English ⁄ Deutsch ⁄ Français ⁄ Tracklist Menu The context of 17th-century German funeral music by Cosimo Stawiarski It is thanks to the almost ungraspable abundance of occasional prints from the 17th cen- tury that we now possess relatively detailed information about the reality of life in the early modern period and its socio-cultural context. Funeral sermons, which account for by far the largest part of occasional prints, are of particular significance in this context, as they usually contain a great deal of very valuable information – not only about the deceased person, but also concerning the proceedings during the memorial ceremony. In addition to the sermon, they usually include information about the deceased person’s career, as well as details of the service, funeral orations, epicedia (funeral odes) and often elaborate pictorial representations in the form of woodcuts or copperplate engravings. Given that funeral services in the 17th century always had a representative function too, it was not uncommon for ceremonies held in honour of important public figures to 2 include the recital of songs, motets or other sacral music in the liturgical sequence. Aside from the texts, a large proportion of these compositions must now be considered lost, as the works were printed and enclosed with the funeral sermons only in exceptional cases. The reason for this is obvious: the content of the pieces was frequently designed for a specific occasion, so that performances outside this context would not have seemed worthwhile. It follows, therefore, that the works that have been preserved together with Cosimo Stawiarski is a musicologist and a player of the Baroque violin. Central to his work is the discovery and renewed diffusion of 17th- and 18th-century sacred vocal music from central and northern Germany. In 2003 he founded the publishing house of Edition Musica Poetica (musica-poetica.com), whose main activity is to publish unknown works from this repertoire. In close collaboration with singers and ensembles specializing in historical performance practice he frequently devises programmes for concerts and CDs. Cosimo Stawiarski taught music history and Baroque violin at the Universidad Central in Bogotá (Columbia). He writes articles, prepares radio broadcasts and holds lectures on the history of protestant church music. English the music in the form of occasional prints possess a textual basis that is suitable for more widespread use. The Musikalische Exequien (Funeral music) by Heinrich Schütz should also be assigned to the category of occasional music, as they were composed to mark the obsequies for Henry II, Count of Reuss-Gera (d. 3 December 1635), which were held on 4 February 1636. We are comparatively well informed about the history of these pieces, as Schütz published a printed version of the work as his Opus 7 in the same year, adding a detailed preface. It states that the Count had ordained that he be laid to rest on 4 February, the traditional funeral day of the Prophet Simeon, whom he revered. He also gave precise instructions on the design of his coffin, which he had artfully inscribed with a selection of 21 Bible quotations and verses of song that he had personally compiled. Henry II expressed the explicit wish that these texts, together with the sermon text (“Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe” [Lord, if I have thee only]) and the Canticle of Simeon (“Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener in Friede fahren” [Lord, let your servant depart in peace]), be set to music by Heinrich Schütz and performed at the funeral service before the sermon (part 1) and after it (parts 2 & 3). Whereas the second and third parts of the Musikalische Exequien were suitable for a 3 more conventional structure, the heterogeneous text of the first part, with its short, alter- nating quotations, most likely presented Schütz with a considerable compositional chal- lenge. It was important, after all, to preserve the musical unity of the piece, without depart- ing from the set sequence of statements. Schütz solved this predicament by alternating between solo and tutti passages, setting the biblical quotations to music for various com- binations of soloists in the style of his Kleine Geistliche Konzerte, while the song verses were scored for the choir. However, a trick was required to apply this principle consistently, as there was a discrepancy between the number of Bible quotations (13) and song verses (8). Schütz therefore inserted the three invocations of the “German Kyrie” (“Herr Gott Vater im Himmel” [Lord God, Father in heaven]; “Jesu Christe, Gottes Sohn” [Jesus Christ, Son of God]; “Herr Gott heiliger Geist” [Lord God, Holy Spirit]) between the biblical texts from the beginning and, in connection with the subsequent intonation to the words “Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt” (For God so loved the world), created a latent two-part structure reminis- cent of a Protestant Kyrie-Gloria Mass. This is why Schütz himself describes the first part of the Musikalische Exequien as a “concerto in the form of a German funeral Mass”. While the textual intervention in the first part was merely due to the strict dictates of musical structure, the composer is prompted by purely aesthetic-dramatic reasons to make additions to the text for the Canticle of Simeon (part 3), in order to interpret it with another layer of narration. In his own words: It must be noted that this concerto has two choirs and each choir has separate words. The First Choir […] recites Simeon’s words: “Lord, let your servant”. The Second Choir […] then sings the following and other words: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord”. With which invention for Second Choir the author seeks to invoke and suggest the joy of the departing blessed souls in heaven in the company of the celestial spirits and the holy angels. […] The First Choir will first be set to the organ. The Second Choir kept in the background. […] Should anyone have this Second Choir included once or twice and, depending on the resources of the individual churches, might give employment to such persons, this would, in the author’s hope, increase the effect of the work more than just a little. As mentioned earlier, Heinrich Schütz arranged for the Musikalische Exequien to be printed 4 at his own expense in same year of their completion. This in itself demonstrates how high- ly he regarded the composition. With its complex simplicity and poignant tonal language, it is now quite rightly regarded as the most intimate and impressive funeral composition from the early modern period. Although Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien are virtually unique in their structure and virtu- osity, detailed study of 17th-century occasional literature nevertheless yields other im- pressive contributions to the repertoire of funeral music, many of which have slipped into almost complete obscurity with the passage of time. A selection of the most exquisite pieces from among Schütz’s direct peers and geographic environment were transcribed from the original sources specifically for this recording, and some of them are available on CD for the first time. From a formal perspective, the selected works are mainly motets in the style of Schütz. Most of them are built around a traditional Bible verse that was often chosen by the deceased during their lifetime and was then used for the sermon at the funeral ceremony. Only Rosenmüller’s aria Was ist es doch (What is it then), which was composed Menu English to mark the death of the law professor Policarp Wirth, uses exclusively free verse and is based on an ode by the Leipzig poet Johann Georg Schoch that was also written specifi- cally for the funeral. The stylistic uniformity of the compositions is a surprising aspect of the musical vo- cabulary, especially if one considers that almost 70 years lie between the oldest and most recent works on this CD. For example, there is a very noticeable preference for a double choir. Indeed, it is often implied in the form of alternating passages between high and low voices – for instance in Johann Kessel’s Ich habe Lust abzuscheiden (I desire to depart) or in Johann Georg Ebeling’s Ein Tag in deinen Vorhöfen (For a day in thy courts) – if it is not explicitly required by the instrumentation anyway, as in the works by Gleich, Knüpfer and Schelle. And the contrast between polyphonic concertante and block chord homo- phonic textures perfected by Heinrich Schütz can also be observed in many of the works recorded here. It therefore appears that certain conventions for composing funeral music developed over time, and that they remained impervious to the necessity of keeping up with the general evolution in musical styles, instead preserving the validity of their original form for decades. The true strength of these conventions is demonstrated by the fact that even Johann Sebastian Bach copied the motet Erforsche mich, Gott (Search me, God, and 5 know my heart) by his predecessor in office, Sebastian Knüpfer, and arranged for it to be performed at funerals that were within his area of responsibility. Bregenz, August 2020 Menu Zum Kontext deutscher Begräbnismusiken des 17. Jahrhunderts von Cosimo Stawiarski Der nahezu unüberschaubaren Fülle an Kasualdrucken aus dem 17. Jahrhundert ist es zu verdanken, dass wir heute verhältnismäßig detailliert über die Lebenswirklichkeit der Frü- hen Neuzeit und deren soziokulturellen Kontext informiert sind. Dabei fällt den Leichenpre- digten, die unter den Kasualdrucken den mit Abstand größten Teil ausmachen, eine ganz besondere Bedeutung zu, denn sie beinhalten in der Regel eine Vielzahl sehr wertvoller Informationen – nicht nur über den Verstorbenen selbst, sondern auch über den Ablauf der jeweiligen Trauerzeremonie. Neben der Predigt findet sich dort nämlich üblicherweise noch der Lebenslauf des Verstorbenen, sowie Abdankungen, Trauerschriften, Epicedien (Trauergedichte) und nicht selten auch aufwändige bildliche Darstellungen in Form von Holzschnitten oder Kupferstichen.