Description

The signing of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 brought the devastating Thirty Years' War to an end. The motet collection Geistliche Chor-Music was published in the same year by the Dresden Court Kapellmeister Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672). The collection was dedicated to the Thomanerchor in Leipzig. In this opus, Schütz, one of the most important musical innovators at the beginning of the Baroque era, turns away from Italian-style basso continuo music and applies once again the compositional technique of the strictly elaborate Dutch-German motet.

The practical edition of the motet Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes (SWV 386) presented here is conceived as a vocal movement. But you can also perform it purely instrumentally with recorders, viols and other melody instruments. In his foreword, Schütz himself expressly refers to the possibility of instrumental scoring.