Music Director Jonathan Oldengarm and the Metropolitan Festival Choir and Baroque Orchestra will launch their 2024-2025 season with Heinrich Schütz’s Funeral Music on November 3.
The concert will be inspired by historical practice, with a large component of continuo instruments, including the large church organ, regal (a reed keyboard instrument), harpsichord, chamber organ, theorbo, and violone.
While much lesser known today, Schütz was an influential composer and performer of the early Baroque.
Heinrich Schütz
German composer and organist Heinrich Schütz was born in 1585 and died in 1672. He is considered a major figure of the early Baroque period in Germany, and overall, one of the most significant composers in Europe of the era.
Although Schütz’s musical talent was recognized when he was a child, he began by studying law at Marburg before making the switch to music, and a move to Venice to study with Giovanni Gabrieli from from 1609 to 1612. He retains that influence on his music throughout his career, combining both Venetian and German Lutheran aesthetics. He would return to Venice later in his career, refreshing that influence in his music.
Most scholars credit him with helping to bridge the transition from Renaissance into early Baroque, adding the influence of Italian style to German music. He wrote a great deal of music for the Lutheran church, particularly in Dresden, where he settled for a large part of his career.
His career was intersected by the Thirty Years’ War, which took place from 1618 to 1648, as well as an outbreak of the plague during the same period. He wrote Musikalische Exequien around the midpoint of the longstanding conflict. Schütz lost his wife in 1625, and would later lose both daughters.
As the situation in Dresden deteriorated due to the war and plague, Schütz petitioned for release from his contract with the city, but the Electorate refused. Despite his difficulties, during his time there, he founded what would later become the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden.
Musikalische Exequien, Op. 7, SWV 279–281
Schütz wrote his Musikalische Exequien, Op. 7, SWV 279–281 in late 1635 or early 1636. It was music intended for the funeral services of Count Henry II, Count of Reuss-Gera. The Count, who had died on 3 December 1635, had planned out his own service, including the text, drawn from Lutheran writers of the time. The premiere took place on February 14, 1636, and it has remained the composer’s most famous funerary music.
The widespread turmoil of the time along with his own situation no doubt influenced the depth of his contemplation of life and death in the music, and contributes to its lasting impact today.
The Musikalische Exequien consists of three sections:
- Concert in Form einer teutschen Begräbnis-Messe (SWV 279) | Part I of the Exequien is a sacred concerto where small groups of soloists have a conversation with the full choir, who also add chorales.
- Motet Herr, wenn ich nur Dich habe (SWV 280) | In Part II, two four-part choirs ask and answer the questions that haunt us all: Who am I? Why am I here? What comes next?
- Canticum Simeonis Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener (SWV 281) | The Nunc dimittis also known as the Song of Simeon or the Canticle of Simeon is taken from the Gospel of Luke, and juxtaposes a solo trio with the chorus. The trio represents the Holy Spirit, the soul of the departed, and an angel.
Concert Details
The concert takes place November 3 at the Metropolitan United Church.
- Pre-concert talk by Jonathan Oldengarm at 6:30 p.m.
- Concert starts at 7:30 p.m.
- Admission is free, with a suggested contribution of $40 to the Met Concert Fund.
Find full details [HERE].
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