A Hexachordal and Rhetorical Analysis of Heinrich Schütz's 'Sieben Worte Jesu Christi Am Kreuz' (SWV 478)
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Authors Wininger, Thomas Dwight
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A HEXACHORDAL AND RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
OF HEINRICH SCHÜTZ’S SIEBEN WORTE JESU CHRISTI AM KREUZ (SWV 478)
by
Thomas Dwight Wininger
______Copyright © Thomas Dwight Wininger 2019
A Document Submitted to the Faculty of the
FRED FOX SCHOOL OF MUSIC
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of
DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS
In the Graduate College
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
2019
Acknowledgments
I will be forever grateful to the numerous people who have helped me through this process both academically and emotionally. A special thank you to Dr. Bruce Chamberlain, Dr.
John Brobeck, and Dr. Matthew Mugmon for their guidance of this document and support over the entire course of this degree. I would also like to thank my family — specifically my parents
Mary and Dwight and sister, Brooke — who have been instrumental in helping me attain this goal. Finally, I would be remiss if I did not thank Erin Plisco for her tireless support and encouragement.
3 Contents Musical Examples ...... 5
Abstract...... 8
Intent and Scope ...... 9
Review of the Scholarly Literature...... 14
Methodology...... 19
Analysis of Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478:
Introitus...... 25
First Word, Luke 23: 24...... 33
Second Word, John 19: 26–27 ...... 39
Third Word, Luke 23: 43 ...... 43
Fourth Word, Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34...... 50
Fifth Word, John 19: 28 ...... 5 6
Sixth Word, John 19: 30...... 59
Seventh Word, Luke 23:46...... 62
Conclusio...... 68
Conclusion...... 74
Glossary...... 76
Bibliography...... 7 8
4 Musical Examples
Musical Example 1. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Introitus,” mm. 1–4...... 26
Musical Example 2. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Introitus,” mm. 9–11...... 28
Musical Example 3. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Introitus,” mm. 19–24...... 29
Musical Example 4. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Introitus,” mm. 40–44...... 31
Musical Example 5. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Introitus,” mm. 35–39...... 32
Musical Example 6. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “First Word,” mm. 1–3...... 34
Musical Example 7. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “First Word,” mm. 4–6...... 35
Musical Example 8. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “First Word,” mm. 4–8...... 36
Musical Example 9. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “First Word,” mm. 9–12...... 36
Musical Example 10. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Second Word,” mm. 1–5...... 39
Musical Example 11. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Second Word,” mm. 21–27...... 41
Musical Example 12. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Second Word,” mm. 32–35...... 42
Musical Example 13. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Third Word,” mm. 1–7...... 43
Musical Example 14. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Third Word,” mm. 8–13...... 44
Musical Example 15. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Third Word,” mm. 19–22...... 45
5 Musical Example 16. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Third Word,” mm. 25–28...... 46
Musical Example 17. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Third Word,” mm. 30–35...... 47
Musical Example 18. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Third Word,” mm. 52–56...... 48
Musical Example 19. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fourth Word,” mm. 1–2...... 50
Musical Example 20. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fourth Word,” mm. 3–5...... 51
Musical Example 21. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fourth Word,” mm. 6–11...... 52
Musical Example 22. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fourth Word,” mm. 12–13...... 53
Musical Example 23. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fourth Word,” mm. 26–31...... 54
Musical Example 24. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fourth Word,” mm. 38–42...... 55
Musical Example 25. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fifth Word,” mm. 1–5...... 56
Musical Example 26. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fifth Word,” mm. 6–10...... 57
Musical Example 27. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fifth Word,” mm. 11–15...... 57
Musical Example 28. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Sixth Word,” mm. 1–12...... 59
Musical Example 29. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Sixth Word,” mm. 13–17...... 60
Musical Example 30. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Sixth Word,” mm. 18–22...... 61
6 Musical Example 31. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Seventh Word,” mm. 1–5...... 62
Musical Example 32. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Seventh Word,” mm. 6–10...... 64
Musical Example 33. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Seventh Word,” mm. 11–14...... 64
Musical Example 34. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Seventh Word,” mm. 15–28...... 67
Musical Example 35. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Conclusio,” mm. 1–5...... 68
Musical Example 36. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Conclusio,” mm. 11–14...... 69
Musical Example 37. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Conclusio,” mm. 19–23...... 70
Musical Example 38. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Conclusio,” mm. 24–27...... 71
Musical Example 39. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Conclusio,” mm. 28–31...... 72
Musical Example 40. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Conclusio,” mm. 36–39...... 73
Musical Example 41. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Conclusio,” mm. 40–43...... 73
7 Abstract
Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) is considered a transitional figure between the Renaissance and Baroque. Because of this, his music is pluralistic and incorporates elements from both epochs. This paper focuses on two of these elements: his use of musico-rhetorical figures and his hexachordal harmonic approach in his work Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478.
Musico-rhetorical devices were widely in use in southern Germany and northern Italy during
Schütz’s lifetime. The purpose of these devices was to persuade the listener through musical gestures tied to ancient oratory. These gestures are enhanced through harmonic language — in this instance the hexachord system. When combined, these two distinct types of analysis yield a more comprehensive understanding of his dramatic setting of the Seven Last Words of Christ.
This comprehensive reading is beneficial for performers who wish to present a dramatic performance of the composition.
8 Intent and Scope
The life and music of Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) are filled with research opportunities.
Schütz lived in the religiously-divided free state of Saxony during the period of the Counter
Reformation, and he worked in the capital city of Dresden during much of the Thirty Years War
(1618–1648). Musically, Schütz stands as a transitional figure from the Renaissance to the
Baroque. He fused German and Italian approaches to musical composition cultivated during the early Baroque while using a pluralistic harmonic style that blended elements of modal and pre- tonal thinking. Though his life and music have been studied extensively, his piece Sieben Worte
Jesu Christe am Kreuz (SWV 478) has not been analyzed thoroughly.
Schütz’ Sieben Worte Jesu Christe am Kreuz is of musicological significance since the piece offers the first complete, independent polyphonic setting of the liturgical text called the
Seven Last Words. This text, which compiles sayings from all four Gospels attributed to Jesus while he hung on the cross, did not enter into the Catholic liturgy as an independent entity until the sixteenth century, when it became a standard part of the Good Friday liturgy. Some of the earliest settings of this text from the fifteenth century appear as sections of larger Passion compositions. Schütz, however, was the first composer to create a polyphonic setting that was independent from settings of the full Passion account.1 This has led to scholarly debate as to whether this work should be considered a Passion setting, an Oratorio, a Historie, or a Summa
Passionis. This lecture-recital will not attempt to specify the genre of the work, but rather will be primarily focused on attempting to analyze it in an historically-appropriate manner. It explores
1 Vaughn Roste, “The Seven Last Words of Christ: a Comparison of Three French Romantic Musical Settings by Gounod, Franck, and Dubois” (PhD diss., Louisiana State University, 2013).
9 using both hexachordal and rhetorical analysis in order to more effectively elucidate Schütz’s dramatic approach to his text.
The hexachord system was widely used during Schütz’s lifetime, and, as will be detailed shortly, hexachordal analysis has been applied to his music by a number of modern-day scholars.
Credited to Guido d’Arezzo (991–c. 1033), the hexachord system was created to serve as a mnemonic device for the teaching of plainchant. A hexachord comprises a series of six notes ascending stepwise through two whole tones, a semitone and two further whole tones. Guido d’Arezzo’s system contained three types of hexachords — the hard hexachord on G, the natural hexachord on C, and the soft hexachord on F. Guido’s system comprised seven sets of overlapping hexachords that ran from G2 to E5 — roughly two and a half octaves. This sight singing system served as a standard part of the musical curriculum taught to young musicians from the eleventh century through at least the first half of the seventeenth century. Since large bodies of polyphonic music already were in existence when Guido devised his system, musicians from the Middle Ages through the early Baroque musicians used it not only for singing monophonic melodies, but also as a tool to help them maintain proper consonance and avoid vertical tritones in polyphonic works. The latter use led to the addition of additional hexachords beyond the initial three that offered further note options for composers. As these hexachords moved further away from the natural hexachord — motion that resembles the tonal circle of fifths — adherence to the pre-tempered tuning systems of the time would have made the vertical harmonies increasingly out of tune and discordant. Composers in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries used these discords to their compositional advantage by employing them to paint the emotion or Affect of a text. Two of the most prominent musicians to adopt this compositional approach were Heinrich Schütz and his teacher Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643),
10 with whom Schütz studied in Venice in 1629. Carl Dahlhaus (1928–1989), Susan McClary (b.
1946), and Eric Chafe (b. 1946) have each made one or more compelling arguments that the music of Claudio Monteverdi and/or Heinrich Schütz are conceptualized at least partially in a hexachordal manner.2
Early seventeenth century contemporary theoretical writings about music suggest that composers also tried to heighten the drama of their musical settings through the application of stock rhetorical compositional devices. According to theorists such as Joachim Burmeister
(1564-1629) and Christoph Bernhard (1628-92), musical figures could be used to evoke specific feelings and responses in listeners in much the same way that verbal rhetorical figures had been used to persuade listeners to accept a given argument in public speaking since antiquity. Joachim
Burmeister, writing in his treatise Musica Poetica (1606), has this to say about oratory and rhetoric in music:
And if we examine music more closely, we will surely find very little difference between its nature and that of oratory. For just as the art of oratory derives its power not from a simple collection of simple words, or from a proper yet rather plain construction of periods, or from their meticulous yet bare and uniform connection, but rather from those elements where there is an underlying grace and elegance due to ornament and to weighty words of wit, and where periods are rounded with emphatic words —so also, this art of music, surpassing the bare combination of pure consonances, offers to the senses a work composed of a mixture of perfect and imperfect consonances and of dissonances. This cannot but touch one’s heart. After much study it has been observed that this art is capable of depicting the inanimate so that it appears no different from the animate, and that it can employ the same stimulus whereby rhetoric, through prosopopoeia, can present lifeless things as though they were alive.3
2 Karl Dahlhaus, “Seconda pratica und musikalische Figurenlehre,” in Claudio Monteverdi: Festschrift Reinhold Hammerstein, ed. L. Finscher (Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 1986), 141–50. Susan McClary, “The Transition from Modal to Tonal Organization in the Works of Monteverdi” (PhD diss., Harvard U., 1976). E.T. Chafe, “Aspects of Durus/Mollis Shift and the Two-System Framework of Monteverdi’s Music,” Schütz-Jahrbuch 1990, 171–206; idem, “Monteverdi’s Tonal Language” (G. Schirmer: New York, 1992) 21–37.
3 Joachim Burmeister, Musica Poetica, trans. Benito Rivera (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993).
11 Other theorists writing in the seventeenth century on rhetoric include the following: Johannes
Lippius (1585–1612), Synopsis musicae nova (Strasbourg, 1612); Johannes Nucius (1556–1620),
Musices practicae (Neisse, 1613); Joachim Thuringus (dates uncertain, born late sixteenth century), Opusculum bipartitum (Berlin, 1624); J.A. Herbst (1588–1666), Musica moderna prattica (Frankfurt, 2/1653) and Musica poetica (Nuremberg, 1643); Athanasius Kircher (1602-
1680): Musurgia universalis (Rome, 1650); and Christoph Bernhard (1628–1692), Tractatus compositionis augmentatus (MS, c. 1657).4 When combined, the rhetorical devices listed in these treatises are substantial. Scholars have differed, however, on how the figures should be employed for analysis. The wealth of contemporary scholarship on musical rhetoric in the first half of the seventeenth century, in conjunction with the fact that Schütz went to visit Venice specifically to study with Monteverdi, suggests that rhetorical analysis can be a valuable tool for analyzing the music of Heinrich Schütz.
Musicologically, Heinrich Schütz’s Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz is a significant work in his compositional output due to the fact that it is the first stand-alone polyphonic setting of the Seven Last Words. It has not been thoroughly analyzed, although models for hexachordal and rhetorical analysis for similar pieces may be found in modern scholarship. This study will use both hexachordal and rhetorical analysis to provide a clearer understanding of Schütz’s apparent expressive intent in his setting of the Seven Last Words. Therefore, because he lived at a time when both Renaissance compositional approaches such as hexachordal word-painting and more modern ways of approaching composition such as the use of musical rhetorical figures were being practiced, Heinrich Schütz’s vocal works have been subjected to multiple types of
4 Blake Wilson, et al., “Rhetoric and Music,” Grove Music Online, accessed August, 2018, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy3.library.arizona.edu/subscriber/article/grove /music/43166.
12 musical analysis by modern scholars. Detailed analysis of how Schütz employed both hexachords and musico-rhetorical figures in his Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz (SWV 478) suggests that both types of analysis can offer useful insights to modern scholars and performers.
13 Review of the Scholarly Literature
Heinrich Schütz’s life and music have been studied in depth. Hans Joachim Moser’s
German-language biography5 of Schütz (along with Carl Friedrich Pfatteicher’s English translation6) is an essential resource to any study of the composer’s music. The work is exhaustively thorough, exploring the music and life of Schütz in great depth. In his book, Moser provides a less detailed and somewhat generic harmonic and rhythm analysis of Schütz’s Da
Jesus an dem Kreuze stund. It is my intent to expand upon Moser’s work through a far more detailed analysis of Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund. I will utilize Moser’s harmonic and rhythmic analysis as a basis for a deeper analysis of the work that shows how harmonic language and rhythmic figures point to Schütz’s rhetorical approach to composition. This critical analysis will allow for a more dramatic reading of the work.
Joshua Rifkin adds to the biographical work of Moser in two works: his chapter in the book North European Baroque Masters7 and his article on Schütz in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.8 Rifkin’s article is the most substantive recent contribution in general biographical Schütz scholarship. Similar to Moser, Rifkin’s scholarship is thorough, combining analysis of musical details with the hermeneutical context of Northern Italy and Dresden in the first half of the seventeenth century. In regard to Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuze, Rifkin provides a brief overview with little analysis. I plan to utilize Rifkin’s research related to
5 Hans Joachim Moser, Heinrich Schütz: Sein Leben Und Werk. (Kassel: Barenreiter-Verlag, 1954).
6 Hans Joachim Moser, Heinrich Schütz: His Life and Work, trans. Carl Friedrich Pfatteicher (Saint Louis: Concordia Publ. House, 1960).
7 Joshua Rifkin, et al. North European Baroque Masters: Schütz, Froberger, Buxtehude, Purcell, Telemann (London: Macmillan, 1985).
8 Joshua Rifkin, et al. “Schütz, Heinrich.” Grove Music Online, accessed August, 2018, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy4.library.arizona.edu/subscriber/article/grove /music/45997
14 Schütz’s time in Northern Italy. Rifkin’s book does touch on the contemporary style of Italian composition, but does not address in detail the rhetorical devices that were in use. I will use
Rifkin’s research as a foundation to provide more detail and depth to the art of rhetorical composition and how studying with masters in the style influenced Schütz’s concept of drama in his compositions.
Basil Smallman’s (1921–2001) contributions9 to the compendium of Schütz biographical scholarship function as a general introduction to the composer and his works. His work does not reach the depth of Moser and Rifkin, but it does address all of Schütz’s major works. His analysis of Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz includes musical excerpts and examples with detailed analysis of the small portions of the movements. The analysis makes only passing reference to rhetorical compositional devices. Though the expanse of these chapters is wide, the tone remains introductory in nature. For my project, I will expand on Smallman’s analysis;
Smallman writes about the work being inherently dramatic in its text and setting, and I will provide context for this argument by drawing out textually focused rhetorical gestures from each movement.
For rhetorical sources, Dietrich Bartel’s (b. 1953) Musica Poetica10 discusses the concept of musica poetica and how rhetorical musical figures fit within the idea. Bartel’s book is an ideal introduction to rhetorical devices in the music of not only Schütz, but of other contemporary
German composers as well. Bartel researches numerous Baroque treatises and publications and traces the use of rhetorical devices from the late sixteenth to early eighteenth centuries in
9 Basil Smallman, The Music of Heinrich Schütz 1585-1672 (Leeds: Mayflower, 1985); Basil Smallman, Schütz (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
10 Dietrich Bartel, Musica Poetica: Musical-Rhetorical Figures in German Baroque Music (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997).
15 Germany. The book contains an exhaustive catalogue of musical examples of rhetorical compositional techniques and also focuses on how these musical figures relate to the ancient art of oratory. Bartel’s book was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 1997. I intend to utilize this work to assist in introducing the concept of musica poetica and how it pertains to rhetorical composition.
In Dietrich Bartel’s article “Ethical gestures,”11 he writes about the ancient art of oratory and how both conceptually and practically oratory was used to inspire compositions of the
German Baroque. Bartel focuses on the education of musicians throughout Germany during the late Renaissance and Baroque periods. His research shows that the training of musicians included the learning of Latin and the power of rhetoric. For musicians across Germany, rhetoric and music were combined to deliver the most heightened form of understanding and intimacy of newly-translated Biblical text. Current thought believed in the power of these devices to teach and move the listener. Bartel makes the argument that some German Baroque music may be considered austere in regard to composition and focus on the ethos or ethics of the composition over all. In his research, Bartel finds that most contemporary treatises regarding rhetoric in
Baroque music focus on the expressive power of these gestures, not on the construction of the gestures themselves. He attributed this to the treatises being written by musicians and composers with intimate knowledge of the practical application of the art of oratory.
John Walter Hill’s (b. 1942) chapter on rhetoric in his book, Baroque Music: Music in
Western Europe, 1580-175012 is a remarkably succinct summary of the topic. Hill does not dwell
11 Dietrich Bartel, “Rhetoric in German Baroque Music: Ethical Gestures,” The Musical Times 144, no. 1885 (Winter 2003): 15-19.
12 John Walter Hill, Baroque Music: Music in Western Europe, 1580-1750 (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005).
16 on the theoretical basis of musica poetica. Instead, he focuses primarily on one area of musica poetica: rhetoric. The general topic of the Doctrine of the Affections and the associated musical- rhetorical figures are largely ignored. Hill describes the systematic approach which was developed in Lutheran Germany that linked literary rhetorical practice and musical rhetoric by equating already existing musical figures with terms adapted from literary rhetoric. He establishes that the vocabulary and method of classical oratory had an influence upon a wide variety of hitherto discrete art forms such as painting and sculpture. Hill claims the use of rhetoric is a powerful indication of how educated people of the time thought about the arts and how the arts were influenced by the turbulent events that surrounded monarchies and religions.
Educated young men would have studied rhetoric as a matter of course in preparation for their future lives as courtiers, diplomats, bureaucrats, lawyers, and preachers because in addition to its practical value, the knowledge of rhetoric could provide undeniable prestige to nobles due to its association with the aristocracy. I will use Hill’s approach to rhetorical analysis as the foundation of my argument.
Blake Wilson’s (b. 1953) Grove article13 explores the relationship between rhetoric and music throughout the late Renaissance and Baroque eras. Wilson’s article explains much of the history and application of rhetoric to music in a very efficient and useful manner. This source provides a thorough overview of rhetorical composition and contains a vast list of rhetorical devices.
It is to be noted that there is a rich history of researching Schütz’s compositional output through the lens of a rhetorical approach. Pieces that scholars have explored in detail include:
13 Blake Wilson, et al, “Rhetoric and Music.” Grove Music Online, accessed August, 2018, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy3.library.arizona.edu/subscriber/article/grove /music/43166.
17 Musikalisches Exequiens,14 Matthäus Passion,15 and Weihnachthistorie.16 Finally, I have decided to align my paper with the work three scholars who have written on the topic of hexachordal harmonic analysis of seventeenth century Northern Italian and German music. Karl Dahlhaus
(1928–1989), Susan McClary (b. 1946), and E.T. Chafe (b. 1946), are well known and well respected in the field of musicology. Each has made a compelling argument that the music of
Claudio Monteverdi and/or Heinrich Schütz is conceptualized at least partially in a hexachordal manner.17 Since the two composers are inextricably linked in stylistic approach, I will utilize
Dahlhaus, McClary, and Chafe’s scholarship to expound on a hexachordal view of the music of
Heinrich Schütz and tie the approach to rhetorical devices utilized in the work.
14 Gregory S. Johnston, “Rhetorical Personification of the Dead in 17th-Century German Funeral Music: Heinrich Schütz's Musikalische Exequien (1636) and Three Works by Michael Wiedemann (1693),” The Journal of Musicology 9, no. 2 (1991): 186-213.
15 Stephen A. Kingsbury, “Rhetoric and Drama in Schütz's St. Matthew Passion,” The Choral Journal 44, no. 3 (2003): 19-33; Joshua Lee Maize, “Musical Rhetoric: An Agency of Expression in Heinrich Schütz's ‘Mätthaeus-Passion’” (DMA Lecture-Recital document, University of Missouri Kansas City, 2011).
16 Lois Clapp Musmann, “Rhetoric and Performance Practice in the ‘Weihnachtshistorie’ of Heinrich Schütz” (DMA Lecture-Recital document, University of Southern California, 1989).
17 Karl Dahlhaus, “Seconda pratica und musikalische Figurenlehre,” in Claudio Monteverdi: Festschrift Reinhold Hammerstein, ed. L. Finscher (Laaber, 1986), 141–50; Susan McClary, “The Transition from Modal to Tonal Organization in the Works of Monteverdi” (Phd. Diss., Harvard University, 1976); E.T. Chafe, “Aspects of Durus/Mollis Shift and the Two-System Framework of Monteverdi’s Music,” Schütz-Jahrbuch 1990, 171–206; idem, “Monteverdi’s Tonal Language” (G. Schirmer: New York, 1992): 21–37.
18 Methodology
This paper will provide a combinative rhetorical and hexachordal understanding of Die
Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478. Here, combinative simply refers to a combination of rhetorical and hexachordal analyses. Originally, rhetorical figures were used to persuade the listener toward the emotional content or argument of the speaker. Upon the rediscovery of rhetoric during the Renaissance, this same thought process was eventually directed towards musical composition. There are rhetorical tools that can be recognized without harmonic context such as instance climax or auxesis. These devices are linear in nature and do not require analysis of the surrounding material. However, a large number of musico-rhetorical gestures may be expressed through vertical harmony apart from or in addition to linear content.
For this reason, when writing about rhetorical composition anything less than a combinative analysis will be incomplete and not show the full rhetorical context of the work. This paper aims to illuminate rhetorical devices used in the piece, provide harmonic analysis, and conjoin the two analytic schools of thought to demonstrate a comprehensive rhetorical reading of the work.
When analyzing a work from a rhetorical standpoint, it is critical to acknowledge and clarify the many methods of rhetorical analysis. All of the following perspectives are justifiable when approaching a work rhetorically, and I will utilize a combination of analytical tools throughout this paper to present a more holistic argument. However, I have chosen to align with
John Walter Hill’s cohesive structural view of rhetoric on multiple levels for my analysis of
Schütz’s Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz.
One of the subjective aspects of rhetorical analysis relates to the intent of the composer.
Infrequently, we are fortunate to have contemporary sources, written documents, or score markings that reveal intent. Often, though, this is not the case and we cannot truly know a
19 composer’s compositional mindset. The balancing act of determining intent is at the heart of Ron
James Anderson’s (b. 1950) approach to analysis of rhetorical composition. In “The Arts of
Persuasion: Musical Rhetoric in the Keyboard Genres of Dietrich Buxtehude” (DMA document,
University of Arizona, 2012), Anderson proposes that intent should be the first thing considered and argues that all rhetorical analysis should be prefaced with the question, “What is the persuasive aim of the speech or composition?”18 Once intent is established, Anderson suggests a second prompt, “What are the rhetorical means by which the composer achieves his goals of persuasion?”19 This portion of the analysis requires an intimate knowledge of rhetorical compositional devices and unifying stylistic features of the genre that is being studied. Anderson states, “As in speech, different styles of music have different functions, intended audiences and means of persuasion. This persuasion has three main goals: to establish a connection between a speaker and the audience, to bring about an emotional response, and to increase the profile of an idea.”20
In Heinrich Schütz’s Die Sieben Worte Jesus Christi am Kreuz, the intent of the piece can be logically deduced from Schütz’s choice of textual materials to serve as bookends of the work.
As noted above, Schütz’s settings of the Seven Last Words was the first stand-alone polyphonic setting outside of the traditional Passion setting. Schütz chooses to set the Seven Last Words within the framework of text taken from the opening and closing stanzas of Johannes
Böschenstein’s (1472–1539) nine-stanza chorale Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund. This is a clever
18 Ron James Anderson, “The Arts of Persuasion: Musical Rhetoric in the Keyboard Genres of Dieterich Buxtehude” (DMA Lecture-Recital document, University of Arizona, 2012), 39.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
20 choice as it mirrors Böchenstein’s chorale, which features a stanza for each of the seven last words of Christ within the framework of the opening and closing stanzas of the chorale. The text of the opening and closing stanzas are as follows:
Stanza 1: Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund Jesus on the cross stood und ihm sein Leichnam war verwund’t and his body was wounded sogar mit bittern Schmerzen, so with bitter pain, die sieben Wort, die Jesus sprach, the seven words that Jesus spoke, betracht in deinem Herzen. consider in your heart.
Stanza 9: Wer Gottes Marter in Ehren hat Those who honor the martyrdom of God und oft gedenkt der sieben Wort, and often remember the seven words, deß will Gott gar eben pflegen, God will certainly take care of, wohl hie auf Erd mit seiner Gnad, here on earth through his grace, und dort in dem ewigen Leben. and find in them everlasting life.
These chorale stanzas implore the listener to consider the seven last words in their heart and promise that those who do so often will reap the benefits of grace and everlasting life. For the purposes of this analysis, we might thus reasonably interpret this as the intent behind Heinrich
Schütz’s composition. As to the methods of inspiring this contemplation through rhetorical devices, here we must examine micro-rhetorical analysis strategies.
Researchers studying rhetoric in musical works often employ a methodology that identifies and examines specific musical rhetorical figures that correlate to rhetorical figures of spoken oratory. These correlations were well established in early seventeenth century Germany, to the point where numerous contemporary theorists wrote on the topic. However, there was disagreement as to how these figures were to be used. Joachim Burmeister’s treatise Musica
Poetica (1606)21 is the first extant publication to include a vocabulary of musical figures in
21 Massimo Ossi, “Review of Musical Poetics by Joachim Burmeister,” Integral 8 (1994): 205–13.
21 relation to their rhetorical counterparts. The work also discusses musica poetica and how compositions can enhance and evoke emotions through the use of rhetorical devices. This approach to rhetorical composition and analysis has served as a foundation for several modern schools of thought.
One prominent modern school of musical rhetorical thought is that of Dietrich Bartel.
Bartel adds a layer of nuance to his analyses by incorporating the concept of musica poetica. He argues that existing documents on musica poetica have practical applications for composers.
Thus, it is astute to look deeper than individual or micro musical rhetorical devices and to examine the overarching compositional process. Bartel argues that the process by which composers wrote would more clearly elucidate their intent. This form of analysis includes a deep study of the text source and conventions in order to assess how a composer set the key, mode, tempo, meter, rhythm, and text.
Expanding on Bartel, Bettina Varwig argues that musica poetica can be studied at the micro level as well. Varwig’s research is based on the work of Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–
1533). Erasmian analysis maintains that compositional procedures including variation and amplification can point to a more cohesive reading of the rhetorical goals of the composer.
Varwig notes that by recognizing fundamental creative patterns it is possible to move past singular moments of affect to interconnected elements of affect throughout a composition. In her dissertation Expressive Forms: Rethinking Rhetoric in the Music of Heinrich Schütz, she states:
One can uncover patterns of thinking (and possibly hearing) as well as central aesthetic priorities that underpinned the composition and reception of Schutz’s music, and which can in turn form the basis for a current re-hearing and re- evaluation of the formal and expressive dimensions of this repertory. This approach initially requires a fairly uncontroversial overview of contemporary discussions regarding form and phrases, which for the most part drew on rhetorical concepts and terminology adapted to the musical domain; but it then
22 relies primarily on a thorough rethinking of this well-worn analogy between music and rhetoric which, based on a broadened view of what Renaissance oratory consisted in, can work as a much more potent tool for interpreting seventeenth-century musical composition.22
Though this analytical style is compelling, it often requires a modern decision on intent, which lends it a subjective nature.
John Walter Hill’s approach to rhetorical analysis is more structurally based and stands secure within extant documents of musical-rhetorical compositional devices. His method draws a correlation between the structural forms of musical works and those of classic oratory.23 He argues that the five elements of classic oratory structure (invention, disposition, elocution, memory, and delivery) are often evident in the musical compositions of the time as well. Hill does not stop with macro structure, however; he also analyses music at the micro level with exhaustive lists of musical rhetorical devices. As noted above, Hill has compiled an extensive catalogue of musical rhetorical devices that will serve as the foundation of micro analysis in this paper.
As there are variations in extant documents on the execution of musical rhetoric, I find it important to consider Schütz’s Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz from multiple perspectives.
No single form of rhetorical analysis can elucidate a complete understanding of the work. For the purpose of this paper, I will focus on structural and compositional devices that illuminate in a more objective way the rhetorical properties of this piece.
It is also important to note that I will be providing harmonic and rhetorical analysis of
Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz through the use of the hexachordal harmonic approach.
22 Bettina Varwig, “Expressive Forms: Rethinking Rhetoric in the Music of Heinrich Schütz” (PhD. diss., Harvard University, 2006).
23 John Walter Hill, Baroque Music: Music in Western Europe, 1580-1750 (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005).
23 Though there is debate on the best way to harmonically analyze Schütz’s music, I am persuaded by the scholarship of Dahlhaus, McClary, and Chafe among others, who have argued for the importance of a hexachordal reading. Schütz shows proclivities towards tonality, this work could even be argued to occur in the key of E minor. However, I believe that a combination of arguments precludes a total tonal reading of the piece. First, Schütz frequently uses retrogression in descending diatonic “tonal” centers. This shows that a functional view of tonality was not omnipresent in the work. Also, this piece is composed before the advent of just intonation and has parts written specifically for instruments. His use of hard sonorities, such as F-sharp – A- sharp – C-sharp, point to a hexachordal painting of the text. It is important to note that there are no prescribed hexachords for specific emotions in contemporaneous treatises, however there are generalizations. The soft side of the hexachord system represented what were deemed softer emotions and the hard side represented harsher emotions. This use of hexachords to portray emotional content could manifest in either relative — dramatic movement towards the harder or softer side — or more concrete ways — setting a piece, or a single word, in a specific hexachord.
24 Analysis of Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478: Introitus
The first component of classic oratory structure is that of invention. In invention, the speaker would decide on the content of the speech and the strategies by which the content would be delivered. For composers, invention refers to deciding the basic purposes, features, and motives of a work. These could include texts, structure or form, performing forces, tonicized areas, tempi, or any device that could be utilized to bring rhetorical cohesion to the piece. One intriguing aspect of Schütz’s setting is his ordering of the seven last words. Due to the text originating from multiple gospels, it is impossible to determine absolute chronology of the seven last words of Christ. Schütz’s setting differs from that of other composers in that it flips the order of the second and third words — in opposition to now-established convention. It is impossible to know if this was intentionally done for the sake of the rhetorical argument or as a discrepancy in believed chronology.
The primary rhetorical goal of Heinrich Schütz’s Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz would appear to be to persuade the listener regarding the veracity of the crucifixion story and to contemplate the profound spiritual implications of the moment. Schütz approaches this task on multiple levels in his composition taking into consideration the rhetorically cohesive structure of the work and painting it with targeted rhetorical devices within movements. In order to speak with authority on the issue, Schütz opens his piece with an exordium that serves multiple functions.
The second component of classic oratory structure is disposition, in which the orator organizes the speech utilizing common parts of a traditional design. In music, this reveals itself through standardized portions of rhetoric, of which the first is the exordium. The exordium in classic oratory served to attract the audience’s attention and implore them to view the subsequent
25 argument favorably. A classic example of rhetorical exordium would be, “Friends, Romans, and countrymen, lend me your ears!24”
Schütz sets the text from the first stanza of Böchenstein’s chorale in his exordium for
Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz. Though a chorale tune for this text was widely in use in
Germany in the early seventeenth century, Schütz wrote his own material. The introitus is set in a quasi-functional E minor, but also utilizes harmonic figures from the hard hexachord, which points to the emotional impact of Jesus’ crucifixion. The piece opens with the soprano singing alone on the note E on the text da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund,25 forecasting the harmonic center of the piece (Musical Example 1). A half note after the soprano entrance, the alto and two tenor
Musical Example 1. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 47826, “Introitus,” mm. 1–4.
24 William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (Indianapolis: Focus, an Imprint of Hackett Publishing Company, 2018), Ed. Jan H. Blits.
25 Translations of German texts have been provided by the author of this paper.
26 Heinrich Schütz, “Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund, 1645,” in Heinrich Schütz: Neue Ausgabe Sämtlicher Werke, eds. W. Bittinger, W. Breig, W. Ehmann, and others (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1955), 3–28.
26 parts join the texture to impact upon the audience the weight of the text and provide harmonic context. In typical Schützian fashion, although the entrances are offset, the text is set perfectly for text stress and intelligibility.
The first iteration of text concludes with a half cadence on a B – D-sharp – F-sharp sonority. The first tenors, who sing d-sharp in the cadence, return less than a half note later with a D-natural placing the softer version of the cadence in stark contrast. This happens numerous times throughout the introitus where Schütz cadences in a harder version of a sonority and quickly softens it with a movement of a semitone in a middle voice. Effectively this is a cross relation held within the same voice part. After the cadence, the middle voices continue with the next line of text with three anacrustic quarter notes leading to the word Leichnam, or body. In what could be argued as a nod to a lament convention, the melodic content of these lines includes a single rising note followed by a series of descending notes. Upon the next entrance of the sopranos, Schütz provides a sterling example of musical gradatio27 — a rhetorical device containing material mounting in degrees through words of increasing weight and in parallel construction.28 Melodically the material in the soprano line parallels the construction of their opening melody. Structurally, Schütz emphasizes the increase in gradation by adding the bass voice and attaining a five-voice texture for the first time in the piece. Harmonically, Schütz increases the dramatic angst of the text by vacillating between different strata of chords in the hard hexachord system. On the word Kreuz (cross) Schütz provides the most dissonant harmony of the piece thus far with an E – G-sharp – C sonority. Immediately following, all voices move
27 Glossary on page 71 contains definitions of all musico-rhetorical terms used in the paper.
28 All definitions of rhetorical devices have been taken from: John Walter Hill, Baroque Music: Music in Western Europe, 1580-1750 (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2005); Blake Wilson, et al., “Rhetoric and Music,” Grove Music Online, accessed August, 2018, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy3.library.arizona.edu/subscriber/ article/grove /music/43166.
27 back to a comparatively softened version of the hard hexachord until they cadence from a D – F
– A sonority to an E – G-sharp – B sonority, a chord plucked from the quadruply hard hexachord29 (Musical Example 2).
In the second line of text, und ihm sein Leichnam war verwund’t (and his body was wounded), Schütz sets the text relative to the natural hexachord. Schütz repeats the text twice and each time the only word to get special treatment is verwund’t, or wounded. In the first iteration of the text the word is set briefly in dissonance that pops out of the texture of the natural hexachord for a brief quarter note and returns immediately. The second iteration, however, is quite dissonant with verwund’t set to a suspended cadential figure from E – G-sharp – B that resolves to A – C-sharp – E, a movement from the natural to triply hard hexachord in the course
Musical Example 2. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Introitus,” mm. 9–11.
29 This terminology is credited to Dr. John Brobeck. Throughout this analysis I will use the terms “doubly hard,” “triply hard,” “quadruply hard,” etc. to modify “hexachord.” As discussed earlier in the paper, Schütz composed Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz during a time of transition in regard to European approach to harmony. Because of this, there are elements of pre-tonal thinking in his composition. Dr. Brobeck’s terminology reflects the specific circumstances of this moment in music history. For each degree of gradation of hexachord, one simply transposes a fifth and begins the hexachord pattern on the new pitch — i.e. “doubly hard” would begin on D, “triply hard” on A, “quadruply hard” on E, etc. This pattern closely resembles the tonal circle of fifths, of which the hexachord system was a pre-cursor.
28 of one cadence. Similar to the cadence of the first line of text, Schütz softens the cadence immediately with a cross relation in the alto line.
The third line of the chorale text is sogar mit bittern Schmerzen (so with bitter pain).
Here Schütz again uses three descending anacrustic quarter notes to approach Schmerzen
(Musical Example 3). The setting of the word Schmerzen reveals another example of gradatio.
Similar to the first example, Schütz sets the line of text twice with the second iteration provided more dramatic structural, melodic, and harmonic construction. Where the first iteration of the text has four voice parts singing, the reiteration has all five. The melodic content is similar, but
Schütz augments the reiteration of the melody in the alto and first tenor parts while inverting the melodic content of the first tenor. At this moment the harmony increases in gradation to the most dissonant chord in the work. The first cadence of Schmerzen resolves from an E – G – B sonority to a B – D-sharp – F-sharp sonority. The second cadence resolves from a B – D-sharp – F-sharp
Musical Example 3. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Introitus,” mm. 19–24.
29 sonority to an F-sharp – A-sharp – C-sharp sonority, a chord remarkably taken from the sextuply hard hexachord. Schütz also utilizes the rhetorical concepts of apocope — cutting off discourse abruptly — and aposiopesis — dramatic breaks in a continuing phrase — within this section of music. Schütz frequently uses aposiopesis when he repeats text in order to set the reiteration properly for intelligibility. In the soprano and first tenor lines, Schütz wrote two iterations of the word sogar (so) with one immediately following the next. In order to match his music to rhetoric, Schütz writes in rests between the iteration to assist in intelligibility. This compositional device is common in dramatic works of Schütz and will come back frequently in the monody sections of the work.
The final two lines of the chorale stanza comprise half of the musical content of the
Introitus. Schütz’s setting of the text die Sieben Worte die Jesus sprach, betracht in deinem
Herzen (the seven words that Jesus spoke, consider in your heart) is filled with rhetorical composition. Schütz introduces the rhetorical concept of conduplicatio — repetition of a word or words in succeeding clauses for amplification or to express emotion — in the fact that he sets these lines with three repetitions of the text. In conjunction with the conduplicatio there are elements of gradatio, however they are less prominent than earlier examples. Melodically, the anacrustic quarter notes return on the words die Sieben and betracht in, but this time the melodic material is three repeated notes followed by an ascension. The harmony provides three cadences on the word Herzen, the first on A – C-sharp – E, the second on D – F-sharp – A, and the final on
E – G-sharp – B. Structurally, the first cadence contains four voices and the second and third cadences utilize all five voices with an augmented and decorated cadence at the end of the movement. In addition to the conduplicatio Schütz utilizes a coincidence in the text to vividly paint the rhetorical device of homoioleuton — a series of words with like endings. With the
30 words sprach and betracht placed together with the conjoining of the final two lines, Schütz is able to implement this rhetorical device. Finally, Schütz demonstrates his mastery of textual clarity with his setting of the final two lines of the stanza. For the first time in the piece there is true homophonic iterations of texts on the words die Sieben Wort die Jesus sprach in two, three, and four voice textures (Musical Example 4). These homophonic sections are punctuated with rhythmically condensed entrances as Schütz uses each voice part to implore his audience to consider the weight of Jesus’ last seven words. With the closely offset entrances, this technique comes across as iteratio — repetition for vehemence (Musical Example 5).
Musical Example 4. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Introitus,” mm. 40–44.
31 Musical Example 5. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Introitus,” mm. 35–39.
32 Analysis of Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478:
First Word, Luke 23: 24
Heinrich Schütz makes creative use of the performing forces in Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz. At the time of composition, conventions of Passion settings had been well codified.
Two of these conventions related to the characters of Evangelist and Jesus. Where most composers set Jesus as a bass voice and the Evangelist as a Tenor voice, Schütz breaks from convention and sets Jesus as a tenor voice and the Evangelist as an assortment of performers including soloists, duets, and even a four-voice texture. Schütz also sets Jesus within an unconventional approach to the conventional halo surrounding his character. Though these alterations to convention proved major changes to the genre, the framework of the piece and the utilization of certain shared stylistic features would have provided substantive ethos for the work.
According to Aristotle and the ancient Greeks, ethos, logos, and pathos were the three means by which a person could be persuaded in an argument aside from rational thought. Ethos was linked to the concept of credibility, an important aspect of persuading any argument.
According to some musicologists, composers at the height of rhetorical composition would find genre-specific ways to build credibility for their musical argument. Ron James Anderson writing in his lecture recital document states:
In music, ethos can be built by means of evoking tradition, by referring to suitable styles, or quoting known themes. The use of familiar forms, such as dance suites, would have produced an ethos-building effect during the Baroque era. Drawing upon these traditions, composers were able to speak easily with their audiences, while attaching new messages and meanings to forms with which their listeners were comfortable and knowledgeable.30
30 Ron James Anderson, “The Arts of Persuasion: Musical Rhetoric in the Keyboard Genres of Dieterich Buxtehude” (DMA Lecture-Recital doc., University of Arizona, 2012).
33 In Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, though Schütz stretches the genre conventions of the
Passion, the conventions are present and create a foundation of ethos and would have allowed
Schütz to speak authoritatively. The opening music for the Evangelist in Sieben Worte Jesu
Christi am Kreuz provides a fine example.
The first words of the Evangelist open the rhetorical portion of the narratio, or narration.
Schütz starts the narration with the Evangelist performed by an alto, a break from convention.
However, he accounts for this departure from convention by setting the opening words themselves in the most conventional way possible, to emblemize chant. The opening text is Und es warum die dritte Stunde (And it was the third hour), a very direct statement of fact. Schütz sets this to sound like a reciting tone with the entirety of the text set on the pitch of G except for the small pre-cadential movement to an f-sharp on the penultimate syllable (Musical Example 6).
It is obvious that the text is set with textual clarity and stress in mind. The harmonic structure of this phrase consists of a sustained E – G – B sonority with no motion, just rearticulation.
Musical Example 6. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “First Word,” mm. 1–3.
After establishing logos with the nod to past conventions, Schütz veers dramatically to a new approach that better expresses the agony of the next phrase: da sie Jesum kreuzigten (that they crucified Jesus). Schütz utilizes a rest to set the words da sie as eighth notes providing rhythmic momentum into the word Jesum. Harmonically as this is happening, the once-static E –
G – B sonority moves drastically to an A – C-sharp – E sonority on the first syllable of Jesum
34 followed quickly by a D – F-sharp – A sonority on the second syllable. This is a marked difference from the E – G – B sonority of the earlier statement of fact. Effectively, Schütz has painted the agony of crucifixion with a sudden and unprepared movement to a cadential figure in the doubly hard hexachord (Musical Example 7). As the phrase continues, the harmony stays within the doubly hard hexachord while utilizing a suspension figure in the basso continuo providing even more drama.
Musical Example 7. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “First Word,” mm. 4–6.
The Evangelist text for the first word finishes with a simple text er aber sprach (and he said). Schütz again utilizes a softening of a hard cadential point for this text. After using A – C- sharp – E throughout the previous line of text, Schütz starts the new text with an A – C – E sonority. The A – C – E sonority moves the listener to a B – D-sharp – F-sharp sonority with a suspension figure that cadences back on E – G – B. This passage illustrates why Schütz’s music is difficult to study from a harmonic standpoint. In this short portion of music there is a chant- like recitation of the first portion of the text, a chromatic setting of the second portion of text, and then a fully functional cadential movement on the final portion of the text. One thing that unifies the words is a particular attention to text clarity and stress. This only breaks down in the cadential movement at the end when Schütz misaccentuates the word aber incorrectly and adorns it with a suspended cadential figure in order to set up the anguish of Jesus on the cross (Musical
Example 8).
35 Musical Example 8. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “First Word,” mm. 4–8.
Schütz sets the words of Jesus in a very dramatic fashion through the use of musical rhetoric. Schütz provides the character of Jesus with a unique orchestration: tenor soloist, two violins, and basso continuo. No other character in Schütz’s passion settings gets this treatment, not even other versions of Jesus. Later in the Baroque this halo of strings around Jesus recitative would become codified and used by many German composers. Schütz’s use of the strings is different than those that would follow, however. Where Bach and others use the strings to provide an extra layer of harmonic structure around the recitative, Schütz uses the strings as an active melodic tool to enhance the dialogue of Jesus. For the word Vater (father), the first word spoken by Jesus, the strings enhance the dramatic rhetorical setting by forecasting the melodic line of Jesus (Musical Example 9). This has the effect of enhancing the tension of the moment through anticipation.
Musical Example 9. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “First Word,” mm. 9–12.
36 Though the treatment of the strings fortifies Schütz’s rhetoric and enhanced drama, Jesus delivers the foundation of the rhetorical devices. In his setting of the Biblical text Schütz takes small liberties in having Jesus say Vater three times, where the original account in Luke only has a single Vater. Schütz makes this choice in order to utilize rhetorical devices to inspire the listener emotionally. The three settings of Vater are each comprised of a falling minor third with a quarter rest between each setting. Schütz’s setting demonstrates numerous rhetorical affects
(Musical Example 9). The setting utilizes the rhetorical concept of epizeuxis — an emphatic repetition of a word with no other words between. Also, each repetition of the text occurs at a higher pitch level than the one prior, an example of gradatio. The difference in pitch levels is not consistent, however. The second iteration sounds a third higher than the original, and the third repetition occurs a half step above the second. This is a demonstration of synonymia — the repetition of a melodic idea on different notes in the same part. And finally, the treatment of the second and third iterations is an example of climax or auxesis – a repetition of a melody in the same part a second higher. All of this impressive rhetorical treatment is composed this way to set the listener up for the words that are to follow: vergib ihnen denn sie wissen nicht was sie tun
(forgive them, for they know not what they do).
Emerging from the quasi-functional E minor of the Vater setting, Schütz paints the rest of the syngnomine phrase — forgiveness of injuries — in the hard hexachord. To accomplish this,
Schütz uses a B – D-sharp – F-sharp sonority on the word ihnen to pivot to the quadruply hard hexachord. The treatment of the violins also changes at this moment from foreshadowing melodic intent to imitating the melody of Jesus’ recitative. On the text denn sie wissen nicht
Schütz again takes liberty with the Biblical text, setting the words twice for emphasis. Similar to other rhetorical treatment, the melodic material is rearticulated a third higher, enhancing the
37 drama of the text through the use of gradation and synonymia. Schütz also utilizes aposiopesis in the rests between each iteration. By the time the first word of Christ is over, Schütz has cadenced back in the original quasi-E minor tonal center of the piece.
38 Analysis of Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478:
Second Word, John 19: 26–27
The second of the last words of Christ is set by Schütz with a tenor serving as the narrator. Schütz rearticulates the quasi-E minor sonority to begin the passage, however he changes slightly the range and tessitura of the narration. Whereas the setting of the first word began on G — the effective third of the minor sonority — the second word begins on B and ascends to a D on the text, Es stund aber bei dem Kreuze (there stood, however, beneath the cross). The text setting again shows Schütz valuing textual clarity as he writes in a way that emphasizes the stress of the important nouns and verbs while giving shorter note durations to articles and prepositions. In addition to the speech-like nature of the text, Schütz also utilizes musico-rhetorical and harmonic figures to more vividly paint the narration. The word stund
(stood) is set on the longest note duration of the passage using hypotyposis — mimicry of acts only, not of manners or feelings — to depict the stasis. Schütz uses hypotyposis again shortly thereafter with the narration ascending to D on the word Kreuze (cross), depicting the heightened state of Jesus on the cross from the point of view of Mary and her group (Musical Example 10).
Musical Example 10. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Second Word,” mm. 1–5.
Though Schütz uses melodic and rhythmic figures to depict the acts themselves, he paints the emotions of the moment with a hexachordal treatment. After a move to the hard hexachord on the word Kreuze, Schütz introduces two dissonant tritone harmonies on the word Jesu. The first
39 of these consists of a B – D – F sonority followed immediately by a wrenching G# – B – D – F while the narrator holds a D pitch to create a tritone dissonance with the basso continuo line.
Schütz concludes this line of text, seine Mutter (Jesus’ mother), with a cadential figure that uses the minor equivalent to the natural hexachord A – C – E to move back to E – G – B. This movement from G# – B – D – F directly to the natural hexachord shows a softening of the emotional content on the stressed syllable of Mutter.
The next portion of text is a listing of those accompanying Jesus’ mother beneath the cross: und seiner Mutter Schwester, Maria, Cleophas Weib, und Maria Magdalena (and his mother’s sister, Mary — wife of Cleophas — and Mary Magdalene). Schütz sets most of this portion within the natural and hard hexachord with slight deviations towards the harder side of the hexachord system in the monodic voice. It is impressive to note the speech-like clarity that
Schütz promotes in this section. It is composed with special attention to text stress and vocal inflection tied to punctuation. On the text, Da nun Jesus seine Mutter sahe und den Jünger dabei stehen, den er lieb hatte (When Jesus saw his mother and near her the young man he had loved),
Schütz employs hexachords to again paint the emotions of the moment. He begins the phrase with the doubly hard hexachord and uses two cadences to soften the emotional content. The first cadence on the words Mutter sahe (saw his mother) moves from the natural to the hard hexachords. The second cadence, upon the mention of John — the young man he had loved — moves from the hard hexachord to the natural hexachord, thus moving the music two hexachords from where it started. This softening of the emotions upon seeing both his mother and John is a short-lived moment, since Schütz follows by painting the agonized effort of Jesus speaking to them.
40 As is typical throughout this piece, Schütz saves his most dramatic efforts for the words of Christ. In this instance Jesus is speaking the words, Weib, siehe, das ist dein Sohn (Woman, behold, this is your son). Similar to the first word of Christ, Schütz takes liberties with Martin
Luther’s translation of the Bible by repeating words for emphasis. In this iteration of the text there are three separate repeated texts on the words Weib, siehe, and dein Sohn. These are clear examples of epizeuxis and conduplicatio (Musical Example 11). In addition to these musico- rhetorical gestures, Schütz continues in his effort to paint the stilted speech pattern of Jesus as he is being crucified by using apocope and aposiopesis (Musical Example 11). Schütz’s harmonic language also expresses the emotional text. Schütz begins this portion in the quadruply hard hexachord and moves through iterations of the quintuply and triply hard hexachords within the first two words as Jesus gets his mother’s attention. After this dramatic opening (which could be
Musical Example 11. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Second Word,” mm. 21–27.
classified as exuscitatio — an emotional utterance that moves hearers to like feelings), Schütz uses the musico-rhetorical device of adtenuata — a weakened or reduced utterance. The first use of adtenuata occurs on the repeat of the word siehe (behold). The first iteration of the word is set in the triply hard hexachord while the repeat is set shortly thereafter in the hard hexachord providing a reduced utterance. The same happens with the words dein Sohn (your son) where
41 Schütz sets the first utterance in the doubly and hard hexachords while the second utterance is reduced emotionally in the natural and hard hexachords (Musical Example 11).
After a brief intercession from the narrator, Schütz continues with Jesus’ second word in a way that closely mimics his setting of the first word. Similar to the setting of the first word, this portion begins with the upper strings forecasting the melodic content of Jesus. In addition, the harmonic language is identical to the opening of the first word, however the melodic content is slightly altered. Schütz also uses the same musico-rhetorical devices of epizeuxis, gradatio, synonimia, and climax/auxesis and employs them in the same manner as the setting of the first word (Musical Examples 9, 12). On the text, siehe, das ist deine Mutter (behold, this is your mother) Schütz incorporates elements of rhetoric that mirror the first half of the setting of the second word of Christ. In this instance the textual thought is not broken through apocope or aposiopesis, but it is still repeated in a clear example of iteratio and conduplicatio. In addition,
Schütz uses the range of the melodic content to produce adtenuata by having the reiteration of the text occur at lower pitch levels than the original.
Musical Example 12. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Second Word,” mm. 32–35.
42 Analysis of Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478:
Third Word, Luke 23:43
Heinrich Schütz’s setting of the third word features the Evangelist as a soprano. This is the third distinct voice part to serve as Evangelist in the first three words of Christ and provides a distinct break from the convention of the time. The beginning of the narration is unremarkable except for the treatment of the word Übeltäter (thief or criminal). Schütz sets the word to jagged, stilted rhythms compared to the rest of the line of text — a rhythmic approach that also uses when setting the thief’s own words. He also paints the stressed syllable of the word with a dissonant interval of a seventh between the basso continuo line and the note of the Evangelist.
The harmonic language remains within the hard and natural hexachord for the first portion of the narration, but changes drastically for the second portion. On the text, lästert ihnen und sprach
(insulted him by saying), Schütz provides a cadential figure that makes heavy use of the quintuply hard hexachord to cadence in the quadruply hard hexachord. The cadence also features elements of retrogression, cadencing from D – F-sharp – A to E – G-sharp – B. This combination of rhythmic and harmonic approach not only portrays the harshness of the thief’s words, but also anticipates his taunting of Jesus (Musical Examples 13, 14).
Musical Example 13. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Third Word,” mm. 1–7.
Schütz casts the Schächer zur Linken (thief on the left) as an Ultschlüssel (literally: above the key or supreme key), which scholars and performers recognize as a tenor. As mentioned
43 previously, this character is set in a highly dramatic way and portrays the rhetorical act of sarcasmus — a bitter taunt or jibe. Schütz paints the emotions of the character through his rhythmic and harmonic material. Using the rhetorical device admonitio — reminding or recalling to mind — Schütz uses rhythmic and harmonic ideas introduced in the preceding narration
(Musical Examples 13, 14). The jagged dotted rhythms used to deliver the word Übeltäter return
Musical Example 14. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Third Word,” mm. 8–13.
to paint the thief’s bitter jaunt, bist du Christus? (aren’t you the Christ?). This time, Schütz repeats the stilted rhythmic delivery three times in another use of iteratio and conduplicatio.
Schütz also uses admonitio in his hexachordal approach to the harmonic and melodic content.
After using the quintuply hard hexachord in the preceding cadential figure, Schütz recalls the same quintuply hard hexachord for the apex of the thief’s taunt on the word Christus. He follows this with a softening of the hexachord on each reiteration of the challenge until Schütz places the final iteration in the natural hexachord, thus providing a harmonic adtenuata. Schütz breaks the three taunts apart from each other but melds the final taunt directly into the first iteration of the next portion of text, so hilf dir selbst (so help yourself). Here Schütz takes further dramatic liberties with Luther’s translation and repeats the text dir selbst three times. Each repetition is set at a higher pitch level in an example of gradatio, iteratio, and conduplicatio. Schütz uses a break between these iterations, and again elides the final iteration with the following words of the thief, und uns (and yourself). In observing the careful setting of the text rhythmically and
44 harmonically, it is clear that Schütz is considering the delivery of the text for clarity in both text stress and emotional content in his musical settings.
Following the goading of the Schächer zur Linken, the soprano narrator recites the text, da antwortete der ander, strafte ihn und sprach (but the other replied, rebutting him). Similar to the previous Evangelist material the first portion of this narration is found in the natural and hard hexachords. In the second portion, strafte ihn und sprach, Schütz paints the coming sarcastic rebuttal with a cadence in the quintuply hard hexachord. Schütz approaches the transition to the
Schächer zur Rechten (thief on the right) differently than all other monodic sections thus far by beginning his material in the same quintuply hard hexachord of the previous cadence instead of returning to the center of quasi-E minor. In this passage Schütz once more demonstrates elements of iteratio and conduplicatio with his repeated setting of the text, und du? (and you?).
The first und du cadences on E minor with the bass singing a rising fourth from B to E. This is followed by a use of apocope as the bass and continuo go completely silent before returning for the second iteration. The second iteration is similar to the first, but Schütz this time cadences in the quadruply hard hexachord of E major — a jarring harmonic break from the previous E minor
(Musical Example 15). This harmonic shift combined with the syncopated setting provide an
Musical Example 15. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Third Word,” mm. 19–22.
example of sarcasmus. From here Schütz has the bass descend to a low G-sharp on another syncopated gesture and follows with an eventual ascent to E on the question, fürchtet dich auch
45 nicht vor Gott? (do you not believe in God?). This question and the preceding are examples of the rhetorical device erotesis — a rhetorical question implying strong affirmation or denial.
Schütz makes creative use of admonitio in a following portion of material for the
Schächer zur Rechten. On the texts, und zwar wir sind billig darinnen (we are punished justly) and denn wir empfangen, was unsre Taten wert (for we receive the fruits of our action), Schütz uses the same jagged rhythmic figure from the Evangelist and Schächer zur Linken (Musical
Examples 14, 15, 16). The first rhythmic admonitio links the words billig and darinnen,
Musical Example 16. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Third Word,” mm. 25–28.
referencing the justified punishment of an earlier crime. The second admonitio links the words wir and empfangen showing the receipt of consequences. The cadence at the end of this phrase uses the doubly and triply hard hexachords, but cadences in a quasi-functional D minor — after previously using F-sharp. The material following the cadence is further softened to the natural hexachord before the Schächer zur Rechten sings the next line of text, dieser aber, hat nichts
Ungeschichtes gehandelt (but this one, his acts were not wrong). Here Schütz again uses gradatio, iteratio, and conduplicatio by repeating the text dieser aber — the first time in the natural hexachord and a second time in the hard hexachord at a higher pitch level. Schütz uses the following cadence to paint the unjustness of Christ’s crucifixion. After setting the text in the natural and hard
46 hexachords, Schütz moves dramatically to a pre-cadential suspension figure in the quintuply hard hexachord on the word gehandelt (acts), thus painting the harsh judgment meted out (Musical
Example 17).
Following the Evangelist’s brief interjection to direct the conversation toward Jesus,
Schütz sets the Schächer zur Rechten in a passage rich with musico-rhetorical devices. The text,
Herr, gedenke an mich (Jesus, remember me) is set in a way that represents mempsis — pleading
Musical Example 17. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Third Word,” mm. 30–35.
for help. First, Schütz uses diacope — repetition of a word with other words in between — two times with the repeated word Herr bookending gedenke an mich. In addition to diacope Schütz uses harmonic and melodic gradatio as the music starts in the hard hexachord and eventually cadences in the quadruply hard hexachord after three iterations of the text. Finally, Schütz uses a dramatic and pleading rhythmic figure with a rapid succession of notes to paint the words gedenke an mich. This shows the strong desire for help from the Schächer zur Rechten.
Immediately following the third iteration, Schütz uses a common tone E pitch to move to the natural hexachord, softening the harmonic language for the text wenn du in dein Reich kommst
(when you come into your kingdom).
After another brief interpolation from the Evangelist, Jesus responds with what could be considered an exordium on the words, wahrlich, ich sage dir (truly, I say unto you). Schütz again places two violins to frame the musical content of Jesus. Similar to the setting of the first word,
47 the violins both foretell and retell musical ideas sung by Jesus while also adding support to the harmonic framework. Jesus’ exordium for the third word from the cross begins in the key center of quasi-E minor and cadences in the quintuply hard hexachord of B – D-sharp – F-sharp.
Immediately following the cadence Schütz rearticulates the chord in a softer hexachord B – D –
F-sharp. This rhetorically sets up the comforting statement from Jesus, heute wirst du mit mir
Paradies sein (today you will be with me in paradise). Schütz uses rhetorical devices of iteratio and aposiopesis to further demonstrate the reassuring gesture while painting the emotions in the harsh reality of impending death and the comfort of everlasting life (Musical Example 18). The
Musical Example 18. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Third Word,” mm. 52–56.
first iteration of im Paradies sein is set in the doubly hard hexachord with Jesus’ melodic content being mirrored in the first violin. At this point Schütz advances the harmonic language through a dissonant suspension that resolves to F-sharp – A – D-sharp and cadences in the quadruply hard hexachord. All of this occurs while Jesus is silent — an example of Schütz using aposiopesis.
Schütz follows this with iteratio as Jesus enters on a syncopated eighth note entrance on a repeated text. In addition to iteratio, Schütz also uses the rhetorical climax as the melodic idea is repeated by Jesus a major second higher than the original. The harmonic language for the second iteration is also different. Though the reiteration begins in the quadruply hard hexachord, Schütz
48 immediately softens the harmony by introducing an F-natural and modulating to the natural hexachord. The movement ends with a cadence in the natural hexachord on the sonority A – C –
E, harmonically securing the emotion of comfort.
49 Analysis of Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478:
Fourth Word, Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34
The setting of the fourth word begins with Schütz’s fourth different performing force for the role of Evangelist. Dissimilar to the previous three words, Schütz sets the Evangelist role in the fourth word for multiple voices: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. As is typical of his choral works, the setting of the fourth word begins with three of the four voices in true homophony on the text, und um die neunte Stunde (and at the ninth hour). The fourth voice — tenor — offsets the homophony of the other three parts with its own rhythms in a way that alters the proper textual stress to fit the meter — a musico-rhetorical devices known as barbaralexis (Musical
Example 19). The harmonic language of this portion of the piece is based around the hard hexachord on G.
Musical Example 19. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fourth Word,” mm. 1–2.
In the next portion of text, schrei Jesus laut und sprach (Jesus cried out loudly), Schütz uses iteratio, gradatio, and conduplicatio in conjunction with melodic material to paint Jesus’ cry
(Musical Example 20). Here Schütz employs a syncopated entrance featuring rhythmic figures consisting of three eighth notes followed by a longer note value. Though the rhythm is imitative,
50 it is not identical in its setting across the four parts. There are also similarities in the melodic content of each utterance with most voices singing the word Jesus lower than the word laut — a musical depiction of Jesus crying out. In addition to this hypotyposis, Schütz enhances the effect
Musical Example 20. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fourth Word,” mm. 3–5.
through iteratio, gradatio, and conduplicatio by stacking seven cascading iterations of the text across the four voices. Most of these iterations end higher than their penultimate note of the figure, thus mounting intensity. At the apex of the rhetorical treatment, Schütz moves suddenly from the hard hexachord to the quadruply hard hexachord as the soprano line reaches its apex on a high E pitch. Schütz then creates a homophonic treatment of und sprach that cadences on the quadruply hard hexachord.
The fourth word of Jesus from the cross is intriguing rhetorically due to its nature of setting the same text in two languages. In the Biblical accounts of Matthew and Mark, Jesus begins by saying Eli, lama asabthani31 (my God, why have you forsaken me?), after which
Matthew or Mark transcribes the original Aramaic language into the common tongue. Martin
31 This is Martin Luther’s original transcription of the Hebrew words in German, which is now considered incorrect. Most German Bibles use lama absabthani.
51 Luther of course translated the second iteration in German, therefore the listener gets to hear
Schütz’s interpretation of the repeated text first in Aramaic and then in German. Schütz treats both utterances the exact same in regard to melodic content, harmonic language, and specific delivery of the text. The two settings are not entirely identical, as there are slight differences in the rhythmic values Schütz uses to accommodate for the extra syllables in the German setting.
There are also slight differences in the rhythm and content of the string parts. However, I would argue that this similarity between the melodic and harmonic content and the prescribed delivery of the text is strong evidence that Schütz conceptualized his composition in a rhetorical and dramatically emotional way.
At the beginning of the fourth word Schütz uses the familiar rhetorical devices of epizeuxis, aposiopesis, and iteratio in his three repetitions of the word Eli (Musical Example 21).
Musical Example 21. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fourth Word,” mm. 6–11.
Each repetition of the word is separated from the others and is set to slightly different rhythmic values. In his harmonic treatment Schütz makes clever use of exuscitatio. Each statement of Eli begins in the natural hexachord and moves to a harder harmonic setting. The first Eli moves to the quadruply hard hexachord through a C – B suspension over a G-sharp. The second iteration
52 moves even further to the quintuply hard hexachord. The final iteration could be considered a harmonic adtenuata as it only moves to the doubly hard hexachord. The following text, lama asabthani, is set with similar aposiopesis breaks in the line and again features strong harmonic exuscitatio. Schütz has combined the natural and doubly hard hexachords for this first utterance creating a very discordant sound (Musical Example 22). The basso continuo remains in the
Musical Example 22. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fourth Word,” mm. 12–13.
natural hexachord by moving from C down to A while the character of Jesus introduces F-sharp creating harmonically forsaken sonorities C – D – F-sharp – A, and A – C – F-sharp in close proximity. Following this brief passage, Schütz again uses diacope and ploce — repetition of a word or statement with new significance after the intervention of other words — by returning to the word Eli. The fourth setting of the word is rhythmically and melodically identical to the third iteration, but it is set a major second higher in pitch value — an example of climax and auxesis.
This iteration of Eli cadences in the triply hard hexachord providing the listener with cadences on Eli in the doubly, triply, quadruply, and quintuply hard hexachords in close proximity. The following iteration of lama asabthani also features climax and auxesis in the fact that it is identical to the melodic content of the first iteration but raised a second. Harmonically, Schütz sets the second iteration in the triply hard hexachord. As the third iteration of lama asabthani is
53 sung, Schütz moves through a cadential figure in the quintuply hard hexachord that resolves to the quadruple.
The following narration on das ist verdolmetschet (which means) is set similar to the opening of the four voice narration in Schützian fashion. Schütz again offsets the tenor voice rhythmically as the other three voices sing in homophony. The three voices exhibit the rhetorical device of barbaralexis. The material all stays within the natural and hard hexachord. As noted above, the following passage by Jesus is a direct translation of the preceding Aramaic text. As one can see in Musical Example 23, it is largely comprised of the same material as the Aramaic setting. As the fourth word draws to a close, Jesus is forsaken by his instrumental forces in what could be construed as hypotyposis — this also happens in the Aramaic setting. The clearest argument in favor of this reading is the fact that the first and second violin parts do not resolve their suspended cadential figures, but stop playing altogether (Musical Example 24).
Musical Example 23. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fourth Word,” mm. 26–31.
54
Musical Example 24. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fourth Word,” mm. 38–42.
55 Analysis of Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478:
Fifth Word, John 19:28
The setting of the fifth word of Christ is the shortest of the seven. Schütz designates the alto to serve as the Evangelist for this word. The first portion of the narration on the text, danach, als Jesus wußte (after that, since Jesus knew), is set uneventfully in quasi-E minor. The next portion of text, daß schon alles vollbracht (that all had been accomplished), is set twice by
Schütz incorporating rhetorical elements of iteratio (Musical Example 25). This iteratio could be read as a rhetorical enforcement of the prophecies fulfilled or as the foundation of an admonitio in the sixth word. The melodic content is the same in both iterations but set a major second apart descending. The harmonic language is also rigorously repeated with this progression: hard hexachord — triply hard hexachord — doubly hard hexachord — hard hexachord. This orderly use of iteratio could credibly be construed as a reference to the fulfilment of prophecy. The next portion of text, daß die Schrift erfüllet würde (that the prophecy would be fulfilled) contains a dramatic hexachord painting of the coming crucifixion. This section is set mostly in the hard
Musical Example 25. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fifth Word,” mm. 1–5.
hexachord and moves to the natural hexachord on the word erfüllet (fulfilled). By itself, this could be interpreted as a rhetorical idea, but the move that follows makes this interpretation unambiguous. On the word würde (would be) Schütz veers wildly to the quintuply hard hexachord on B (Musical Example 26). I would argue that this is a prophetic depiction of the
56 crucifixion used in order to bring fulfillment and order to the preceding prophecy. The narration portion finishes with a cadential figure on the text sprach er (he said to them).
Musical Example 26. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fifth Word,” mm. 6–10.
Although the setting of Jesus’ fifth word is very brief, it contains a lot of dramatic material. The entire text is mich dürstet (I thirst), but Schütz sets the text in a drawn out way that allows him to explore the dramatical content of the moment while depicting the suffering and agony (Musical Example 27). Dissimilar to previous movements the strings parts play only
Musical Example 27. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Fifth Word,” mm.11–15.
extended whole notes, adding to the harmonic support. Jesus’ entire line lives within three semitones but spans a gap of four hexachords. The melodic content itself waffles around the competing G and G-sharp pitches in what looks similar to German depictions of the cross in musical figures later in the Baroque. The harmonic language begins in the quadruply hard
57 hexachord and moves through dissonant harmonies in the triply hard hexachord and quintuply hard hexachord. The latter instance at one point ends up in a D-sharp – A – B – F-sharp harmonic structure with Jesus singing a G-sharp above on a strong beat. Immediately after this harmony, Jesus’ line replaces the G-sharp with a G-natural as the harmonic language moves drastically by four hexachords to the hard hexachord. This pre-cadential movement lasts only a brief while and results in a reemergence of the quintuply hard hexachord on the cadence.
58 Analysis of Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478:
Sixth Word, John 19:30
The sixth word of Christ is similar to the fifth word in its brevity. Schütz sets the
Evangelist as a tenor in this movement. Most of the narration occurs in the natural and hard hexachords, however, there are moments where Schütz moves to more distant transpositions of the hard hexachord to depict an event or emotion. The first example of this results in hypotyposis as Schütz paints the taste of vinegar, which is known for its bitterness. Though the beginning of the narration stays within the natural and hard hexachords, on the word Essig (vinegar) Schütz moves the narration to the quadruply hard hexachord. After a brief return to the natural hexachord, Schütz sets the following word Ysopen (Hyssop) in the same quadruply hard hexachord (Musical Example 28).
Musical Example 28. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Sixth Word,” mm. 1–12.
The next figure on the text, und stekket ihn auf ein Rohr und hielt ihn dar zum Munde (stuck [the sponge] on a stick and lifted it to his mouth), shows elements of hypotyposis (Musical Example
59 28). The passage begins on E4 and ascends to C5 in what could be construed as the lifting of the sponge. The following cadence on the words, und trinket ihn (and he drank), moves from the natural hexachord to the quintuply hard hexachord by use of retrogression, thus depicting the bitter vinegar and hyssop combination once again (Musical Example 28). The final line of the narration includes another reference to vinegar in which Schütz moves from the hard hexachord to the quadruply hard hexachord (Musical Example 29). The rest of the narration is set in the natural and hard hexachord except for a brief pre-cadential movement to the quadruply hard hexachord on the text sprach er (he said).
Musical Example 29. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Sixth Word,” mm. 13–17.
The text of Jesus’ sixth word is es ist vollbracht (it is finished). Schütz again uses iteratio and conduplicatio by setting the text twice (Musical Example 30). The first iteration consists of three ascending eighth notes followed by a brief stasis outlining the hard hexachord center of quasi-E minor. Following the first utterance, the strings join the texture for the second iteration.
The second iteration uses aposiopesis as Schütz portrays the stilted speech patterns of Jesus suffering (Musical Example 30). The second iteration consists of a rising melodic figure separated by aposiopesis rests. The iteration begins in the hard hexachord and moves through the triply and quintuply hard hexachords before resolving in the quadruply hard hexachord. The melodic content of the sixth word comprises a rise of an octave in what could also be argued as a use of hypotyposis.
60 Musical Example 30. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Sixth Word,” mm. 18–22.
61 Analysis of Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478:
Seventh Word, Luke 23:46
The seventh word of Christ consists of two narrations surrounding Jesus’ final utterance from the cross. Unlike the previous six words, Heinrich Schütz assigns the two Evangelist portions to different performing forces. The first narration is set for tenor and uses the musico- rhetorical devices of iteratio and admonitio (Musical Example 31). Schütz sets the brief text, und abermal rief Jesus laut (and again Jesus cried loudly), mostly within the hard hexachord. Schütz employs the aforementioned rhetorical figures in several ways on the words rief Jesus laut. The most obvious rhetorical device is iteratio as Schütz sets the words twice in the same manner.
Musical Example 31. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Seventh Word,” mm. 1–5.
Schütz, however, also uses admonitio by mimicking his melodic and rhythmic treatment of the word laut in the fourth word of Christ (Musical Examples 20, 31). Schütz sets most of the seven iterations of schrei Jesus laut as a three-note figure with the second pitch descending from the first before ascending to the third. Most times the third sounding pitch is equal to or greater than a perfect fourth above the second sounding pitch. Schütz’s setting of rief Jesus laut in the seventh word is very similar with a setting that ascends by a perfect fourth in the first iteration and a perfect fifth in the second iteration. In addition, Schütz matches the three anacrustic eighth note setting of the fourth word in his rhythmic approach to the seventh word. A further
62 interesting aspect of the way that Schütz composed the seventh word involves the interplay between instruments and vocalists.
The setting of Jesus’ final word from the cross contains a plethora of rhetorical devices.
On the first word alone, one could argue for the musico-rhetorical figures of adtenuata, iteratio, aposiopesis, conduplicatio, exuscitatio, climax, and gradatio (Musical Example 32). Schütz sets the word Vater in successive groupings of two iterations with a pause in between, which points to iteratio, conduplicatio, and aposiopesis. He also sets the second grouping of Vater with the same intervallic content as the first but pitched upward a third — elements of climax and gradatio. Finally, the setting of Vater recalls the melodic and rhythmic content of the first word of Christ (Musical Example 9). Observing this use of admonitio in the first and seventh words also highlights the symmetrical nature of Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz. As noted above, the interplay between the instruments and voices is very clever in Schütz’s setting of the seventh word. Whereas the strings forecasted the melodic content in the first word, here they do both in an unconventional way (Musical Example 32). Upon close observation the first violin part forecasts the second setting of Vater in each utterance while the singer is performing the first
Vater. Similarly, the second violin repeats the melodic content of the first Vater in each utterance as the character of Jesus is singing the second Vater. This approach leads to an interesting symbiosis between the strings and voice in a potential musical depiction the triune nature of
Christ’s divinity. Harmonically, Schütz makes heavy use of suspension figures to paint the angst of the moment. In the first utterance Schütz sets the harmonic language as a repeated overlapping suspension between the quadruply hard and natural hexachords. In what could be construed as a harmonic adtenuata the second utterance is set between the hard hexachord and natural hexachord.
63 Musical Example 32. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Seventh Word,” mm. 6–10.
The second portion of Jesus’ final utterance from the cross sets the text, ich befehle meinen Geist in deine Hände (into your hand I commit my spirit). Schütz paints the final words of Jesus with the musico-rhetorical devices of apocope and aposiopesis (Musical Example 33).
Musical Example 33. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Seventh Word,” mm. 11–14.
The delivery of the text is stilted for dramatic effect, as if a musical depiction of Jesus struggling to draw his final breaths. The textual thoughts are broken into small fragments and each iteration and reiteration of text begins on a syncopation — with the syncopations becoming more
64 exaggerated as Jesus nears his end. For Jesus’ final words, Schütz employs iteratio and conduplicatio in a repeated setting of in deine Hände. In this portion of text Schütz moves away from the suspension-dominated manner of the first half. Here he employs gradatio as he hardens the harmonic language up to the point of Jesus’ death. This portion begins in the hard and soft hexachords, but quickly moves through the triply hard hexachord to a cadential figure from the quintuply to the quadruply hard hexachords. In the process the strings become more idiomatic except for a foretelling of the final pre-cadential figure from Jesus in the first violin.
The final Evangelist narration is set for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices with continuo and is broken into three distinct lines of text set in an imitative fashion. This imitative polyphony contributes an element of amplificatio — enlargement or expansion — to the musico- rhetorical devices of iteratio, conduplicatio, and hypotyposis (Musical Example 34). The first line of text, und als er das gesagt (and after saying this), is set rhythmically to match text stress and comprised of an ascending melodic line. The second line of text, neiget er das Haupt
(lowered his head), exhibits iteratio and hypotyposis through a repeated setting of a descending line in the top three voices. These elements are enhanced by the harmonic approach of Schütz.
Schütz begins the first iteration in the tenor voice over a suspended figure in the natural hexachord. Over the course of five iterations of this text, he gradually moves to cadence in the quintuply hard hexachord adding harmonic gradatio and amplificatio to the text. After this he moves quickly to the natural hexachord to begin the final text of the seventh word, und gab seinen Geist auf (and gave up his spirit). Schütz’s setting of this text exhibits further use of amplified iteratio, conduplicatio, and hypotyposis. He accomplishes this by providing a rising melodic figure in imitation to depict the spirit leaving the body. Unlike the previous two lines of text, Schütz isolates each utterance of the line for clarity — including the final paired duets that
65 overlap at the cadence. Harmonically, Schütz provides another example of gradatio and amplificatio by moving through the hard side of the hexachords (Musical Example 34). He establishes a pattern in which he modulates two hexachords towards the hard side and then back one hexachord towards the soft side. The result of the pattern is thus: hard – natural – double – hard – triple – double – quadruple – triple – quintuple – cadence in quadruple. Schütz follows this cadence with a measure of rest before the contemplative instrumental interlude.
66 Musical Example 34. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Seventh Word,” mm. 15–28.
67 Analysis of Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478: Conclusio
Following the symphonic movement, Schütz returns to the Böchenstein chorale Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund used in the Introitus. In the opening movement Schütz set the first verse of the chorale to his own musical material and here Schütz takes a similar approach for the ninth stanza. This return of the chorale text combined with the use of the same symphonic material as before in the previous movement show elements of admonitio. Schütz clearly conceptualized this piece as a symmetrical work — further argument in favor of a rhetorical reading. The first line of the ninth stanza of Böchentsein’s chorale is, Wer Gottes Marter in Ehren hat und oft gedenkt der Sieben Wort (Those who honor the martyrdom of God and often remember the seven words). Similar to the setting of the first chorale stanza, Schütz begins with an exordium by setting all five voices in a homophonic way that pays special attention to text delivery (Musical
Example 35). Schütz also incorporates the rhetorical devices of iteratio with his repeat of the word wer and aposiopesis with the rest between the two iterations. Harmonically, Schütz sets the
Musical Example 35. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Conclusio,” mm. 1–5.
opening line mostly in the hard and natural hexachords, however he does move to the quintuply hard hexachord on the word Gottes and cadences in the quadruply hard hexachord to spur the
68 next line of text. In a use of admonitio Schütz recalls the polyphonic pleading from the setting of the first stanza’s text betrach in deinem Herzen (remember (the seven words) in your heart).
Schütz also uses the musico-rhetorical device of hypotyposis by having five separate iterations of the text that orders listeners to remember often.
Following this, Schütz makes use of iteratio, conduplicatio, and aposiopesis as he sets the first line of text again for vehemence. Schütz once more uses a homophonic setting for the first portion of text, but this time the harmonic language is more urgent. Instead of occurring in the natural and hard hexachords, this iteration makes heavy use of the doubly hard hexachord.
The second setting of the latter portion of text adds elements of amplificatio and gradatio to the line emploring listeners to reminisce often on the seven words (Musical Example 36). Previously
Schütz used five repetitions of the text across four voices, but for this setting he provides twelve iterations of the text across five voices. In addition, he adds harmonic weight to the rhetoric by moving from the hard hexachord through the natural, doubly, and quadruply hard hexachords before cadencing in the triply hard hexachord.
Musical Example 36. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Conclusio,” mm. 11–14.
69 The next line of the chorale, deß will Gott gar eben pflegen (God will certainly take care of) incorporates the rhetorical element of iteratio with a repeat of gar in the inner voices. In rhetorical fashion, Schütz sets this line of text over a succession of suspended figures to add harmonic weight to the rhetorical device. After a cadence in the quintuply hard hexachord Schütz returns to the imitative style for the final portion of text, wohl hie auf Erd mit seiner Gnad, und dort in dem ewigen Leben (here on Earth through his grace, and there in everlasting life).
In what may be an acknowledgment of Lutheran theology, Schütz writes more music dwelling on this grace-filled text than any other in the work. As noted, the style of the setting is imitative and uses introductory motives to create textual cohesion. This imitative polyphony adds an element of amplificatio to the rhetorical devices of iteratio and conduplicatio employed by
Schütz. The initial text is unified by a rhythmic figure that employs three anacrustic quarter notes on two pitches — initial pitch, a pitch up a fourth, and the initial pitch repeated (Musical
Example 37).
Musical Example 37. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Conclusio,” mm. 19–23.
70 Similarly, the final portion of text is also set in an imitative way that uses the imitation to create textual cohesion. This rhythmic figure opens with two quarter notes followed by two eighth note and is pitched thus: initial pitch, pitch up a fourth, a stepwise descending figure on the eighth notes (Musical Example 38). Schütz uses iteratio, epizeuxis, and aposiopesis frequently for rhetorical effect in this setting. The harmonic language for the first iteration of these texts stays mostly within the hard and doubly hard hexachords.
Musical Example 38. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Conclusio,” mm. 24–27.
After completing the initial iteration of the text, Schütz incorporates iteratio and conduplicatio in a second setting of the text. Schütz uses similar figures as the initial iteration, but changes them slightly in an effort towards amplificatio and gradatio. Instead of the introductory imitative material rising a perfect fourth for both lines of text, on the reiteration
Schütz employs leaps of a fifth or octave in both motives (Musical Examples 38, 39). The second
71 iteration of the final text is filled with musico-rhetorical devices. Iteratio and conduplicatio are in every voice part and enhanced through amplificatio by the simultaneity and sheer number of repeated utterances of the text. Schütz retains the busy imitative polyphony throughout the rest of the piece until he reaches the final cadential figure on the word Leben. A majority of the final iteration of text is held in the natural and hard hexachords, however the final cadence does move from the quintuply hard hexachord to the quadruply hard hexachord — a hexachord that was used often in Jesus’ character depicting divinity (Musical Example 40).
Musical Example 39. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Conclusio,” mm. 28–31.
72 Musical Example 40. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Conclusio,” mm. 36–39.
Musical Example 41. Heinrich Schütz, Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478, “Conclusio,” mm. 40–43.
73 Conclusion: Impact on Performance
An intimate understanding of the hermeneutics of Heinrich Schütz’s musical output and logistics of musico-rhetorical devices is critical when preparing one of his works. It is clear that
Schütz was exposed to the idea of rhetorical composition both at a macro and micro level in his training. Evidence of this comes not only from this work, but also from extant treatises contemporary with Schütz and his two trips to Venice to study with Claudio Monteverdi. Once this background is established, it is incumbent upon the conductor to use this knowledge in preparation of performance.
Preparations of Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz can only benefit from a combined musico-rhetorical and hexachordal reading. First, it will provide a more detailed and nuanced understanding of the piece for the conductor — which in turn may be shared with the performers. This leads to a more comprehensive decision-making process when approaching the delivery of the text throughout the work. Expressive musical elements that can be enhanced by this knowledge include articulation, dynamics, phrasing, tempi, and timbre. As an example, in the opening movement of the work, Schütz sets the text mit bittern schmerzen with elements of gradatio and aposiopesis (Musical Example 3, pg. 29). A conductor with knowledge of the rhetorical devices used might choose a pronounced articulation of the text to better impact upon the audience the emotional weight of the words. In regard to dynamics, a decision could be made to highlight the gradatio with a general crescendo or with successively louder dynamics for each iteration moving towards the cadence. A rhetorical reading could also have an impact on timbre as the emotionally “bitter” sextuply hard hexachord is augmented through a timbre that better reflects the text.
74 In addition, understanding how the rhetorical devices are used in conjunction with the hexachord system also provides incredible pedagogical benefit for the performers. Having fallen out of favor for centuries, the hexachord system can be daunting and confusing for modern musicians. This confusion can lead to many pitch discrepancies as a composer modulates hexachords. With an understanding of how the hexachord system functions, conductors can set up rehearsal strategy to address this issue from the outset. A final benefit of a combined hexachordal and rhetorical reading of this piece of music is to help the performers better express the dramatic emotional content. Understanding what the rhetorical devices are and how they are employed can only enhance the singers’ connection with and expression of the music — which may be enhanced through gesture.
In closing, I would argue that further research should continue to examine the music of
Heinrich Schütz in a combinative fashion. I would also argue that this combinative approach is not unique to the music of Heinrich Schütz and that this approach could be utilized successfully when studying the music of Claudio Monteverdi. Though it is difficult to interpret intent in a composition, a deep knowledge of the hexachord system and musico-rhetorical figures will assist in an historically-informed performance that elucidates the drama of the text.
75 Glossary: Definition of Musico-Rhetorical Devices32
Admonitio — Reminding or recalling to mind
Adtenuata — A weakened or reduced utterance
Amplificatio — Enlargement or expansion
Apocope — Cutting off discourse abruptly
Aposiopesis — Dramatic breaks in a continuing phrase
Auxesis – Repetition of a melody in the same part a second higher
Barbaralexis — Alteration the proper textual stress to fit the meter
Climax — (See Auxesis)
Conduplicatio — Repetition of a word(s) in succeeding clauses for amplify or express emotion
Diacope — Repetition of a word with other words in between
Epizeuxis — An emphatic repetition of a word with no other words between
Exordium — A device used to gain the attention of the listener
Exuscitatio — An emotional utterance that moves hearers to like feelings
Gradatio — Mounting in degrees through words of increasing weight in parallel construction
Homoioleuton — A series of words with like endings
Hypotyposis — Mimicry of acts only, not of manners or feelings
Iteratio — Repetition for vehemence
Mempsis — Pleading for help
Sarcasmus — A bitter taunt or jibe
32 All definitions of rhetorical devices have been produced from John Walter Hill, Baroque Music: Music in Western Europe, 1580-1750 (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2005); Blake Wilson, et al., “Rhetoric and Music,” Grove Music Online, accessed August, 2018, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy3.library.arizona.edu/subscriber/ article/grove /music/43166.
76 Syngnomine — Forgiveness of injuries
Synonymia — Repetition of a melodic idea on different notes in the same part
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