1.Nacket bin ich vom Mutterleibe kommen ('Concert...in Form einer teutschen Missa'), SWV 279

Roughly a year before his death, Prince Heinrich von Reuss was already planning his exequies. The wealthy and organized German prince ordered for himself a coffin of solid copper to be lavishly inscribed with a series of religious texts. Reuss himself chose the texts and their order, further stipulating that these same texts (plus a few others he also chose) be set to music and sung during his funeral. Upon his death in late 1635, Reuss' widow turned to the eminent Dresden Kapellmeister Heinrich Schütz to execute Reuss' will in music. Schütz later published the three German motets for the 1636 funeral as his Musikalishe exequien, Op. 7; the longest and most complex piece is the first, Nacket bin ich vom Mutterliebe kommen, which set the coffin texts.

Schütz's own subtitle, "Concerto in the form of a German funeral-Mass," first indicates his struggle with this piece. The texts prescribed by Reuss fully make up 25 distinct fragments of text. Reuss chose excerpts from ten books of the Bible, from Genesis to the Prophets to Wisdom literature to the Epistles, and interspersed them among stanzas of various Lutheran chorales. Their themes encompass life and death, from the transitory and arduous character of earthly life to the joyous hope of redemption, resurrection, and eternal life. Schütz imposed upon this theological treasure trove the loose structure of a funeral Kyrie and Gloria. The first six sections (Kyrie) alternate three Biblical passages and three prayers for mercy from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. There follows a Gloria, in which eight chorale stanzas (by Helmbold, Leon, Gigas, Hermann, and Martin Luther himself) alternate with the remaining Biblical passages.

Musically, Schütz articulates this complex structure by means of a simple device. He sets all the passages of Scripture for different combinations of solo voices and basso continuo, contrasted to a full choir of six soloists for the chorale stanzas and Kyrie tropes. The full-choir passages resemble his 1619 Psalmen Davids: quasi-Venetian polychoral effects with occasional quotations of chorale melodies. The interpolated soli passages instead follow the style of his 1636 Geistliche chormusik: concise yet musically expressive solo motets. The heart of the entire movement is "Der gerechten Seelen," the vision of the saved righteous souls in the hand of God; in it, Schütz anticipates the dramatic voicing of his third movement. Perhaps with it he even sowed musical seeds for the later Requiem of Brahms.

© Timothy Dickey, Rovi

2.Herr, wenn ich nur dich, SWV 280

Heinrich Schütz was born a subject of Prince Heinrich Posthumous von Reuss-Gera, and though Schütz later traveled far from his native town of Saxon Köstritz, he maintained a close relationship with Reuss. When Reuss died in late 1435, then, Schütz was an obvious candidate to compose the funeral music. In fact, the willful and organized Reuss had made very complete preparations for his own funeral: he had already constructed his coffin and it was engraved with a rich series of biblical and hymnic texts meditating on life and death. Reuss had also selected the texts upon which his funeral sermon would be preached, and stipulated that all these favorite texts be set to appropriate music and sung during his obsequies. No evidence survives that Reuss specifically chose the composer, but neither could he have faulted his widow's appointment of Schütz. The extensive collection of coffin texts became in Schütz's hand the first movement of the 1636 Musikalische Exequien; he further set the text for the funeral sermon as its second movement, Herr, wenn ich nur Dich. As per Reuss' wishes, this music was sung immediately following the sermon itself on February 4, 1636. Despite its occasional nature, Schütz later published the entire funeral music.

Schütz chose the expansive medium of eight voices in a double choir, supported by continuo organ for the motet Herr, wenn ich nur Dich. The text is a comforting reflection from Psalm 73:25-26: "Lord, when I have only You, then I will ask for nothing else in heaven or on earth." As was the case in his early publication of the Psalmen Davids, Schütz set the Psalm text in Protestant, vernacular German. As was also the case in that early set of Psalm motets, he adopted the grand polychoral idioms he learned from Giovanni Gabrieli in Venice. He wrote vocal lines in perfect counterpoint, yet combined them in grandiose harmonic sequences and textural contrasts. He presents antiphonal alternation both between the two choirs and within each; he passes brief imitative motives among all eight voices, and then arrives at a resounding chordal homophony that proclaims God as "all my heart's trust." In other parts of his Musikalische Exequien, Schütz employed the more modest solo forces forced upon him in Dresden by the Thirty Years' War; Herr, wenn ich, following the memorial sermon of this great prince, adopted a much more elevated tone.

© Timothy Dickey, Rovi