Heinrich Schütz

Faced with the reality of being a musician during a period of intense upheaval (and war), Schütz made the best of it by traveling for strategic study breaks in Venice and moving around to stable court positions. The help of Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel didn't hurt either...

Heinrich Schütz (German: [ʃʏt͡s]; 18 October [O.S. 8 October] 1585[1] – 6 November 1672[2]) was a German 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 to be 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.

He is commemorated as a musician in the Calendar of Saints of some North American Lutheran churches on 28 July with Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel.



Moritz, Landgraf von Hesse-Kassel

This week’s Early Music Monday post comes from Kassel, Germany! Landgrave Moritz of Hesse-Kassel was patron to Heinrich Schütz and John Dowland (among others), built the first permanent theater in Germany, and liked to stir up religious controversy.

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Maurice of Hesse-Kassel (German: Moritz) (25 May 1572 – 15 March 1632), also called Maurice the Learned,[1] was the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) in the Holy Roman Empire from 1592 to 1627.

Maurice was born in Kassel as the son of William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and of his wife Sabine of Württemberg.

Although Maurice had been raised in the Lutheran faith, he converted to Calvinism in 1605. On the principle Cuius regio eius religio, Maurice's subjects were also required to convert to Calvinism. Maurice's conversion was controversial since the Peace of Augsburg had only settled religious matters betweens Roman Catholics and Lutherans and had not considered Calvinists. Maurice tried to introduce Calvinism to the lands which he had inherited from the extinct Hesse-Marburg branch of his family. Such a change of faith was contrary to the inheritance rules, and resulted in an ongoing conflict with the Hesse-Darmstadt branch. It also brought him into conflict with the Holy Roman Emperor, Matthias.