Heinrich Schütz (German: [ʃʏt͡s]; 18 October [O.S. 8 October] 1585 – 6 November 1672) was a German composer and organist from the early Baroque period. He is often considered the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and one of the most significant composers of the 17th century. Schütz is known for introducing the Italian musical style to Germany and helping it develop from the Renaissance into the early Baroque era. Most of his remaining music was written for the Lutheran church, especially for the Electoral Chapel in Dresden. He composed what is traditionally called the first German opera, Dafne, which was performed in Torgau in 1627. Unfortunately, the music for Dafne and nearly all of his ceremonial and stage works have been lost. Schütz was a very productive composer, with more than 500 surviving pieces.

He is honored as a musician in the Calendar of Saints of some North American Lutheran churches on 28 July, along with Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel.

Early life and education

Heinrich Schütz was born in Köstritz, the first child of Christoph Schütz and Euphrosyne Bieger. In 1590, his family moved to Weißenfels, where his father worked as the manager of the inn called "Zum güldenen Ring." Later, Christoph Schütz became the burgomaster of Weißenfels and in 1615 bought another inn named "Zur güldenen Sackpfeife" and "Zum güldenen Esel." He changed its name to "Zum Schützen."

While living with his parents, Heinrich's musical abilities were noticed by Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel during a visit to his father's inn in 1598. After hearing Heinrich sing, the landgrave asked his parents to let him join his court for education. At first, Heinrich's parents refused, but after many letters, they agreed and took Heinrich to Kassel in August 1599.

After serving as a choirboy, Heinrich studied law at Marburg University. In 1609, he traveled to Venice to learn music from Giovanni Gabrieli. Gabrieli was the only teacher Heinrich ever acknowledged. Before Gabrieli died, he gave Heinrich a ring. Heinrich later became the organist in Kassel from 1613 to 1615.

Career

After long discussions between the landgrave and the elector, Schütz moved to Dresden in 1615 to work as a court composer for the Elector of Saxony. In 1619, Schütz married Magdalena Wildeck, who was born in 1601. She had two daughters before her death in 1625: Anna Justina, born in 1621, and Euphrosyne, born in 1623.

In Dresden, Schütz helped start what is now known as the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. However, he left Dresden several times. In 1628, he returned to Venice, where he may have met the composer Claudio Monteverdi. In 1633, he was invited to Copenhagen to create music for a wedding celebration and returned to Dresden in 1635. He visited Denmark again in 1641 because the Electoral court had been damaged by war. The Thirty Years' War ended in 1648, and Schütz became more active in Dresden again. In 1655, the year his daughter Euphrosyne died, he accepted a position as Kapellmeister at Wolfenbüttel.

During the Thirty Years' War, Schütz’s compositions in Dresden were smaller in scale compared to his earlier works, which were often large. This period produced some of his most appealing music. After the war, Schütz wrote larger-scale compositions, reaching a peak in the 1660s when he created what is considered the greatest Passion music before Bach.

Schütz taught many students, including Heinrich Albert, Christoph Bernhard, Anton Colander, Constantin Christian Dedekind, Carlo Farina, Johann Wilhelm Furchheim, Johann Kaspar Horn, Caspar Kittel, Christoph Kittel, Johann Klemm, Adam Krieger, Johann Jakob Loewe (or Löwe), Johann Nauwach, David Pohle, Philipp Stolle, Johann Theile, Clemens Thieme, Johann Vierdanck, Matthias Weckmann, Friedrich Werner, and Friedrich von Westhoff.

Later life

Schütz returned to Weißenfels in retirement that he had to ask for, living with his sister (the house is now a museum of his life). However, the Electoral Court often called him back to Dresden. He died in Dresden from a stroke in 1672 at the age of 87. He was buried in the old Dresden Frauenkirche, but his tomb was destroyed in 1727 when the church was torn down to build the new Dresden Frauenkirche. (His longtime home on the same square has been rebuilt in the same style and now serves as an apartment building with hotel rooms and a restaurant.)

Style

Heinrich Schütz's music was influenced by composers such as Gabrieli and Monteverdi, especially in his use of multiple choirs and instrumental groups working together. He also showed the impact of 16th-century Netherlandish composers. His most famous works are religious, including solo songs with instruments, choral music without instruments, and pieces like Psalms of David, Cantiones sacrae, Symphoniae sacrae, The Seven Words of Jesus Christ on the Cross, three Passion settings, and the Christmas Story. Early in his career, Schütz's music was complex and advanced, but later it became simpler and more solemn, especially in his late Passion settings. This change was partly due to the damage caused by the Thirty Years' War, which disrupted Germany's music scene and made it difficult to perform large-scale works in the style of his earlier years.

Schütz's piece Es steh Gott auf (SWV 356) shares similarities with Monteverdi's music. His Musikalische Exequien (1636), a funeral piece for a noble friend, is considered a masterpiece and is now known as the first German Requiem. Schütz was skilled in both Latin and German musical styles.

Schütz was one of the last composers to use a modal style, where harmonies often came from how voices interacted rather than from a sense of movement toward a key. However, his music also showed a strong pull toward specific musical keys when reaching important points. His compositions often included repeated musical phrases, but the timing and spacing of these phrases were not always regular. This is different from the work of his contemporaries, Johann Hermann Schein and Samuel Scheidt, whose music used more predictable patterns. Schütz's music also included strong, unexpected harmonies created by how individual voices moved independently. His music was especially careful in matching the rhythm and meaning of the text, using techniques inspired by classical speech patterns. In his later works, his style became simpler, using fewer unusual chords and techniques than in earlier pieces like Was hast du verwirket (SWV 307) from Kleine geistliche Konzerte II.

Most of Schütz's secular (non-religious) music, such as songs for personal use or special events like Wie wenn der Adler sich aus seiner Klippe schwingt (SWV 434), has not survived. No purely instrumental music by Schütz remains, except for a short instrumental section in Die sieben Worte. Despite this, he was known as one of Germany's finest organists.

Schütz played a key role in introducing Italian musical ideas to Germany, greatly influencing future German music. The style of the North German organ school, which later led to the work of J.S. Bach, was strongly shaped by Schütz, along with the Dutch composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. After Bach, composers like Anton Webern and Johannes Brahms studied and were influenced by Schütz's work.

Works

The following are major published works by the composer; most of these include many different musical pieces. Individual works are also listed in the complete work list, which includes important compositions such as the Seven Last Words and the Passions (based on the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John). More than 500 individual pieces by Schütz have survived.

• Il primo libro de madrigali (First Book of Madrigals) (opus 1, Venice, 1611)
• Psalmen Davids (Book 1) (opus 2, Dresden, 1619)
• Historia der … Aufferstehung … (The Resurrection) (opus 3, Dresden, 1623)
• Cantiones sacrae (opus 4, Freiberg, 1625)
• Becker Psalter (opus 5, Freiberg, 1628, revised 1661)
• Symphoniae sacrae (Book 1) (opus 6, Venice, 1629)
• Musikalische Exequien (opus 7, Dresden, 1636)
• Kleine geistliche Konzerte (Book 1) (opus 8, Leipzig, 1636)
• Kleine geistliche Konzerte (Book 2) (opus 9, Leipzig, 1639)
• Symphoniae sacrae (Book 2) (opus 10, Dresden, 1647)
• Geistliche Chor-Music (opus 11, Dresden, 1648)
• Symphoniae sacrae (Book 3) (opus 12, Dresden, 1650)
• Zwölf geistliche Gesänge (opus 13, Dresden, 1657)
• Historia der … Geburt … Jesu Christi (Christmas Story) (Dresden, 1664)
• Lukas-Passion (The Passion According to St. Luke) (Dresden, 1665)
• Johannes-Passion (The Passion According to St. John) (Dresden, 1666)
• Matthäus-Passion (The Passion According to St. Matthew) (Dresden, 1666)
• Königs und Propheten 119er Psalm … (Psalm 119, Psalm 100, and German Magnificat: Der Schwanengesang, "Swan Song") (opus ultimum, Dresden, 1671)

General sources

• Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era. Published in New York by W.W. Norton & Co. in 1947. ISBN 0-393-09745-5
• Wolfram Steude, "Zum gegenwärtigen Stand der Schütz-Ikonographie," in Schütz-Jahrbuch 1985/86. Published in Kassel by Bärenreiter in 1986, pages 50 to 61. ISBN 3-7618-0778-3
• Basil Smallman, Heinrich Schütz. Published by The Master Musicians in 2000.
• Tamsin (née T.D.) Jones, Passions in Perspective: An Analytical Discussion of the Three Passions of Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) Against Their Historical and Stylistic Backgrounds. Doctoral thesis from the University of Birmingham in 2000.
• Heinrich Schütz: Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11. Edited by Andrew Thomas Kuster. Published in Ann Arbor, MI, in 2005. ISBN 1-4116-4243-0
• Bettina Varwig, Histories of Heinrich Schütz. Published by Cambridge University Press in 2011. ISBN 978-0-521-19765-6