Germany Music Part 7
We also note A. Hammerschmidt who could almost be said to be the popularizer of Schütz’s religious art, J. Rosenmüller, assiduous importer of the continuous Venetian novelties, the Cantores of Leipzig J. Schelle and S. Knüpfer, not devoid of force and effect, J. Kuhnau, author of important harpsichord sonatas inspired by biblical scenes, J. Christoph Bach, the brilliant master of the late seventeenth century, great-uncle of the great Bach, the pupils of Schütz, M. Weckmann and C. Bernhard of Hamburg, C. Förster author of oratories in the style of Carissimi. Important are Buxtehude’s cantatas a solos and choir, gathered in popular allegorical cycles entitled Lübecker Abendmusiken. Also worthy of mention is the type of cantata libretto created by pastor E. Neumeister, evidently modeled on the form of a melodramatic scene, with arias and recitatives; the musicians were JP Krieger of Weissenfels, Ph. H. Erlebach of Rudolstadt, Germany Ph. Telemann and especially JS Bach in his Weimar period. On Catholic soil, in those years, Venetian masters were in great favor (in Vienna, for example, A. Draghi had been called), but even the emperors gave themselves to vocal and religious composition, almost professionals; so did Ferdinando III, Leopoldo I, Giuseppe I and Carlo VI. The greatest representative of the Baroque-Jesuit style is the Bavarian JK Kerll in his legends of martyrs; Kerll was succeeded in Munich in 1717 by the youngest of the Bernabei family.
A similar development took place in the same century in secular music. At the beginning of the century we already find the type of the suite with variations, very well formed and frequently explained in truly vital works, consisting of a series of dances for wind or string instruments (JH Schein, P. Peuerl, M. Franck, V. Hausmann). The violin favored by the English Brade and the Italians B. Marini and C. Farina finds German representatives in the Hamburgese J. Schop, N. Strungk, famous virtuoso, T. Baltzar and JP von Westhoff from Lübeck, appreciated in London and in Paris for their typically German art of violin polyphony, and above all the very learned Franz Biber (died in 1704). Meanwhile, starting from the middle of the century. XVII the penetration of sonata tempos into the body of the suite of dances became more and more notable.French Ouvertures, while Germany Muffat in Passau composes excellent Concerti grossi (1701) in the style of Corelli.
Equally interesting masters devoted themselves to the viola bass, such as A. Kühnel, J. Schenk, the Buxtehude, the Reinken; on the harpsichord JJ Froberger, W. Ebner and A. Poglietti, authors of variation suites; the magnificent harmonist KF Fischer, Germany Böhm and C. Ritter; to the lute E. Reusner, with its substantial suites, which together with some other Viennese master precedes JS Bach.
Schein and his pupils Th. Selle of Hamburg, A. Hammerschmidt of Zittau, and above all Schütz’s cousin, H. Albert of Königsberg, contribute to the development of solo singing on numbered bass, while A. Krieger, in Leipzig and Dresden, he brought to it elements typical of a now mature style (such as, for example, the intervention, between one verse and the other, of orchestral refrains) creating songs of great freshness and modernity, which they now know in practice of German amateurs a period of renewed favor. New contributions to vocal chamber music were then offered by the new genre of the Italian Duet created in Munich and Hanover by A. Steffani and his young friend GF Händel, from the Quodlibet with several voices (of a popular nature), as well as from the religious soloist song that from JW Franck in Hamburg and from J. Löhner in Nuremberg reaches, through Ph. Erlebach, up to the Bach of the Schemelli – Lieder, with characters of nobility and seriousness.
According to homeagerly.com, the formation of the theatrical work derives, in Germany as well as in Italy, from various elements: thus from the prose theater, that is, as from the old religious legends and from the old cantatas of a comic nature; cantatas that had an almost theatrical character. But the model was naturally given by the Italian melodrama of the Venetian school, whose representatives dominated the German and Austrian scenes. To find German melodramas of sufficient vitality we must leave behind the work of S. Ph. Staden (the spiritual allegory Seelewig) and reach the works given in Nuremberg, in the last decade of 1600, by Lohner, and those of JF Krieger represented in Weissenfels. At that time, JS Kusser and JK Schürmann were working in Brunswick. But the most important opera school is that of Hamburg, started by J. Theile, a pupil of Schütz, who in 1678 had his opera Adam and Eve represented. This school was to experience a period of great rise, from Strungk and W. Franck to Kusser and the eminent R. Keizer (died 1739). The latter can be considered, together with Lulli, Purcell and Händel, one of the greatest opera composers who were able to adapt the Venetian model to their countries. After the Keizer, the Hamburg theater, despite the presence of the famous Germany Ph. Telemann, rapidly declined and towards 1740 theatrical performances in Hamburg, Leipzig, Danzig, Berlin, Bayreuth, Darmstadt, Baden-Durlach ceased: evidently the taste national was not yet oriented enough towards the new musical art form.
A golden age for German music was the late Baroque represented by Bach, Handel, and other notable masters. Of the concrete art of the two great composers (for whom see the relative voices) it is above all important, with regard to the development of German music, to highlight some dominant characters.
