Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) 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 is credited with bringing the Italian style to Germany and continuing its evolution from the Renaissance into the Early Baroque. Most of his surviving music was written for the Lutheran church, primarily for the Electoral Chapel in Dresden. He wrote what is traditionally considered the first German opera, Dafne, performed at Torgau in 1627, the music of which has since been lost, along with nearly all of his ceremonial and theatrical scores. Schütz was a prolific composer, with more than 500 surviving works.
Schütz was born in Köstritz, the eldest son of Christoph Schütz and Euphrosyne Bieger. In 1590 the family moved to Weißenfels. While Schütz was living with his parents, his musical talents were discovered by Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel in 1598 during an overnight stay in Christoph Schütz’s inn. Upon hearing young Heinrich sing, the landgrave requested that his parents allow the boy to be sent to his noble court for further education and instruction. His parents initially resisted the offer, but after much correspondence they took Heinrich to the landgrave’s seat at Kassel in August 1599.
After being a choirboy, Schütz studied law at Marburg before going to Venice from 1609 to 1612 to study music with Giovanni Gabrieli. Gabrieli is the only person Schütz ever called his teacher. He inherited a ring from Gabrieli shortly before the latter’s death. He subsequently was organist at Kassel from 1613 to 1615.
Schütz moved to Dresden in 1615 to work as court composer to the Elector of Saxony. In Dresden he sowed the seeds of what is now the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, but left there on several occasions; in 1628 he went to Venice again, where he may have met Claudio Monteverdi. In 1633 he was invited to Copenhagen to compose the music for wedding festivities there, returning to Dresden in 1635. The Thirty Years’ War ended in 1648, and he again became more active in Dresden. In 1655, the year his daughter Euphrosyne died, he accepted an ex officio post as Kapellmeister at Wolfenbüttel. Schütz moved back to Weißenfels, in a retirement he had to beg for, to live with his sister (the house is now a museum of his life), but the Electoral Court often called him back to Dresden. He died in Dresden of a stroke in 1672 at age 87.
Schütz’s compositions show the influence of Gabrieli (most notably in Schütz’s use of polychoral and concertato styles) and Monteverdi. The influence of the Netherlandish composers of the 16th century is also prominent in his work. His best-known works are sacred, ranging from solo voice with instrumental accompaniment to a cappella choral music. Representative works include his Psalmen Davids (Psalms of David, Opus 2), Cantiones sacrae (Opus 4), three books of Symphoniae sacrae, Die sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz (The seven words of Jesus Christ on the Cross), three Passion settings, and the Christmas Story. Schütz’s music, while in the most progressive styles early in his career, eventually grew simple and almost austere, culminating in his late Passion settings. Practical considerations were certainly responsible for part of this change: the Thirty Years’ War devastated Germany’s musical infrastructure, and it was no longer practical or even possible to put on the gigantic works in the Venetian style of his earlier period.
Schütz’s composition “Es steh Gott auf” (SWV 356) is in many respects comparable to Monteverdi. His funeral music “Musikalische Exequien” (1636) for his noble friend Heinrich Posthumus of Reuss is considered a masterpiece, and is known today as the first German Requiem.