Musikalische Exequien (SWV 279-281) (Full Score)

Schütz Musikalische Exequien (SWV 279-281) (Full Score)

In December 1635 Heinrich II Posthumus Reuss died.  The two Heinrichs, Reuss and Schütz, were personally acquainted and associated to one another.  Schütz born in Köstritz and therefore subject of Reuss, had been an advisor to the music patron Heinrich in establishing a music programme at court, at church and generally in his range of influence.

Before his death Heinrich II had a copper coffin built and inscribed with biblical texts which dealt with mortality and the hope for salvation.  After his death his widow passed these texts on to Heinrich Schütz and asked him to set them to music as funeral music.  This is how, within two months, the “Musikalische Exequien” came about.  They were performed at Heinrich’s funeral in February 1636 at the St. Johannis church in Gera.  They appeared in print in the same year as Schütz’s Op.7.

The composition is structured in three parts.  It begins with a “concert in the form of a German funeral Missa”, set for soloists and “capella” in six parts each plus basso continuo.  The groups sing in alternation whereby the soloists mostly interact with one another in two- or three-part settings.  In the choral sections the constantly changing emphasis within the meter of four stands out.  Syncopations, up-beats on the stressed beats within the meter (eg. in "Durch ihn ist uns vergeben die Sünd, geschenkt das Leben"), and the intermittent change into a meter of three create a most lively music.

The powerful, double chorus motet "Herr, wenn ich nur Dich habe" follows in the second part.  The third part consists of Simeon’s song of praise "Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener in Frieden fahren" scored with a 5-part capella and a 3-part favorit chorus.  Schütz designed the capell chorus to be placed very close to the organ while the favorit chorus was to sing from the distance where also the two seraphimes and the saved soul (baritone) were to be located.  From here the other-worldly "Selig sind die Toten" resounds.

- Score, voice parts, basso continuo available for sale