Heinrich Schütz - Biography
Heinrich Schutz who is generally the greatest German composer prior to J.S Bach and Handel was born in Kostritz Germany on October 8th 1585 and died in Dresden on November 6th 1672. He came from a moderately well to do family of innkeepers. When Schutz was five years old his family moved to Weissenfels where his father was to become Burgomeister. In 1599 Schutz as so many of the composers of the Renaissance became a boy chorister, in his case in the Court Chapel of Hessen-Kassel.He took advanced studies in music with the Kapellmeister at the court Georg Otto .Schutz studied to become a lawyer at the University at Marburg. The Landgrave (Ruler) of Hessen- Kassel was so impressed with Schutz’s musical talent he financed his musical studies in Venice after his graduation where his teacher was to be the renowned composer Giovanni Gabrieli. Schutz wrote his first published works in 1612 a book of Madrigals and dedicated them to the Landgrave.
Gabrielli died in 1612, Schutz returned to Herman-Kassel in 1612 and became an organist at court. The following year he was made Kapellmeister at the court of Dresden, significant career advancement. The Landgrave of Hessen- Kassel disputed the appointment but the more powerful Elector of Dresden prevailed and Schutz was made full Kapellmeister a year later. In 1619 he published his first great work the Psalms of David, during the year of 1619 Schutz marries Magdalena Wildeck who was the daughter of a prominent court official, and they were to have two children before her death in 1625.Schutz never remarried. He composed what must be one of the very first Operas written by a German Dafne that was first performed in 1627.His first series of Cantiones Sacres were composed in 1625 along with his oratorio The History of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ of the same period. Schutz felt he needed further study to reach another level and he returned to Venice in 1628 to study with the great mater of the age Claudio Monteverdi. Schutz shows great humility in feeling that he needed additional studies when he was already an accomplished composer of 43.
Schutz’s career and life must always be put into the context of the ruinous Thirty Years War between Catholics and Protestants that laid waste to Germany and eventually killed up to thirty percent of its population. Schutz returned to Dresden in 1629 just prior to the start of the war. The war which had a devastating effect on Dresden and Saxony as a whole forced Schutz for a period to take a Kapellmeister Copenhagen. Upon returning to Dresden a few years later he was to composer one his greatest works the Musicalische Exequien. The following years were to see the composition of the masterful Kleine Geistliche Concerts for small orchestra and orchestra and also the music for an opera ballet Orfeo et Euridice to celebrate a royal wedding at court. The uncertainty of being in war time Dresden forced him to move to Copenhagen in 1641 where he remained for three years .He returned to Germany in 1644 eventually going back to Dresden the following year. He requested a retirement with a pension, but even though he was 69 the Elector refused his request. A retirement pension finally came through when a new Elector was put in place, Schutz was 72.
Schutz continued to compose into his seventies and eighties with no falling off in the quality of his work. The great works from this period include the Symphoniae Sacrae, his settings of the Passions to Saint Luke, Saint- John and Saint Matthew, the Christmas Oratorio and his very great last work the Deutsche Magnificat. Schutz died peacefully in his eight seventh year in Dresden.
Schutz during his 87 years straddled the age of the Renaissance and the Baroque. Bach was deeply influenced by him. As was so often the case for composers of the Renaissance he was known more to musical scholars then listeners in the centuries after his death. The revival of interest in old masters in Germany in the mid nineteenth century raised Schutz profile. Johannes Brahms when he arrived in Vienna was a choral director for a number of years and took a great interest in the music of Schutz. Twentieth Century scholarship has given us complete published editions of Schutz’s extant works. The music itself has a severe grand austere beauty that makes it difficult for many listeners to absorb. In fact Schutz has been under recorded. Schutz may very well be the most undervalued of great composers but with concentrated listening the music’s power is enormously impressive.