Psalmen Davids (Psalms of David) is a collection of sacred choral music, settings mostly of

psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

in German by

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...

, who had studied the

Venetian polychoral style The Venetian polychoral style was a type of music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras which involved spatially separate choirs singing in alternation. It represented a major stylistic shift from the prevailing polyphonic writing of the ...

with

Giovanni Gabrieli Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557 – 12 August 1612) was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift f ...

. Book 1 was printed in Dresden in 1619 as his Opus 2. It comprises 26 individual settings, which were assigned numbers 22 to 47 in the Schütz-Werke-Verzeichnis (SWV). Most of them use the text of a complete psalm in the translation by

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...

. The full title of the publication, "Psalmen Davids / sampt / Etlichen Moteten und Concerten / mit acht und mehr Stimmen / Nebenst andern zweyen Capellen daß dero etliche / auff drey und vier Chor nach beliebung gebraucht / werden können", indicates that some

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Ma ...

s and

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typ ...

s are added to the psalm settings, and the scoring is for eight and more voices and two groups of instrumentalists, so that in some pieces three and even four choirs can participate in polychoral settings.

History

In 1619, Schütz took up his office as ''Hofkapellmeister'' at the court of the Elector of Saxony, Johann Georg I., in Dresden, succeeding

Rogier Michael Rogier Michael von Bergen (ca. 1553 probably in Bergen-op-Zoom – after middle 1623 in Dresden) was a Franco-Flemish composer, singer and Kapellmeister of the late Renaissance. Life and work Michael came to Vienna as a child with his father S ...

. On 1 June, he married Magdalena, the daughter of Christian Wildeck, a court official. Planned well, the ''Psalmen Davids'' appeared the same day, dedicated to the Elector. Schütz mentions in the introduction: "daß er etzliche Teutsche Psalmen auf Italienische Manier komponiert habe, zu welcher rvon einemlieben und in aller Welt hochberühmten Praeceptore Herrn Johan Gabrieln / ... / mit fleiß angeführet worden ... war" (that he composed several German psalms in Italian manner, to which he was induced intensely by his dear

preceptor A preceptor (from Latin, "''praecepto''") is a teacher responsible for upholding a ''precept'', meaning a certain law or tradition. Buddhist monastic orders Senior Buddhist monks can become the preceptors for newly ordained monks. In the Buddhi ...

, highly famous in all the world).

Collection

Schütz chose 20 psalms, two of which he set twice, and added movements based on a

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn ...

, the first stanza of Johann Gramann's "

Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren "" (Now praise, my soul, the Lord) is a Lutheran hymn written in German by the theologian and reformer Johann Gramann in 1525. It was published in 1540 and appears in 47 hymnals. A translation by Catherine Winkworth, "My Soul, now Praise thy Make ...

", and on texts from the prophets

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...

and

Jeremiah Jeremiah, Modern: , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning "Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewis ...

. Most, but not all psalms are ended by the

doxology A doxology (Ancient Greek: ''doxologia'', from , '' doxa'' 'glory' and -, -''logia'' 'saying') is a short hymn of praises to God in various forms of Christian worship, often added to the end of canticles, psalms, and hymns. The tradition derive ...

(in the table short: dox), "Ehre sei dem Vater" (Glory be to the Father). Translations of SWV 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 33, 36, 37, 39 and 40 are provided by Emmanuel Music

Reception

A reviewer from ''Gramophone'' wrote that ''Psalmen Davids'' "ranks among chütz'smost sumptuous and spectacular achievements". Fabrice Fitch referred to it as the composer's "first monumental publication of sacred music", agreeing with

Peter Wollny Peter Wollny (born 29 June 1961) is a German musicologist, a Bach scholar who has served the Bach Archive Leipzig beginning in 1993, and as its director from 2014. Wollny has contributed to the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, and has been an editor of '' Ca ...

's comment on "its variety in the treatment of a medium whose potential for cliche is, after all, very great".

Publication and recordings

The ''Psalmen Davids'' are part of the complete edition of the composer's works by

Carus-Verlag Carus-Verlag is a German music publisher founded in 1972 and based in Stuttgart. Carus was founded by choral conductor Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud with an emphasis on choral repertoire. The catalogue currently includes more than 26,00 ...

, begun in 1992 as the Stuttgart Schütz Edition and planned to be completed by 2017. The edition uses the ' of the . They were recorded, as part of the complete recordings of works by Schütz, by the Dresdner Kammerchor and organist

Ludger Rémy Ludger Rémy (4 February 1949 – 21 June 2017) was a German harpsichordist, conductor and musicologist. Biography Born in Kalkar, Ludger Rémy studied the harpsichord in Freiburg im Breisgau and continued his studies with Kenneth Gilbert ...

, conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann. Soloists are sopranos Dorothee Mields and Marie Luise Werneburg, altos David Erler and Stefan Kunath, tenors

Georg Poplutz Georg Poplutz is a German tenor, a soloist in Baroque music, opera and oratorio, and a Lied singer. He has been a member of vocal ensembles such as Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble and Cantus Cölln, and has participated in a project to record the ...

and Tobias Mäthger, and basses Stephan MacLeod and Felix Schwandtke. A review notes the accent on a contrast, as the composer intended, between the soloists (''favoriti'') and the choir (''ripieno''):

These soloists, the so-called 'favoriti' are given the responsibility of bringing illustrative power to their sung lines, to sing 'as well and as sweetly' as possible. These solo singers are vested with the conveyance of the texts’ imagery in all its power and immediacy, whilst the ripieno choruses have a different function, which is, in the composer's words, 'for a strong sound and for splendour'.

References

External links

*
Heinrich Schütz: / Psalms of David / Psalmen Davids

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

1997
Heinrich Schütz , Psalmen Davids

Cantus Cölln A cantus ( Latin for "singing", derived from ''cantare''), is an activity organised by Belgian, Dutch, French, and Baltic fraternities. A cantus mainly involves singing traditional songs and drinking beer. It is governed by strict traditiona ...

1998
Heinrich Schütz: "Psalmen Davids" / Hans-Christoph Rademanns kongeniale Einspielung ist eine Huldigung an den "Vater der deutschen Musik"
Kulturradio, 14 November 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Psalmen Davids Compositions by Heinrich Schütz Choral compositions Psalm settings 1619 works