Michael Praetorius (1571/72-1621)
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)
Sacred Works
Weser-Renaissance Bremen/Manfred Cordes
rec. 2021, Stiftskirche Bassum, Germany
Texts and translations included
Reviewed as a stereo 16/44 download
cpo 555 503-2 [68]

It makes much sense to bring together Michael Praetorius and Heinrich Schütz on one disc. They were contemporaries – Schütz was fourteen years Praetorius’ junior – and knew each other personally. Between 1614 and 1621 Praetorius, who was in the service of the court of Wolfenbüttel, was engaged at the court in Dresden as a non-resident director of music. In 1612 the Dresden Kapellmeister Hans-Leo Hassler had died, and he was succeeded by Rogier Michael, who suffered from poor health. Therefore the court tried to contract Praetorius, but his employer refused to let him go. It was Schütz who was then appointed Kapellmeister, but Praetorius was still kept as a ‘backup’, as Manfred Cordes puts it in his liner-notes. The fact that Praetorius dedicated his collection Polyhymnia caduceatrix & Panegyrica of 1619 to Johann Georg, the Elector of Saxony, rather than to his own employer, attests to the connection between the composer and Dresden.

Praetorius and Schütz are among the most prolific composers of their time in Germany, and two of the first great composers of music for the liturgy according to the Lutheran confession. However, although there are similarities between the two, there are also significant differences, and that makes the comparison between their settings of the same texts quite interesting.

One of the differences is the role of the hymns, which were the product of Luther’s ideal of music in the vernacular to be sung in church, in schools and at home. Praetorius, although mostly in the service of a court, had the singing of the congregation in mind. The hymns – generally known as ‘chorales’ – were the heart of worship in Lutheran churches. Praetorius published a large number of collections of music in different scorings, in which the hymns play a key role. In comparison, Schütz did not pay much attention to the hymn; only now and then he set them, and in his settings the melody is mostly not given much prominence. Whether this was something of personal taste is hard to say. In his compositions Schütz may have performances at courts – in Dresden and elsewhere – in mind, where hymns may have played a minor role.

The two settings of Psalm 130 attest to the difference in approach. Praetorius has set the versification by Martin Luther, Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir. It is included in the first volume of Musae Sioniae of 1605, which includes 21 settings for double choir of “German psalms by the most distinguished Herr Luther and others”. In his preface Praetorius states that he has given the melody special attention, which allows the congregation to take part in the performance. Schütz, on the other hand, also uses the technique of cori spezzati – which he had become acquainted with during his time in Venice, where he studied with Giovanni Gabrieli – but sets the text in its original form, as included in Luther’s translation of the Old Testament: Aus der Tiefe rufe ich Herr zu dir. The melody of Luther’s versification is completely absent. It is a syllabic setting in the stilo recitativo, as Schütz puts it, which allows for an optimum intelligibility of the text.

If Schütz and Praetorius both set a hymn, they treat it differently. An example is Nun lob mein Seel den Herren, a hymn by Johann Gramann (1525). Praetorius’s scoring is for two sopranos and bass, but some passages are marked tutti, where an additional four-part chapel choir may come in; in this recording these parts are performed instrumentally, and here the melody is presented in an easily recognizable way. Schütz also suggests the addition of choirs – called capellae – but their role is to add “majesty and strength of sound” rather than the chorale melody, which plays a relatively minor role in this piece.

As was common at the time both composers offered different options as far as the line-up was concerned. Not every court had the same number of singers and players of high quality at their disposal as they had. Praetorius goes sometimes very far in suggesting reduction or extension of the number of participants. An example is the setting of Psalm 6, Ach mein Herre, straf mich doch nicht, one of the seven penitential psalms. It can be performed with just three soprano voices, but the piece can be extended to a scoring for up to 17 voices. Schütz sets Ach Herr, straf mich nicht in deinem Zorn for two choirs, with the possibility to add two capellae, but does not indicate that the scoring can be reduced. This again demonstrates that Praetorius had a wider use in mind than Schütz. Interestingly, whereas Praetorius is often considered the more ‘conservative’ of the two, and basically one of the last representatives of the stile antico, this piece, taken from Polyhymnia of 1619, is written in the modern Italian style, witness the embellishments that he added to the vocal parts. In comparison, Schütz’s setting, which is included in his Psalmen Davids, which were published in the same year, is almost entirely homophonic. This is a token of the composer’s admiration of his teacher Gabrieli.

The longest pieces are settings of Psalm 116. They were included in the same printed edition of 1623, which was the result of a commission by the Saxon court official Burckhard Großmann to commemorate his “miraculous salvation” of 1616. In total sixteen settings of Psalm 116, Das ist mir lieb, were written by several of the leading composers of the time, such as Melchior Franck, Christoph Demantius and Johann Hermann Schein, alongside Praetorius and Schütz, and some composers who are hardly known today. All of them had to be scored for five voices. Schütz’s setting is in line with this request: the five voices sing the text unaccompanied, and Cordes rightly points out that the piece has the character of a sacred madrigal. Praetorius also sets the text for five voices, but takes the freedom to add strings, which play a sinfonia at the start of each section and at some passages double the voices. The preface by Großman suggests that this piece may have been Praetorius’s last composition.

The disc ends with Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich/Gib unsern Fürsten, which is one of Schütz’s most famous pieces. Whereas most of Schütz’s psalms on this disc are taken from the Psalmen Davids of 1619, and therefore from about the same time as the pieces by Praetorius, this motet – which Schütz treats as a pair – is from his Geistliche Chor-music of 1648. One may wonder whether it makes sense to compare it with a piece by Praetorius from 1619. However, in his collection of motets from 1648 Schütz returns to the teachings of Gabrieli. In his preface he emphasizes the importance of counterpoint. He wanted “to remind Germany’s budding composers that, before proceding to the concertante style, they should bite on this hard nut [the motet style] (in which the true heart and foundation of good counterpoint will be found) and pass their first test in this way”. Again, the chorale melody is more or less hidden in Schütz’s settings. He rather uses musical figures to illustrate elements in the text. In Praetorius’s setting the hymn melody is clearly audible, even though the piece is set for four choirs and a soprano solo, which results in a 17-part texture. Whereas in Schütz this is a separate work, Praetorius set this text as the second part of another chorale-setting, Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort.

As I wrote, Praetorius and Schütz can be considered two of the main composers of Lutheran music of their time. It is quite interesting to listen to this comparison. One reason for the difference between the two as the examples on this disc demonstrate is that a substantial part of Praetorius’s oeuvre had (also) a pedagogical purpose: he wanted to offer chapels music based on the commonly-known chorales which could be used to promote the chorale and stimulate its singing during worship. Unlike the generelly-held view, it was only after 1600 that congregations gradually started to sing them. Before they were mainly sung by school choirs. It may well be partly thanks to Praetorius’s efforts that the chorale, which was rooted in the 16th century, was able to survive the esthetic changes and could establish itself in the baroque era.

Manfred Cordes has once again produced a recording of great importance and of great beauty. The oeuvre of Schütz has been recorded complete and parts of it are relatively well-known, although that may be different in the Anglo-Saxon world. It is different with Praetorius: there is no complete recording, and if his music is performed, it is often part of recordings of music for Christmastide. Many music lovers, even in the German-speaking world, may know little more than his setting of Es ist ein Ros entsprungen. He has much more to offer and I sincerely hope that some day we will see a complete recording of his oeuvre. In the meantime, each disc with his music is most welcome, especially if it is as brilliantly performed as here by Weser-Renaissance. The performers have made just everything right.

Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen

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Contents
Michael Praetorius (1571/72-1621)
Ach mein Herre, straf mich doch nicht a 17
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)
Ach Herr, straf mich nicht in deinem Zorn a 8 (SWV 24)
Das ist mir lieb a 5 (SWV 51)
Michael Praetorius
Das ist mir lieb a 10
Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir a 8
Heinrich Schütz
Aus der Tiefe ruf ich, Herr, zu dir a 8
Michael Praetorius
Nun lob mein Seel den Herren a 3 & 4
Heinrich Schütz
Nun lob mein Seel den Herren a 18 (SWV 41)
Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich/Gib unsern Fürsten a 5 (SWV 372/373)
Michael Praetorius
Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich a 17