Es steh Gott auf

Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672), the most acclaimed German composer of the 17th century, had opportunity to observe such examples in his travels to Venice and beyond. Schütz worked mainly at the court in Dresden, where musical life languished during the Thirty Years’ War. Fortunately, he was given chances to travel, and he spent considerable time in both Italy and Denmark, where conditions were much more pacific. Among his many cantatas, Es steh’ Gott auf, shows his ability to absorb the latest style of his mentor, Giovanni Gabrieli, with whom Schütz studied between 1609 and 1612. Gabrieli cultivated the antiphonal sound of split choirs or ensembles, for which he used the term “sacred symphonies” (volumes of Sacrae symphoniae appeared in 1597 and 1615). Es steh Gott auf appears in the second of Schütz’s own Symphoniae sacrae collections from 1647 and features two solo groups: two sopranos in echo arrangement with two violins. After a martially inspired opening, the melodic writing becomes increasingly florid over the triadic basis of section 1. Section 2 moves briefly to the minor mode, and the first touches of chaconne-like chord repetition appear at “vertreib sie” in section 3. Those hints become a full-blown chaconne for the final section, which begins at the change to triple meter on the words “aber die Gerechten.”

(c) Jason Stell