Heinrich Schutz

While Matthias Weckmann's music is much admired by those familiar with his works, compared to that of other seventeenth-century masters it has received relatively little attention. This paper suggest a possible explanation, within the context of the great tradition Weckmann inherited and from Monteverdi and from Schütz, his teacher. Note: This article was scanned for me by the Duke Library from the Symposium volume. The poor quality of the scan is due to the fact that the publication is tightly bound, with narrow margins. Nevertheless, it is quite readable throughout, and I do not possess the article in any other form.

Already at the publication in 1648 of his Geistliche Chor-Music Heinrich Schütz seems to have had a sense of foreboding concerning the alien Basso continuo part imposed on him for mercantile reasons. And rightly so. The mere existence of this very part has led editors to far-reaching and highly questionable decisions, not least the use of metrical barring.

This article shows how these editorial decisions change the musical content by crucially influencing and changing essential structural and performative parameters, hence e. g. inhibiting carefully composed intrinsic phrasing mechanisms.

With reference to the “Deklamationsrhythmik” the article proposes an alternative reading of horizontal structures in stile antico, thus opening an analytical view to possibly disregarded poetic-semantic aspects and complementing the traditional solely vertical comprehension of the genesis of dissonances which tends to lock the performance practice in a position contradicting Schütz’ explicit wish that “this kind of music shall increasingly reach the fulfillment of its desired ‘Effect’ ”.

The principle question concerning the setting of any text to music is:
What does the music actually do to the text? How does it change or
transform it? The answer is twofold: first, music provides increased
expressivity, and second, it seeks to interpret the text. It is difficult to
express in words the additional depth of emotion achieved by adding
music to any text, let alone a story that concerns cruelty and death
and is directly related to religious beliefs. It is even harder to describe
how a composer might seek to contribute to our understanding
of this story by highlighting certain words, reordering the events,
or even by adding innovative elements to the traditional narrative.
Nonetheless, the developmental history of musical settings of the
passion is directly concerned with increased expressivity and is
intimately linked with developments in musical style. Study of musical settings requires reference to manuscript and source studies,
reception history, performance practice, cultural studies, and to
changing theological concerns, all of which demonstrate how
composers have sought to make the death of Jesus engaging to their
audiences.

This article details how pre-existing narratives concerning Heinrich Schütz and the Thirty Years War could serve as inspiration and be drawn upon following the Allied destruction of Dresden in 1945. The city’s Kreuzkantor, Rudolf Mauersberger, was the prime mover behind many of the new memorials and festivals that were organized during the post-war years. Mauersberger’s own Dresdner Requiem (1947–48, regularly revised until the mid-1960s), commemorating Dresden’s destruction, not only draws upon the polychoral structure of Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien, part 3, but also includes the hymn Jerusalem, du hochgebaute Stadt (1626), written in response to the Thirty Years War.

Full article available at https://sscm-jscm.org/jscm-issues/volume-26-no-1/ottersen-echoes-of-schutz/

English: In the context of the genre, it is difficult to rank the three passions by Heinrich Schütz (1665/66) too highly. Though outwardly still simple chorale passions, their through-composed solos and dramatic turba choruses are clear precursors of later oratorio passions. The same may be said of Johann Valentin Meder's Matthäuspassion (Riga 1700/01).
Deutsch: Die drei Passionen von Heinrich Schütz (1665/66) sind in der Geschichte der Gattung schwer zu überschätzen: Äußerlich noch elementare Choralpassionen, bereiten sie mit ihren durchkomponierten Soli und dramatisierten Turba-Chören die späteren oratorischen Passionen deutlich vor. Dies gilt auch für die Matthäuspassion von Johann Valentin Meder (Riga 1700/01).

Kurset afholdes i forårssemestret 2016 som musikvidenskabeligt emne med analyse, 14 fredage kl. 8-12.

Med udgangspunkt i fire forskellige historiske punktnedslag vil vi undersøge to genrer i europæisk vokalmusik fra den voldsomt bevægede periode ca. 1600 til 1650. De to genrer er madrigal og motet, som på henholdsvis verdsligt og kirkeligt grundlag i særlig grad eksponerer det kunstneriske samspil mellem musik og tekst.

Dette samspil diskuteres bl.a. ud fra to af barokmusikkens centrale begreber, seconda prattica og musica poetica. Med omvendt kronologisk progression er de fire nedslag musik af to tyske og to italienske komponister, nemlig Heinrich Schütz, Johann Hermann Schein, Claudio Monteverdi og Carlo Gesualdo.

Kurset forløber i forelæsninger med tilhørende analyseøvelser samt seminarer med studenteroplæg. Desuden søges inddraget aktiviteter med eksterne bidrag i form af koncertudflugt, workshop med gæster o.lign.

Kursusinformation

Sprog Dansk
Point 15 ECTS
Niveau Bachelor
Varighed 1 semester
Placering
Forår
Skemagruppe
Forår
Kursuskapacitet max. 40
Studienævn Studienævnet for Kunst- og Kulturvidenskab

Lutheran composers in Saxony during the Thirty Years’ War often set biblical texts with political and confessional significance, performing music at politically meaningful events and setting texts with political meaning for Protestant partisans. Just as Lutherans quoted the Bible for political reasons in sermons, official prayers, pamphlets, and broadsheets, so too they set scriptural texts to music to interpret contemporary events, justify their policies, attack political or confessional opponents, and honor heads of state.
Among music printed and performed chiefly in Leipzig during the late 1620s and early 1630s, works by Johann Hermann Schein, Heinrich Schütz, Andreas Hammerschmidt, and the brothers Tobias and Samuel Michael evoked the major political issues brought on by the war. Two major themes stand out. The first, treated in Part I of the dissertation, focuses on confessional divisions between Protestants and Catholics. Chapter 1 explains how Schein’s concerto Zion spricht, der Herr hat mich verlassen (1629) evoked his listeners’ fears over Emperor Ferdinand II’s Edict of Restitution, which threatened the status of Protestantism in the Empire. Settings of prominent ecclesiologic texts—Old Testament passages interpreted as referring to the Christian Church—form the basis for Chapters 2 and 3. In particular, Chapter 3 explores the confessional significance of settings of Psalm 83, at least three of which relate to a famous sermon preached at the Leipzig Convention, a gathering of Protestant rulers in early 1631.
Part II explores music related to Sweden’s campaign in central Germany. Chapter 4 examines occasional music by Samuel Michael and Marcus Dietrich performed in Leipzig in the immediate wake of the battle of Breitenfeld, a major Protestant victory. The political context for Samuel Michael’s Psalmodia Regia (Leipzig, 1632) is the topic of Chapter 5; Michael’s psalm texts allude to Breitenfeld and pay homage to Gustav Adolf of Sweden. Chapter 6 reveals the political context of Schütz’s Saul, Saul was verfolgst du mich, likely performed in 1632 at the Dresden court on the first anniversary of the Breitenfeld victory. Finally, Chapter 7 shows how a concerto by Tobias Michael obliquely refers to and possibly criticizes Sweden’s campaign in central Germany.