Heinrich Schütz : Auf dem Wege zu einem neuen Bild von Persönlichkeit und Werk

Abstract

When the German Singbewegung rediscovered Schütz's music for performance use in the early 20th c., it focused its interest primarily on works that could be performed a cappella or with only a thoroughbass accompaniment: the Kleine geistliche Konzerte, Geistliche Chormusik, and the Passions. This led to a distortion of the evaluation of Schütz as a composer, which has been perpetuated to this day. The composer himself considered other works to be more representative of his creative output: above all the Psalmen Davids and the three parts of the Symphoniae sacrae. They unite sumptuous vocal and instrumental writing and refined compositional technique, the achievement of which 'Henrich' Schütz (as he always wrote his name) regarded as his true personal contribution as a composer. Schütz's self-evaluation is a corrective against the traditional view.