacchi, accused by the former of
faulty counterpoint, an alleged Italian failing. Schütz, of
course, remembered all too well his rigorous Italian
training in counterpoint and the modern style with
Giovanni Gabrieli. The first twelve motets in the
collection are in five parts, with basso continuo. The
eleventh, So fahr ich hin zu Jesu Christ (So onward I go
to Jesus Christ), is a setting of the fifth verse of the
funeral chorale Wenn mein Stundlein vorhanden ist.
Keith Anderson
Musicalische Exequien, Op. 7, SWV 279-281 (more info)
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Concert in Form einer teutschen Begrabniss-Missa - 3:39
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Concert in Form einer teutschen Begrabniss-Missa - 18:32
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Motette: Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe - 2:59
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Canticum B. Simeonis: Herr, nun lassest du deinen Diener - 3:48
Die sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478 (more info)
Performed by:
Kleine Konzert, Das
Composed by:
Heinrich Schutz
Conducted by:
Paul Hillier
August Langenbeck
Wolfgang Helbich
Hermann Max
Alexander Schneider, violin
Marianne Ott, viola
Heinz Moster, viola
Tobias Kuhne, cello
Adam Riis, tenor
Hans Jorg Mammel, tenor
Sarah Perl, viola da gamba
Eric Lindblom, sackbut
Erik Bjorkqvist, sackbut
Ian Price, sackbut
Ekkehard Abele, bass
Ulrich Schaible, bass
Else Torp,
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone
Veronika Winter, soprano
Bettina Pahn, soprano
Henning Voss, alto
Jan Kobow, tenor
Henning Kaiser, tenor
Ralf Grobe, bass
Ulrich Maier, bass
Beate Röllecke, organ
Jakob Bloch Jespersen, bass
Heinz Kirchner, viola
Bernhard Scheffel, tenor
Leif Meyer, harpsichord
August Messthaler, bass
Juliane Laake, viola da gamba
Uwe Czyborra-Schroder, alto
Alexander Osthelder, counter-tenor
Max Schulze, double bass
Johan Linderoth, tenor
Linnea Lomholt, alto
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Introitus: Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund - 2:17
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Symphonia - 1:24
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Und es war um die dritte Stunde - 10:45
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Symphonia - 1:23
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Conclusio - 1:29
Geistliche Chormusik, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (more info)
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Die mit Tranen saen, SWV 378 - 3:41
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So fahr ich hin zu Jesu Christ, SWV 379 - 2:50