European

“one of the most noble musicians of Europe”

Heinrich Schütz was the first German composer of European stature and an outstanding master of German music in the 17 th century. He travelled as a musician throughout Europe. His life’s journey led him to Copenhagen, Venice and Wrocław. Through his compositions, he shaped Lutheran Church Music and was at the same time a mediator between Italian, Central European, and Northern European musical traditions. The works of this court music director of Dresden spread throughout the German-speaking Lutheran denomination to parts of Poland, Silesia, Bohemia, Scandinavia, and the Baltic States. Not to mention Germany, in which Schütz was active as a composer, music director, and expert organist whose skills spread far beyond the limits of the Dresden Court.

Italy knows of me / not to mention all of Germany
A while back Denmark got to know me /
Also Sweden offered me her hand /
That carried up high my fame /

(from a poem of mourning for Heinrich Schütz,
by superintendent D. Georg Lehmann, 1672)

 
 
 

Stations of Schütz’s life and travels
An incomplete selection

1585

1590

1599

1608

1609–1613

ab 1615

1618

1619

1621

1623

1624

1627

1628/1629

1629

1629

1629

1629

Köstritz

Weißenfels

Kassel

Marburg

Venice

Dresden – as main place of work

Magdeburg

Bayreuth

Breslau

Freiberg

Torgau

Mühlhausen

Venice

Augsburg

Florence

Venice

Halle

 

 

1630

1633

1633–1635

1638

1640

1642-1644

1644/1645

1644

1644

1645

1652 ab

1657

1660

1663

1663/1664

1665

1672

Leipzig

Hamburg

Kopenhagen

Braunschweig

Hildesheim

Kopenhagen

Braunschweig

Hamburg

Wolfenbüttel

Leipzig

Halle

Weißenfels – als Alterssitz

Wolfenbüttel

Teplitz

Zeitz

Halle

Dresden

 

 

 

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