German music of the early and middle baroque was
inextricably interwoven with the paralyzing religious and political struggles
of the nation. The Thirty Years' War deepened the rift between the
denominations and widened the cultural gap between the Catholic south and the
Protestant parts of northern and central Germany. The wave of Italian influence
that rolled over Germany in the first half of the century was followed in its
wake by a French one, and the assimilation and transformation of these stimuli
gave German music its special problems. While the Catholic composers adopted
the Italian style without essential changes the Protestant composers were faced
with the task of bringing their precious heritage, the chorale, in harmony with
the concertato style. The result of this fusion was the most original German
contribution to the history of baroque music.
In the seventeenth century Protestantism passed through its
"scholastic" period, a phase of rigid orthodoxy in which violent
dogmatic quarrels were fought, first with the Calvinists, and later with the
Pietists. The orthodox Lutherans upheld the "artificial" figural
music in the church, sung not by the congregation, but by a specially trained
choir, the Kantorei. The Pietists, who sought a mystic union with God and
stressed the private devotion of the layman, were, like the Calvinists, opposed
to the artistic autarchy of music and insisted on rather shallow songs within
the reach of everybody. The struggle between Orthodoxy and Pietism which began
in the second half of the century continued throughout the period and even
overshadowed the life of Bach. Consistent with the Lutheran idea of exegesis as
the foundation of the liturgy, Protestant church music had the function of
interpreting the "word" of the Gospel. This goal could be achieved in
two ways: the word could be either objectively "presented" by a
chorale, the quintessence of the dogma, or subjectively "interpreted"
by a free concertato composition. The first course, that of
cantus
firmus, treatment, was taken by the organists and cantors, the second by
Schütz and his Italianate school. Both trends merged with Bach and found
in his works their final consummation.
Chorale Motet And Chorale Concertato
The two methods of exegesis, the objective presentation and
the subjective interpretation of the "word" divided the figural music
of the Protestant church into two equally important fields. They had the
concertato style in common, but the first was bound by a chorale cantus
firmus, the second only by the subjective
imagination of the composer. Most German composers were active in both fields;
only in the orbit of Schütz was the interest in the chorale subordinated
to free composition. The greatest German masters of the early baroque, Hans Leo Hassler (1565-1612), Michael Praetorius (1571-1621), Heinrich Schütz,
(1585-1672), Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630), and Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654),
were surrounded by a host of lesser lights whose music is comparatively well
known thanks to the various Denkmäler editions. Hassler was the first great German composer to undertake an
"Italian journey" which must be regarded as a symptom of the Italian
domination over German music. Like his friend Giovanni Gabrieli he studied with
Andrea Gabrieli, and from the time of Hassler to that of Handel and Mozart
German composers traditionally sought their final education in Italy.
The most conservative of the cantus firmus compositions was the chorale motet which continued
the polyphonic chorale settings of the renaissance. Although the chorales were
not strictly biblical in their texts they were regarded as the pillars of the
liturgy and thus paralleled the liturgical function of the Gregorian chant in
the Catholic church. Music with a chorale cantus firmus showed generally a retrospective style. the task of
adapting the chorale to the italian innovations, the affective interpretation
of the word, the continuo, and the concertato style could not be solved at one
stroke. hints at the future can be observed first in the penetration of counterpoint
by an advanced harmonic vocabulary and in the migrant cantus firmus, that is a chorale that shifted in the course of the
composition to any one of the voices in alternation. The famous chorale motets
(1597), and the Preussische Festlieder by Eccard (d. 1611), posthumously published and expanded by his pupil
Stobäus (1642), established the type for the baroque period. Michael
Praetorius presented in his Musae Sioniae (I-IX, 1601 ff.) a veritable encyclopedia of chorale arrangements. The
collection comprised more than 1200 compositions ranging from simple chorale
harmonizations to overwhelming polychoral settings in the Venetian manner. In
Part IX of the work Praetorius discriminated between three manners of chorale
arrangement, "motet-wise," "madrigal-wise," and "cantus-firmus-wise." In the first manner the chorale pervaded
the contrapuntal interplay of all the voices; in the second, the chorale was
broken up into small fragments and motives set in a concertato dialogue; in the
third, the cantus firmus was left
intact and led against ostinato motives also derived from the chorale-a
procedure obviously borrowed from the technique of the organ chorale. Only the
first and last manners belonged to the chorale motet, the second showed
Praetorius on the way to the chorale concertato, but all three were to become important for the
elaborate chorale treatment in the future. Occasionally also instruments
participated in the chorale motet, as can be seen in the works of Praetorius
and Johann Staden.
The Psalmen und christliche Gesäng (1607) by Hassler were, according to the author "composed fugue-wise," that is, they
corresponded to the motet manner of Praetorius. Equally important in musical
and liturgical respect, this collection belongs to the small group of compositions
that were revived as early as the eighteenth century. It has been re-edited by
Kirnberger, the pupil of Bach." Hassler gave in his Psalmen classic examples of the chorale motet in which all
voices participated in the melodic contours of the chorale. The organ master
Scheidt also made, in his Cantiones sacrae (1620), a significant contribution to the chorale motet. In imitation
of his organ variations he cast each verse of the chorale into a different
setting and thus arrived at a chain of contrapuntal variations which forms one
of the roots of the chorale cantata.
Unlike the conservative motet the chorale concertato was written in a progressive style, clearly
manifested in the use of the continuo. Whereas the continuo formed only an
optional part of the motet, it was indispensable in the concertato. The continuo found a staunch supporter in
Praetorius whose Syntagma musicum
is an invaluable source of information for early baroque music. Praetorius
translated the rules of Viadana and naturally adhered to Viadana's conservative
conception of continuo practice. Praetorius's first experiments with the
continuo in the Musae Siontae
were feeble and insignificant. However, in his Polyhymnia caduceatrix (1619) he applied it to the resplendent Venetian
style. This collection contains many-voiced concertato compositions with brilliant instrumental and vocal
choruses and lively gorgia
passages for the soloists which clearly bespeak a modern spirit. It should be
noted that Praetorius was cautious enough to print the ornamented version above
the unembellished parts in case the German singers were not able to cope with
the gorgia. Even though
Praetorius could not compete with the harmonic ventures and the magic
sonorities of Gabrieli, he handled the polychoral style most skillfully and
brought to it the elements of the chorale, which Gabrieli did not know; at the
same time the chorale restrained him from going far into the affective
representation of the words.
The affective spirit remained, as in Italy, the domain of
the few-voiced concertato. It found its
first clear expression in Schein's Opella nova or Geistliche Konzerte (Part I, 1618; Part II, 1626) which must be considered as a
milestone in the development of the chorale concertato. The title Geistliche
Konzerte appeared here for the first time
in German music. Schein, the successor of Calvisius at St. Thomas' in Leipzig
and, like Kuhnau, one of the outstanding predecessors of Bach, combined a
restless and excitable harmonic sense with a pronounced talent for affective melody.
All pieces of Part I of the Opella nova, except one, are based on chorale texts for the liturgical year, and
nearly always, also, the melody is retained. Not content with the presentation
of the chorale Schein strove at the same time for a highly subjective
interpretation. In his desire to interpret the affection of the words he
distorted the chorale tunes, broke them up into fragments, vivified the rhythm,
and infused them with extraneous chromaticism or exuberant gorgia.
The style of Schein was heavily indebted to Italian models,
especially to Monteverdi's duet style with concerting instruments. While the
contrast motives and the lofty interplay of the instrumental and vocal parts
were obviously due to Italian influence, the fast pace of the changing harmony
and the affective cantus firmus
treatment were German characteristics.
Schein proceeded even more radically in the chorale monody
which laid the ground for the future solo cantata. In the few monodic
compositions of the Opella nova the solo
voice was forced to give both the chorale and its interpretation
simultaneously. While the vocal part retained the remarkable rhythmic and
melodic flexibility of the monodic style, the vague bass line that was
customary in the Italian monody was disciplined by the rigidly progressive beat
of the instrumental accompaniment. Schein achieved here a unique fusion of the
mechanical instrumental style of the north with the Italian monody.
Schein's works stand at the beginning of the long and
devious development from the chorale concertato to the chorale cantata. Many
organists and cantors pursued the course of Schein, notably Scheidt in his Geistliche
Conzerten .The smaller masters of the
chorale concertato in the early
and middle baroque period can be grouped into three regional schools.
The north German school included Thomas Selle (d. 1663) in
Hamburg; Matthias Weckmann, a pupil of Schütz; the important
Franz Tunder of Lübeck, predecessor and father-in-law of
Buxtehude; and finally Christoph Bernhard who transmitted to us a valuable
treatise on composition, based on the precepts of his teacher Schütz. The
south German school which had its center in Nuremberg comprised Johann Staden, and Johann Erasmus Kindermann, a pupil of Staden and Cavalli. The
central German school of Saxony and Thuringia centered round Andreas
Hammerschmidt (1639-1675), a most prolific and popular composer who watered
down the achievements of Schütz for the multitude. It included also the
three Thomas cantors between Schein and Kuhnau: Michael, Knüpfer, and
Schelle.
All these masters contributed to the expansion of the
chorale concertato into the chorale
cantata. The various media of the chorale concertato, the many-voiced, the few-voiced, and the monodic,
were no longer kept apart but were combined in large multipartite compositions
in which solo, choral, and instrumental sections alternated. Here lie the
beginnings of the chorale cantata. The organ chorale variation which Scheidt
had already transferred to the chorale motet was also applied to the chorale concertato so that the composer had a great variety of styles
at his disposal. The single verses could now be composed alternately as duets,
monodies, choruses, and ensembles with or without instrumental accompaniment.
One of the earliest attempts in this direction was Scheidt's Nun komm
der Heiden Heiland from the Geistliche
Conzerten, in which the eight verses were
set in strictly organistic manner with cantus firmus and a simple chorale
harmonization at the end, as customary in the later cantata. Selle was active
primarily in the few-voiced medium, Weckmann in the many-voiced concertato. Tunder's chorale variations are remarkable for the
extensive use they make of the concertato style and the inner expansion of the
form. He more nearly approached the cantata than any other composer of the
time. Tunder and Hammerschmidt both cultivated the chorale monody, the latter
also the free composition of chorale texts. The chorale concertato per omnes versus, that is with a varied setting for each stanza, can
actually be called a cantata although we find as yet only very sporadically the
distinguishing feature of the late baroque cantata, namely a freely inserted
poetic passage that interrupts the liturgical text by moralizing reflections.
However, the strict chorale cantata in form of variations like Bach's Christ
lag in Todesbanden grew directly out of the
cantatas of Franz Tunder.
