Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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SCHUTZ SCHUTZ 337
education in the arts and sciences of the time,
which enabled him in 1607 to proceed to the
University of Marburg, where he pursued with
some jiistinction the study of law. The Landgraf,
when on a visit to Marburg, observing in
his protdgi a special inclination and talent for
music, generously offered to defray the expense
of his further musical cultivation at Venice
under the tuition of Giovanni Gabrieli, the
most distinguished musician of the age. Schutz
accordingly proceeded to Venice in 1609, and
already in 1611 published the first-fruits of
his studies under Gabrieli, a book of five-part
madrigals dedicated to his patron. On the
death of Gabrieli in 1612, Sohiitz returned to
Cassel, and was appointed organist to the Landgraf,
but either uncertain himself as to his real
vocation for music or induced by his friends,
he had still some thoughts of taking up again
the profession of law. Perhaps the Landgraf's
chapel was too narrow a sphere for him to work
in ; it was fortunate therefore that in 1 6 1 4 he received
the invitation to undertake the entire direction
of the oapelle of the Elector Johann Georg
of Saxony at Dresden, at a salary of 400 gulden.
The Landgraf was unwilling to part with him,
and would at first only allow him to accept this
position temporarily. He recalled Schiitzin 1616,
but on the earnest petition of the Elector finally
consented to his remaining permanently at
Dresden. Schiitz's first endeavour at Dresden
was to reorganise the electoral music, and indeed,
as he had been engaged to do, on the
Italian model, for the purpose of introducing
the new concerted style of music vocal and
instrumental. He procured good Italian instruments
and players, and sent qualified members
of the capelle to Italy for a time, to perfect
themselves in the new style of singing and
playing.
His first work of importance appeared in
1619, Psalmen David's' sammt etlichen Motetten
'
nnd Concerten mit 8 und mehr Stimmen,'
'
a work which shows the influence of the new
Monodio or Declamatory style which Schiitz
had learned in Italy.
For his purpose Schiitz uses the means of expression
aflbrded by contrast of different choirs,
or contrast of solo voices with full choir, or
contrast of voices with instruments, either the
simple Basso Continuo, i.e. for organ, lute, or
theorbo, or strings with occasional trumpets, etc.
His next work, in 1823, was an oratorio on the
subject of the Kesurrection entitled ' Historia
der frbhlichen und siegreichen Auferstehung
unsers einigen Erlosers und Seligmachers Jesu
Christi.' The occasion for the composition of
this work would seem to have been the practice,
still kept up at Dresden, Leipzig, and other
churches in Saxony, of singing the story of the
Resurrection at Easter as that of the Passion in
Holy Week. A ' Geistliches Gesangbuch ' of
1612 informs us that ' Every year on Easter-day
VOL. rv
at Vespers, before the sermon, there is sung in
our Christian congregations the Kesurrection,
so splendidly set by Antonins Scandellus.'
This Antonius Scandellus, Scandello, or ScandeUi,
had been one of Schiitz's own predecessors
at Dresden from 1568 to 1580, and had written
both a Passion and a Kesurrection. (See p. 238.)
His ' Resurrection ' must have continued in use
even beyond Schiitz's time, since it even appears
in Vopelius's ' Leipziger Gesangbuch,' of 1682.
It may be seen in Schoberlein and Riegel's
'Sohatz des liturgisohen Chorgesang, ' ii. 619-
647. (With regard to the authorship, compare
0. Kade's remarks in the Vorwort to the Notenbeilagen
to Ambros's GescMcTite, xlvi.) Schiitz's
'Resurrection' follows the line of Scandello's, only
whereas Scandello's composition is purely vocal,
that of Schiitz is adapted to instrumental accompaniment.
Both works begin with a setting
(in Scandello 5 -part, in Schutz 6-part) ofthe words
'Die Auferstehung unsers Herrn Jesu Christi, wie
uns die von den Evangelisten besohrieben wird,
and conclude with a setting (Scandello 5-part,
Schiitz 8-part) of the words Gott ' sei Dank, der
uns den Sieg gegeben hat, ' etc. In Scandello,
the part of the Evangelist is altogether liturgical,
but in Schiitz, while it is mostly based on the
liturgical melody, the more important passages
have given to them a more characteristic and expressive
form of declamation, which sometimes
rises up to actual melody in the more modern
sense of the term, and the Evangelist's part
is accompanied throughout either by the organ
or preferably by four Viole da Gamba, which
are called upon at certain pauses in the narrative
to execute appropriate runs or passages
('Zierliche und appropriirte Laufe oder Passaggi
machen '). The words of other personages
are set for two or more voices, according to
their number, as for instance, the words of the
three Maries as a trio, of the two angelsas a duet,
of the eleven disciples as a 6-part chorus, only
that usually for single personages two parts are
employed (as in Scandelli), though Schiitz permits
one of these parts to be taken, as he expresses
it, instrumentaliter. This work of Schiitz's is
altogether remarkable, as being a highly successful
endeavour to unite dramatic expressiveness
with reverence for ecclesiastical tradition. The
same spirit is shown in another form in his
next work of importance, Caution '
es Sacrae,' for
four voices with bass accompaniment for organ.
The endeavour here is to unite the older form of
the Motet with the newer form of the Concerto,
and the Diatonic Church Modes with the use
of Chromatic harmonies. In 1627 Johann Georg
1. of Saxony wished to signalise the occasion
of the marriage of his daughter to the Landgraf
of Hesse-Darmstadt by giving the first performance
of opera in Germany. The opera had
just sprung into life in connection with the new
musical movement in Italy, as a supposed
revival of the antique music-drama. Schutz