Heinrich Schütz
Heinrich Schütz | |
---|---|
Born | 18 October [O.S. 8 October] 1585 |
Died | 6 November 1672 | (aged 87)
Works | List of compositions |
Heinrich Schütz (German:
He is commemorated as a musician in the
Early life and education
Schütz was born in Köstritz, the eldest son of Christoph Schütz and Euphrosyne Bieger.
In 1590 the family moved to Weißenfels, where his father managed the inn "Zum güldenen Ring". His father eventually served as burgomaster in Weißenfels, and in 1615 purchased another inn known as both "Zur güldenen Sackpfeife" and "Zum güldenen Esel", which he renamed "Zum Schützen".
While Schütz was living with his parents, his musical talents were discovered by Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel in 1598 during an overnight stay in Christoph Schütz's inn. Upon hearing young Heinrich sing, the landgrave requested that his parents allow the boy to be sent to his noble court for further education and instruction. His parents initially resisted the offer, but after much correspondence they took Heinrich to the landgrave's seat at Kassel in August 1599.
After being a choirboy, Schütz studied law at Marburg before going to Venice from 1609 to 1612 to study music with Giovanni Gabrieli. Gabrieli is the only person Schütz ever called his teacher. He inherited a ring from Gabrieli shortly before the latter's death. He was subsequently organist at Kassel from 1613 to 1615.
Career
After a prolonged negotiation between the landgrave and the elector, Schütz moved to Dresden in 1615 to work as court composer to the Elector of Saxony. In 1619 Schütz married Magdalena Wildeck (born 1601). She bore two daughters before her death in 1625: Anna Justina in 1621 and Euphrosyne in 1623.
In Dresden Schütz sowed the seeds of what is now the
Schütz's Dresden compositions during the Thirty Years' War were, by necessity of the times, smaller-scale than the often massive earlier works; this period produced much of his most charming music. After the war, Schütz again wrote larger-scale compositions culminating in the 1660s, when he composed the greatest Passionmusic before Bach.[3]
Later life
Schütz moved back to Weißenfels, in a retirement he had to beg for, to live with his sister (the house is now a museum of his life), but the Electoral Court often called him back to Dresden. He died in Dresden of a
Style
Schütz's compositions show the influence of Gabrieli (most notably in Schütz's use of
Schütz's composition "Es steh Gott auf" (SWV 356) is in many respects comparable to Monteverdi.[7] His funeral music "Musikalische Exequien" (1636) for his noble friend Heinrich Posthumus of Reuss is considered a masterpiece, and is known today as the first German Requiem. Schütz was equally fluent in Latin and Germanic styles.
Schütz was one of the last composers to write in a
Beyond the early book of madrigals, almost no
Schütz was of great importance in bringing new musical ideas to Germany from Italy, and thus had a large influence on the German music which was to follow. The style of the
Works
The following are major published works; most of these contain multiple pieces of music; single published works are also listed in the complete work list, including major works such as the Seven Last Words, and the Passions (according to Matthew, Luke, and John). Over 500 individual pieces by Schütz survive.
- Il primo libro de madrigali (first book of madrigals) (opus 1, Venice, 1611)
- Psalmen Davids (Book 1) (opus 2, Dresden, 1619)
- Historia der ... Aufferstehung ... (The Resurrection) (opus 3, Dresden, 1623)
- Cantiones sacrae (opus 4, Freiberg, 1625)
- Becker Psalter (opus 5, Freiberg, 1628, revised 1661)
- Symphoniae sacrae (Book 1) (opus 6, Venice, 1629)
- Musikalische Exequien (opus 7, Dresden, 1636)
- Kleine geistliche Konzerte (Book 1) (opus 8, Leipzig, 1636)
- Kleine geistliche Konzerte (Book 2) (opus 9, Leipzig, 1639)
- Symphoniae sacrae (Book 2) (opus 10, Dresden, 1647)
- Geistliche Chor-Music (opus 11, Dresden, 1648)
- Symphoniae sacrae (Book 3) (opus 12, Dresden, 1650)
- Zwölf geistliche Gesänge (opus 13, Dresden, 1657)
- Historia der ... Geburt ... Jesu Christi (Christmas Story; Dresden, 1664)
- Lukas-Passion (The Passion According to St. Luke) (Dresden, 1665)
- Johannes-Passion (The Passion According to St. John) (Dresden, 1666)
- Matthäus-Passion (The Passion According to St. Matthew) (Dresden, 1666)
- Königs und Propheten 119er Psalm ... (Psalm 119, Psalm 100, and German Magnificat: "Swan Song") (opus ultimum, Dresden, 1671)
Citations
- ^ Gregory S. Johnston (ed.), A Heinrich Schütz Reader: Letters and Documents in Translation, Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 85.
- ^ Joshua Rifkin, et al. "Schütz, Heinrich." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed 8 October 2013.
- ^ Cummings, Robert. "Heinrich Schütz". allmusic.com. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
- ^ David Mason Greene Greene's biographical encyclopedia of composers p. 115 "When the elector finally let him go, Schütz managed to wrest from him money to permit his pupil and protégé Matthias Weckmann to study in Hamburg for three years with Jakob Praetorius. He remained in the Danish court for two years, "
- ^ The encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church Julius Bodensieck, Lutheran World Federation. 1965. "The most eminent among his pupils were H. Albert, M. Weckmann, D. Pohle, Chr. Bernhard, JJ Loewe, A. Krieger, J. Theile."
- ^ "Heinrich Schütz 1585–1672" (in German). Internationale Heinrich-Schütz-Gesellschaft e. V. Archived from the original on 31 May 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2017.
- ^ Gerald Drebes: ‘‘Schütz, Monteverdi und die „Vollkommenheit der Musik“ – „Es steh Gott auf“ aus den „Symphoniae sacrae“ II (1647)‘‘. In: ‘‘Schütz-Jahrbuch‘‘, Jg. 14, 1992, pp. 25–55. Online: "Gerald Drebes - 2 Aufsätze online: Monteverdi und H. Schütz". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2017..
- ^ cf. Steude 1986, pp. 58–61
General sources
- ISBN 0-393-09745-5
- ISBN 3-7618-0778-3
- Basil Smallman, Heinrich Schütz, The Master Musicians, 2000.
- Tamsin (née T.D.) Jones, Passions in Perspective: An Analytical Discussion of the Three Passions of Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) Against Their Historical and Stylistic Backgrounds (, 2000)
- Heinrich Schütz: Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11. Edited by ISBN 1-4116-4243-0.
Further reading
- Hoffer, Brandi (2012). "Sacred German Music in the Thirty Years' War", Musical Offerings, Vol. 3: No. 1, Article 1.
- Moser, Hans Joachim (1936, 2nd edition English translation by Carl F. Pfatteicher, 1959) Heinrich Schütz: His Life and Work 739 pp. Concordia, St. Louis, Original Bärenreiter, Kassel
External links
- Literature by and about Heinrich Schütz in the German National Library catalogue
- Free scores by Heinrich Schütz at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- Germany Fed. Rep. 1972 stamp devoted to Heinrich Schütz
- Free scores by Heinrich Schütz in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)