European
“one of the most noble musicians of Europe”
Heinrich Schütz was the first German composer of European stature and an outstanding master of German music in the 17 th century. He travelled as a musician throughout Europe. His life’s journey led him to Copenhagen, Venice and Wrocław. Through his compositions, he shaped Lutheran Church Music and was at the same time a mediator between Italian, Central European, and Northern European musical traditions. The works of this court music director of Dresden spread throughout the German-speaking Lutheran denomination to parts of Poland, Silesia, Bohemia, Scandinavia, and the Baltic States. Not to mention Germany, in which Schütz was active as a composer, music director, and expert organist whose skills spread far beyond the limits of the Dresden Court.
Italy knows of me / not to mention all of Germany
A while back Denmark got to know me /
Also Sweden offered me her hand /
That carried up high my fame /
(from a poem of mourning for Heinrich Schütz,
by superintendent D. Georg Lehmann, 1672)
Stations of Schütz’s life and travels
An incomplete selection
|
1585 1590 1599 1608 1609–1613 ab 1615 1618 1619 1621 1623 1624 1627 1628/1629 1629 1629 1629 1629 |
Köstritz Weißenfels Kassel Marburg Venice Dresden – as main place of work Magdeburg Bayreuth Breslau Freiberg Torgau Mühlhausen Venice Augsburg Florence Venice Halle |
|
|
|
|
1630 1633 1633–1635 1638 1640 1642-1644 1644/1645 1644 1644 1645 1652 ab 1657 1660 1663 1663/1664 1665 1672 |
Leipzig Hamburg Kopenhagen Braunschweig Hildesheim Kopenhagen Braunschweig Hamburg Wolfenbüttel Leipzig Halle Weißenfels – als Alterssitz Wolfenbüttel Teplitz Zeitz Halle
Dresden |
|
|
|
