Luogo e data di registrazione		Friedrich-Ebert-Halle, Hamburg-Harburg (Germania) - gennaio 1985
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Andreas Holschneider / Wolfgang Mitlehner
	Prima Edizione LP		Archiv - 415 526-1 - (1 lp) - durata 55' 13" - (p) 1986 - Digitale
	Edizione "Collectio" CD		Archiv - 437 079-2 - (1 cd) - durata 55' 13" - (c) 1986 - DDD
	Note		-

GERMAN BAROQUE CANTATAS The placing of a single work by Heinrich Schütz alongside compositions by younger North German musicians does not represent an arbitrary piece of programme-building, but illustrates one aspect of the many-stranded texture of North German music history before Bach. In the major towns of northern Germany, which had suffered comparatively little from the ravages of the Thirty Years’ War, an independent musical culture was able to develop: the structure of the social life even influenced the music produced there. The central municipal Kantorei, based on a boys’ choir associated with the town’s Gymnasium (grammar school), was responsible - as in southern and central Germany - for all the choral music performed during church services. In time, however, it became too great a burden on this choir to provide for the increasing demands from the congregations at the principal parish churches for elaborate musical works. This gave increased scope for the organists in the wealthy North German towns who were appointed to individual churches, and not to the municipal schools. Organists were quick to seize the opportunity offered to them when it became difficult for the Kantorei to perform music in their churches. Such organists as Scheidemann, Weckmann, Reincken, Tunder, Buxtehude, Böhm, Bruhns and Hanff were not content with writing toccatas and chorale arrangements for organ, but also composed vocal works and in some cases chamber music for performance under their own direction, although they were not obliged to do so under the terms of their employment. Their increased personal interest in such music is reflected both in the use of generally modest resources and in the choice of often highly expressive biblical or hymn texts. The widespread impact of Weckmann’s Collegium Musicum in Hamburg and evening concerts given by Tunder and Buxtehude at Lübeck is the most striking example of such personal involvement on the part of the organists. HEINRICH SCHÜTZ was closely associated with North German music from the time when he was Kapellmeister at Copenhagen (1634-44); and his pupils Matthias Weekmann and Christoph Bernhard exercised an important influence on the musical life of Hamburg from about 1660 onwards. It is noteworthy that the chorale arrangement Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott (Have mercy, Lord, O Saviour dear) has come down to us only through manuscript copies made in northern Germany. Although it is the sole example of the genre among Schütz’s works, it was the precursor of a whole series of monodic chorale settings by North German organists. With its combination of a chorale-based vocal part with instrumental writing, it belongs to a tradition dating back by way of Praetorius to Monteverdi; novel for the time and individual is the way the melody is transformed into an emotionally charged string texture. This is evident at the beginning of the voice part, where the first notes of the melody are taken up and constantly repeated, in order to give emphasis to the plea for mercy. This intensity continues to the end, where above the final note of the voice the first violin ascends to the octave, as though the instrument is expressing something which goes beyond the range of vocal utterance. Among the vocal works of FRANZ TUNDER, who was organist of the Marienkirche at Lübeck from 1641, the one which comes closest to the example of Schütz is his arrangement of An Wasserflüssen Babylon (By the waters of Babylon). The chorale melody is not extensively decorated, certainly not transformed. More important is the instrumental commentary on it, which begins in the extended prelude and continues in brief interludes, because this instrumental counterpoint also gives an expressive harmonic context to the melody. The fourth line of the chorale (“da weinten Wir”), whose ascending fourth is, unusually, repeated a number of times and filled in chromatically, is the centrepiece of the composition. The chromaticism and even tread of the rhythm create a sense of infinite grief. The harmonic treatment does not merely bring out the meaning of the words, but also governs the music’s construction, it in turn reflecting the unity of the subject matter. Tunder’s solo concerto Ach Herr, Lass deine lieben Engelein (Ah Lord, when comes that final day) marks a further advance. For the sake of conveying the emotional effect content of the text, the chorale melody is abandoned except for occasional appearances of figures from it. The instruments open this work with an expressive Sinfonia, motives from which frequently recur during the first vocal section. The first lines of the text are set as an affecting arioso, which progresses from a hesitant beginning to a broadspanned melody (“in Abrahams Schoss tragen”). The more concertante second section also begins with a Sinfonia, whose solemnity recalls the opening. All the greater, therefore, is the contrast provided at the line “alsdann vom Tod erwecke rnich”, in which the words are first declaimed forcefully and then soar in broad melismata. At the conclusion, as a representation of “ewiger Freude” (joy), the metre changes from duple to triple. The invocation “Herr Jesu Christ” is set apart as an adagio passage, and the “Amen” reverts to duple time. The diversifed layout of this piece is not intended to produce formal symmetry, but at the same time it does not simply follow the course of the words. The shape of the composition is determined by two formal complexes, which contrast with each other in their expressive characteristics. At the end of the line of solo chorale arrangements, to which many works of Buxtehude also belong, is the cantata Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (I call to Thee, Lord Jesus Christ) by NICOLAUS ADAM STRUNGK. This composer later became Kapellmeister in Dresden and opera director in Leipzig, but as the son of the Braunschweig organist Delphin Strungk - a friend of Schütz - he, too, belonged to the North German tradition. After training as a violinist in Lübeck he was active at the courts of Celle and Hanover, and became director of the municipal and church music in Hamburg. This cantata for soprano and strings is based on two verses from the hymn by Johann Agricola. In verse 1 the first four lines are set as an Adagio and the remainder as an Allegro, while verse 2 is a Presto framed with ritornelli. A third movement consists of a return to the first two lines of verse 1, concluded by an “Amen”. The technique of separating certain figures from the chorale (in verse 1) and frequently repeating them is reminiscent of the compositional methods of Schütz, but here it is extended to the entire verse. At the end, in order to avoid overusing his material, Strungk enriches the melodic line chromatically. In verse 2 he combines the device of separating motives from the chorale with the use of ostinato technique in the continuo; a brief quaver (eighth-note) figure is continually repeated at different pitches. This seemingly mechanical procedure produces the impression of intensifying the supplication expressed in the words by their constant repetition. At the same time there is an evident tendency to create a unified musical structure, independent of the words. Even more characteristic of North German church music than the chorale arrangements is the solo concerto to words either freely written or taken from the Bible, especially from the Psalms. From 1655 onwards MATTHIAS WECKMANN, a pupil of Schütz, was organist of the Jacobikirche in Hamburg. In his organ works strictly constructed chorale settings are juxtaposed with free toccatas, and in his vocal works, too, he combines constructive and expressive elements. The dialogue Wie liegt die Stadt so wüste (How doth the city sit solitary) is representative of the oratorio-style music favoured in Weckmann’s Hamburg Collegium Musicum. (The score of this work which has survived, dated 1663, has been proved to be - unusually for that time - the composer’s original manuscript, and it belongs to a period when Weckmann’s financial situation was perilous.) The extremely personal choice of the words is striking. The composer has used verses from the first chapter of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, divided between soprano and bass to create a dialogue. Here - as with Schütz - it is possible to follow the course of the words precisely. At the same time, however, the work demonstrates finely controlled structural planning; there are unified and contrasting sections, but at the same time a process of cyclic development is evident. The words of lamentation sung by the soprano are set in a style close to recitative, with continuo accompaniment, and Weckmann makes use of every aid to expressive singing in the operatic tradition. More concertante in character are the sections for bass, with full string accompaniment. The two styles are first brought together in the third section ("sie weinet” - “schauet doch”), and this association becomes even closer in the concluding section, because here the fugato theme, rich in colorature (“denn der Feind pranget sehr”) is heard simultaneously with the chromatically ascending line of “siehe an mein Elend”. No less distinguished than the contrapuntal artistry of the texture is the bold harmonic writing. The instrumentally accompanied bass sections are impressive, and so are the expressive soprano solos, which begin hesitantly but then gradually blossom out. Even the unusually rich cadences show how this music has freed itself from all conventions, to attain a rare balance between deeply-felt expression and strict form. As in the case of Weckmann, all that survive of the compositions by NICOLAUS BRUHNS are a few organ pieces and about a dozen vocal works. These indicate that this short-lived musician, who was organist at Husum from 1689, was the most gifted among Buxtehude’s pupils. Particularly noteworthy is the Psalm Concerto De Profundis clamavi (Out of the depths, Psalm 130). The use of the Latin words suggests an earlier tradition, but the formal structure of this work in three sections approaches that of a cantata. The introductory Sinfonia presents motives of the first vocal section. In this the powerful opening phrase (“de protundis”) is followed by an imitative section. Its repeated notes express the meaning of the words no less impressively than the preceding melismata. In the central section (“si iniquitates observaveris”) recitative and arioso sections alternate five times, in slow and quick tempi. This procedure is not entirely dependent on the words, but is based on a plan which even has some consequences in the text setting. For example, the words “a custodia matutina” are separated, to form a passage corresponding to the treatment of the words “speret Israel”, which are also isolated. In the third section the concluding verse (“et ipse redimet”) and the “Amen” are set in triple and duple metre respectively, corresponding to the duality of the opening section, The carefully planned formal construction does not preclude an exact musical interpretation of the words. The music does not, however; merely follow the course of the words, but gives a particular expressive character to each section. Between the biblical settings by Weckmann and Bruhns there lay roughly the same interval of time as that between the chorale arrangements of Tunder and Strungk. Yet through all the passing generations, these works bear witness to the continuity of the traditions preserved in North German music. Its contribution to German music history of the pre-Bach era could not have been made under different social conditions, or if religious faith had been a less powerful force in the community. Composers working in that environment were able to conceive their chosen texts as expressive entities, and to present them by means of formal structures at once free and compelling. Friedhelm Krummacher (Translation: John Coombs)