Heinrich Schütz: The christmas collection

by Paul Goodwin

Heinrich Schütz, one of the greatest German composers of the 17th century, was a distinguished teacher and Kapellmeister at the court of Dresden for nearly half a century. He created compositions of remarkable form, style, texture and, above all, expressive power in both the German and Italian style. Much of his music is lost, particularly the secular works and, most significantly, the first German opera, Dafne.

The title page of the libretto to Dafne, The music was lost.

Schütz was born in Saxony where his parents owned an inn at Weissenfels. One of their guests, Landgrave Moritz of Hessen-Kassel, was so impressed with the boy’s musical skills that he sent him to choir school at the Hesse court. Later, encouraged by his parents, Schütz studied law, but with the support of the Landgrave went to Venice in 1609 to study composition with Giovanni Gabrieli — a move that was not popular with his conservative parents.

Like many young students, Schütz arrived full of confidence, ‘but I soon realised the importance and difficulty of the study of composition which I had undertaken and what an unfounded and poor beginning I had made in it so far ...Then with divine help, I progressed so far, without boasting, that after three years I had published my first little musical work in the Italian language.’

Hardly had Schütz resumed his duties at Hesse when he was invited by the Elector of Saxony, Johann Georg I, to play for him at Dresden. It was not long before Schütz was offered a permanent post at Dresden as the Kapellmeister, a role that gave him the formidable tasks of organising and providing music for religious and political ceremonies, leading ensembles in church, and training the boys in singing and composition.

The Dresden court ensemble was divided into three groups: the first choir, or the Italian singers; the second choir, or the ‘little German ensemble’; and the third choir of instrumentalists. The Italians provided music for special occasions, whilst the Germans were responsible for church music during the week. For a period the different factions were mixed together and some of the Italians were sent away, but this predictably precipitated many disputes, exacerbated by the fact that the Italians of the first choir earned as much as ten times the salaries of their German colleagues in the second choir.

The Dresden palace church. Schütz is directing the choir surrounding him and the instrumentalists in the organ loft.

Towards the end of the Thirty Years’ War the choir was reduced to a minimum and Schütz took the opportunity to spend some time at the more prosperous Danish Court. This move, whilst being a necessity for Schütz, was unpopular with the Elector. Nevertheless, even when the Elector had built up the Dresden ensembles again, there was no money to pay Schütz or his musicians for over two and a half years. Schütz’s many letters of appeal for funds or asking to be released from his duties fell on deaf ears and he even suffered the insult of having another Kapellmeister, G. A. Bontempi, appointed to share his job with him. On the death of the old Elector, his successor, Johann Georg II, built up the Dresden court again and, rather belatedly, honoured Schütz (by now aged 84) with the present of a gold cup.

Three years later, in 1672, Schütz died of a stroke. He was honoured in a grand funeral ceremony. However, the Dresden clergy used the sermon at Schütz’s funeral to voice a covert attack on the Italian influence in Schütz’s sacred music and also on the influence of the popular French dance idioms which were permeating music across Europe though the influence of the French Court of Louis XIV. ‘Many sing more for the melody’s sake, perhaps because the song is new with a fine brisk way about it and a pleasant worldly ring, but who cares about the content? ... Here, there should be mentioned what so many old and new teachers of the church have complained of, that is, the unspiritual dancelike, yes, even ridiculous, modes of song and music one often gets to hear in the churches. If a man were to be brought there blindfolded, he would be quite of the opinion that he was in a theatre where a ballet was to have been danced or a comedy to be performed.’ (Interestingly, one finds a not dissimilar expression of dissent by the Leipzig parishioners when they tried to censure J. S. Bach’s genius half a century later.)

Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672)

Looking at the singers he had available to him in Dresden, even for special occasions, it is evident that in polychoral works Schütz would have had merely a group of solo singers, ideally Italian, taking each of the concertato parts, and then one or two choirs of ripieno singers of probably no more than two a part. In addition to this were the instrumentalists, two violins, two cornetti and several sackbuts playing either solo parts or doubling the vocal parts. Schütz was keen to have at least two organs to accompany the different groups and to use bass instruments such as the dulcian, bass sackbut and even a plucked instrument. What one hears, therefore, is a sound world which is rich and varied, but not the massed choral sound to which one has become accustomed in much performance of the music of Heinrich Schütz.

Under the direction of Paul Goodwin AAM will be undertaking a tour and recording of a ‘Schütz Christmas Collection’ programme in December this year [1996], with small forces reflecting those that Schütz himself would have used. The recording will be for Harmonia Mundi USA. The concept of the Christmas programme is that it resembles a service of lessons and carols in which the lessons are sung, rather than spoken, and follows the story of the birth of Jesus through motets by Schütz based on biblical texts. There are also texts of rejoicing such as ‘Hodie Christus’ and ‘Alleluja’. The choral pieces are all by Schütz, whilst the interspersed instrumental pieces and 16th century carols are by his pupils and contemporaries, including Schmelzer, Weckmann, Theile and Usper, and of course by his teacher, Gabrieli.