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“Psalms of David” (1619) that marked the ultimate re- the Holy Roman Emperor in 1619. To grasp the sig-

turn on Landgrave Moritz’s investment in Schütz to cre- nificance of this dedication, we must remember that
ate overwhelming concerted works that would make the the Saxon Elector Johann Georg I tried his best to steer

Landgrave’s court the envy of all Germany. The twen- a course of neutrality for the first decade of the Thir-
ty-six compositions were likely written over an extended ty Years War. Hence, Schütz’s dedication of his Latin
period during which Schütz had to wrestle with trans- motets to a close advisor to the current Holy Roman
lating the Venetian polychoral style to accommodate Emperor may comprise part of that calculated political
German texts. In his Preface to the “Psalms of David,” strategy. In addition, Schütz may have hoped that these

Schütz claimed that he was the first composer in Ger- Latin texts would guarantee a wider market for his work
many to write choral music “in stilo recitativo,” in other since both Catholics and Protestants used them.
words, word-driven compositions in the German lan-
guage. It may initially seem that these works with mul-
tiple choirs and extended vocal ranges lie beyond most
modern choirs. Anyone contemplating performance of The Cantiones sacrae are a potential
this music needs to understand the fundamental distinc- gold mine of choral repertory.
tion between the Favoriti choirs (those sung by the best
available [i.e., solo] singers) and the cappellae, grand tuttis
for voices and/or instruments designed to add spectac-
ular grandeur. 19 Another curiosity is that he regarded the Cantiones as
These cappellae are not obligatory if a conductor is his “opus ecclesiaticum primum,” inferred from the des-

open to a less splendorous performance than the com- ignation of the first volume of the Symphoniae sacrae, op.
poser envisioned. The cori favoriti are, on the other hand, 6 (1629), as his “opus ecclesiasticum secundum.” This
essential and may not be omitted. Schütz conceived designation ignores his Psalms of David, a collection
these choirs as soloistic music, less for vocal virtuosity of concerted settings of German, not Latin texts. It is,
than for the ability to ornament and declaim the text. therefore, quite tempting to view his “sacred” op. 1 (the

Schütz offered another possibility for modern perfor- Cantiones sacrae) as the sacred equivalent of his “secular”
mance of those psalms with especially high ranges: here, op. 1, the Italian madrigals.
the conductor may have instruments replace the singers. In his Preface, Schütz claims that his publisher “extort-
Indeed, several of the later works use only one or two ed” the presence of basso continuo from him. In reali-
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sung vocal parts, leaving the other parts to undesignated ty, the majority of the forty Latin motets do not depend
instruments. on continuo, being performable without it. Gottfried
Grote’s NSA edition acknowledges the existence of an
array of styles ranging from motets in the “old manner
Cantiones sacrae, op. 4, 1625 of contrapuntal polyphony” to a quite modern style
The Cantiones sacrae are a potential gold mine of cho- (novam canendi ratio) in motets 18, 32, and 33–36, all of
ral repertory. Schütz draws most of his texts from An- which were clearly conceived with continuo in mind. 22

dreas Musculus’s Precationes ex veteribus orthodoxis doctori- While his fivefold division seems arbitrary in its descrip-
bus… (1553). Half of the forty Latin texts are from the tion of this stylistic continuum, such changes are evident.
Hebrew Bible; the next largest category set texts by such Thus, the motets that evoke the “old” contrapuntal style
venerated Church Fathers as Anselm of Canterbury (d. are the easiest for modern choirs to perform (save for the
1109), Hugo of St. Victor (d. 1141), and Bernhard of problem of vocal range). This “white-note” notation is
Clairvaux (d. 1153). The choice of texts is important: prominent in SWV 53–55, 61–62, 65, 66, 69, and 71–
it explains the otherwise inexplicable dedication of the 72. The opening measures of SWV 61, Verba mea auribus
work to Prince Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg, the chief percipe (Psalm 5:2–3) illustrate a style familiarly found in
minister of Archduke Ferdinand of Styria, who became Renaissance motets (Figure 1 on page 18).

CHORAL JOURNAL October 2022 Volume 63 Number 3 17