Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

338 SOHUTZ SCHUTZ
waa commissioned to procure from Italy Peri's
opera ' Dafne.' The poet Opitz was set to
the task of translating the Italian text by
Rinuceini into German, and as it was found
that Peri's music would not quite fit the new
6erman words, Schiitz had to adapt them to
new music of his own. The opera 'Dafne,' as
thus set by Schiitz, was performed at Torgau on
the 13thofAprill627. Unfortunately the music
ofthisfirst German opei;a has not been preserved,
and no further account of it has been given. It
is probable, however, that Schiitz did little else
on this occasion than rearrange Peri's music and
add something in exactly the same style. In
any case the result was not such as to induce
Schiitz to make any further attempts in music
for the theatre, if we except another occasional
piece, a Ballet, Orpheus und ' Euridice, ' written
in 1638, the music of which appears also to be
lost. In 1625 appeared his 'GeistlicheGesange,'
and in 1628 Schiitz, having lost his wife, found
some comfort in his sorrow, as he tells us, by
occupying himself with the task of composing
melodieswith simple 4-part harmony to a rhymed
version of the Psalms by Dr. Cornelius Becker.
This version by Becker was meant to be a
Lutheran rival to an earlier Oalvinistio version by
Lobwasser, based on the French Psalter of Marot
and Beza, and adapted to the same melodies.
Later on, Johann Georg II., with a view to the
introduction of the Becker Psalter in
place of
Lobwasser's in the schools and churches of
Saxony, urged Schiitz to complete his composition
of melodies for the work. The task was
hardly congenial to our composer, as he himself
confesses in the preface to the complete work
when it appeared in 1661. Two further editions,
however, of this Psalter, with Sohiitz's melodies,
appeared in 1676 and 1712. Some of these
melodies passed into later Cantionals, though
none have ever taken the same place in general
use or esteem that similar work by less eminent
composers has done.
Partly to distract himself from his great
sorrow, partly to familiarise himself with the
still newer development of music in Italy, with
which the name of Claudio Monteverde is
chiefly associated, Schiitz set out on a second
visit to Italy in 1629. He found musical taste
in Venice greatly changed since the time of his
first visit (1612), 'modern ears were being
regaled with a new kind of sensation ' (' reoenti
titillatione '). The new style consisted in the
greater prominence given to solo singing, and
to intensity of expression in solo singing, the
freer use of dissonances, and greater richness
and variety in instrumental accompaniment. In
a series of works entitled 'Symphoniae Saorae,'
Schiitz endeavoured to turn to account the new
experiences he had gained, without, however,
like his new Italian models, turning his back
upon his earlier polyphonic training. He never
altogether forgot to unite the solidity of the
'
old school with the piquancy of expression of
the new. The first part of Symphoniae Sacrae '
appeared at Venice in 1629, and consists of
twenty settings of Latin texts, chiefly froip the
Psalms and the Song of Songs. A second part
of 'Symphoniae Sacrae,' with the sub -title
'Deutsche Concerten,' appeared at Dresden in
1657; athird part also at Dresden in 1650. The
two later parts are settings of German Bible texts.
They may be described as brief dramatic cantatas
for various combinations of voices and instruments,
and in virtue of them Schiitz may be
considered joint-founder with Carissimi of the
Dramatic Oratorio. Winterfeld {Qahrieli, vol.
iii. pp. 82, etc., also Evang. Kir. Gesang. vol.
ii. p. 315) singles out for special notice from
the first part, ' Fill, fill mi, Absalom ' (David's
lament over Absalom), written for bass solo
with accompaniment of four trombones, and
from the third part, ' Saul, Saul, was verfolgst
du mich ? ' (a cantata for the festival of the
Conversion of St. Paul), and Mein Sohn, warum
'
hast du uns das gethan ?' (for the first Sunday
after Epiphany).
In 1631 and following years Saxony became
the scene of war, and one result was the complete
disorganisation of the Elector's capelle,
means failing for the payment of musicians, and
the attention of the Elector and his court being
occupied with more serious matters than music.
Schiitz obtained leave in 1633 to accept an
invitation to Copenhagen from King Christian
IV. of Denmark. The years 1635-41 were
spent in wanderings to and fro between different
courts with occasional returns to Dresden, Schiitz
being still nominally in the service of the
Elector. TThe chief works worthy of notice
published during these years are two sets of
Geistliohe Concerte for one to five voices, with
Basso Continno (1636, 1639), the second set
being especially remarkable by the composer's
frequent directions for the securing of proper
expression in his music. (It is to be remembered
that marks and terms of expression were not
then in common use.) In 1641 Schiitz returned
to Dresden to make an eSbrt to reorganise the
music, but from want of means his efforts were
not crowned with anything like success till
1645 or 1647. A work of importance was
written and produced about 1645, though
strangely enough it was never printed or published
in Schiitz's lifetime, and only appeared
in print for the first time in 1873, edited by
Carl Eiedel of Leipzig. It is a small Passion
Oratorio on the Seven Words from the Cross.
This work is of importance as contributing some
new elements to the development of the later
Passion Music. First, the part of the Evangelist
is no longer based on the liturgical intonation,
as in the Resurrection ' ' oratorio of 1623, but
takes the form of the new Arioso '
Recitative.'
For the sake of variety Schiitz divides this
part among different solo voices, and sets it