Schütz, Heu mihi domine and Quid commisisti
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) earns an extensive entry in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. It begins with a striking accolade: “He was the greatest German composer of the 17th century and the first of international stature.” No weasel words there, or even a hint of scholarly aloofness.
Schütz was raised in Weissenfels, a short distance from my adopted home of Weimar. He belongs to the group of composers who had an early brush with the study of law before settling into music as a full-time profession. (I need to compile that list someday.) Schütz, however, was encouraged to go to Venice to study with the aging master Giovanni Gabrieli. After two years, he had earned Gabrieli’s considerable respect and mastered his style of counterpoint.
Soon after returning to Germany and a position at Kassel, he was appointed court composer to Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony in Dresden. Schütz would spend virtually all of his professional life there, punctuated by various leaves of absence, despite several attempts to be released. He attempted unsuccessfully to retire to Weissenfels. The musical life of Dresden (and many other places) suffered significantly during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). Musicians, including Schütz, regularly went unpaid and there were few occasions for the production of large-scale works.
Heu mihi domine and Quid commisisti belong to a collection of motets, the Cantiones sacrae, composed in 1625 before the war had much effect on Dresden.
Schütz had a long life and contributed a significant body of work to the repertoire. Grove’s concludes:
Through the example of his compositions and through his teaching he played a major part in establishing the traditions of high craftsmanship and intellectual depth that marked the best of his nation’s music and musical thought for more than 250 years after his death.
