(literally: Sacred Symphonies, Book One) is a collection of different pieces of vocal sacred music on Latin texts, composed by

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...

, published in 1629. He set mostly

psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

and excerpts from the Song of Solomon for one to three voices, with various instruments and continuo. Its twenty pieces were assigned 257 to 276 in the ' (SWV), the catalogue of his works. Two later volumes came, but with German texts: Symphoniae sacrae II in 1647 and Symphoniae sacrae III in 1650.

History

Schütz composed the first collection during his second study trip to Venice. During his first visit he studied the

Venetian polychoral style The Venetian polychoral style was a type of music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras which involved spatially separate choirs singing in alternation. It represented a major stylistic shift from the prevailing polyphonic writing of the ...

with

Giovanni Gabrieli Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557 – 12 August 1612) was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift f ...

. Returning in 1628 after Gabrieli's death, he studied with his successor at St Mark's Basilica, Claudio Monteverdi. Schütz was in the service of the Protestant Elector of Saxony Johann Georg I, and dedicated the collection to the Elector's son, crown prince Johann Georg II, then 16 years old. The texts are mostly taken from the Bible, most of them setting excerpts from

and from the Song of Solomon. Schütz set the texts as concertos for various combinations of one to three voices, instruments (both strings and

winds Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few ...

) and basso continuo. Schütz published the collection in 1629 in Venice as his ', his sixth work, and his second work in Latin. In his Latin foreword, he mentions Gabrieli, but not Monteverdi. The composer has been described as "universal" (), and after his ' published a second work in Latin. The musicologist Matteo Messori notes: Schütz later composed two more collections titled as Op. 10 and Op. 12. The general title was common at the time and was used by many composers, including his teacher including

who used it for his larger concertos.

Collection

The collection contains twenty different individual concertos with numbers 257 to 276 in the SWV. The following table shows a sequence number, the SWV number, the first line of the Latin text replacing a title, a translation, an abbreviation of the text source and notes. The translations follow

Emmanuel Music Emmanuel Music is a Boston-based collective group of singers and instrumentalists founded in 1970 by Craig Smith. It was created specifically to perform the complete cycle of over 200 sacred cantatas of J. S. Bach in the liturgical setting for wh ...

for SWV 257, 263, 264, a study bible for the Song of Solomon, otherwise the

King James version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

. Links to that bible version are provided in the next column. Note that psalm numbering and verse numbering within a psalm is different in different editions. The last column provides a link to the details about the piece from the Schütz Association, which contains the text, a translation to German, the volume in the Neue Schütz-Ausgabe, biblical source(s), and further links to the collection's history, original foreword, analysis, dedication, original cover, reception and sources.

Music

Schütz followed Monteverdi's

seconda pratica Seconda pratica, Italian for "second practice", is the counterpart to prima pratica and is sometimes referred to as Stile moderno. The term "Seconda pratica" first appeared in 1603 in Giovanni Artusi's book ''Seconda Parte dell'Artusi, overo Delle i ...

in setting the biblical texts not in the older polyphonic style, but in dramatic declamation close to the opera of the period. This approach to word setting mirrors the ideas of the Reformation in its focus on the words of scripture. The settings have been described as "eloquent, sensitive, and often sensuous".

Recordings

The ''Symphoniae sacrae'' are part of the complete edition of the composer's works by

Carus-Verlag Carus-Verlag is a German music publisher founded in 1972 and based in Stuttgart. Carus was founded by choral conductor Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud with an emphasis on choral repertoire. The catalogue currently includes more than 26,00 ...

, begun in 1992 in continuation of the Stuttgart Schütz Edition. The edition uses the ' of the . They were recorded in 2003 with the Cappella Augustana including singers Anna Mikołajczyk, Marzena Lubaszka, Piotr Lykowski, Krzysztof Szmyt, Robert Pozarski,

Harry van der Kamp Harry van der Kamp (born 1947 in Kampen) is a Dutch bass singer in opera and concert. Mostly active in Historically informed performance, he founded the Gesualdo Ensemble. He is also an academic voice teacher. Singing career Born in Kampen, va ...

, Bogdan Makal, Walter Testolin and Gian Paolo Dal Dosso, conducted by organist Matteo Messori. They were recorded in 2016, as part of the complete recordings of works by Schütz, by the

Dresdner Kammerchor The Dresdner Kammerchor (Dresden Chamber Choir) is a mixed chamber choir which was founded in 1985 by Hans-Christoph Rademann in Dresden and is still conducted by him. The semiprofessional ensemble of about 40 singers has appeared internationally. ...

and organist

Ludger Rémy Ludger Rémy (4 February 1949 – 21 June 2017) was a German harpsichordist, conductor and musicologist. Biography Born in Kalkar, Ludger Rémy studied the harpsichord in Freiburg im Breisgau and continued his studies with Kenneth Gilbert ...

, conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann, with soloists

Dorothee Mields Dorothee Mields (born 15 April 1971) is a German soprano concert singer of Baroque and contemporary music. Career Mields was born in Gelsenkirchen. She studied at the University of the Arts Bremen with Elke Holzmann, Harry van der Kamp and Ga ...

, Isabel Jantschek, David Erler,

Georg Poplutz Georg Poplutz is a German tenor, a soloist in Baroque music, opera and oratorio, and a Lied singer. He has been a member of vocal ensembles such as Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble and Cantus Cölln, and has participated in a project to record th ...

, Tobias Mäthger and Felix Schwandte.

References

External links

*
Heinrich Schuetz: Symphoniae sacrae I SWV 257–276
Carus
Schütz, Heinrich / Symphoniae Sacrae I, Teil 1 SWV 257–266 / 10 lateinische Konzerte (Nr. 1–10) für 1–2 Singstimmen, 2 Instrumente und Basso continuo
Bärenreiter
Schütz, Heinrich / Symphoniae Sacrae I, Teil 2 SWV 267–276 / 10 lateinische Konzerte (Nr. 11–20) für 4–6 Stimmen (vokal und instrumental) und Basso continuo
Bärenreiter {{authority control Compositions by Heinrich Schütz Choral compositions Psalm settings 1629 works