Lutheran Music and the Thirty Years War

Confession, Politics, Devotion

Derek L. Stauff (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

304 Seiten

2025
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
9780197749425 (ISBN)

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This book takes a new look at sacred music written in present-day central Germany during the Thirty Years War (1618-48), and in doing so reveals distinct connections between religious works and the historical and political contexts in which they emerged. As author Derek L. Stauff asserts, specific Lutheran biblical motets and sacred concertos engage with the war's events, people, and politics in more detailed and meaningful ways than previously imagined. Composers working in Saxony, like Heinrich Schütz, Johann Hermann Schein, Tobias Michael, and Andreas Hammerschmidt, crafted these connections by deftly selecting biblical texts that specifically resonated with the war, by setting their texts in ways that amplify these resonances, and by performing this music in politically meaningful contexts. As a result, their music could take on a variety of war-related meanings: some pieces represent the Lutheran church and community, stoking fears about Catholic political aggression and religious persecution, warning Lutherans of the grave peril in which their church was foundering, and comforting believers with promises of God's protection. Other works celebrate contemporary political and military alignments, such as the Swedish-Saxon alliance (1631-35) and its victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631), and close scrutiny of a few musical pieces reveals hidden or implicit critique of a controversial decree like the Edict of Restitution (1628) or of the excesses of Swedish troops. Stauff investigates the scriptural texts at the root of this repertoire, drawing on theological and devotional writings to show how early modern Lutherans connected these texts to the war and its political disputes. He also reconstructs the political contexts in which some works were performed or published; while his analyses focus chiefly on Saxony--especially Leipzig--they also remain relevant to other Lutheran regions of the Holy Roman Empire.

In a repertoire that might all too easily appear to uniformly preach peace and protest war, or to float timelessly in a liturgical space undisturbed by contemporary affairs, Stauff decisively shows how Lutheran composers actively reflected on and responded to the war, as well as the political and religious struggles underpinning it, through their sacred music.

Derek L. Stauff is Associate Professor of Music at Hillsdale College where he teaches music history and organ. His research focuses on early modern Germany, especially Lutheran music from the era, about which he has published in The Journal of the American Musicological Society, Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, Bach Perspectives, and the Schütz-Jahrbuch.

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The Church Laments: The Edict of Restitution and Schein's Music for the 1629 Leipzig City Council Election
Chapter 3: The Ecclesial Dialogue During the Thirty Years War
Chapter 4: Hearing the Thirty Years War through the Psalms: Psalm 83, Confessional Strife, and the Leipzig Convention
Chapter 5: Commemorating the Battle of Breitenfeld (Part 1): Schütz's Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich?
Chapter 6: Commemorating the Battle of Breitenfeld (Part 2): State, Civic, and Personal Ambitions in Leipzig and Freiberg
Chapter 7: Music and Lutheran Refugees in the Seventeenth Century
Chapter 8: Swedish Arms and the Flood from the North in Two Sacred Concertos by Tobias Michael

Erscheinungsdatum	12.02.2025
Zusatzinfo	49 figures
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	166 x 241 mm
Gewicht	594 g
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik ► Klassik / Oper / Musical
ISBN-13	9780197749425 / 9780197749425
Zustand	Neuware