Music in Protestantism held an important place, serving as both divine praise and a means to convey scriptural messages.
Interpretation
The recording uses a large church organ, which has a decisive influence on every instrument and voice, creating a new musical space for the performers.
Compositional Technique
The term "cantata" is not truly appropriate for the sacred vocal music of the German Baroque; composers often used the text's incipit or "concerto" as titles.
Instruments
The violino piccolo, the highest of all stringed instruments, was widely used in German-speaking countries in the 17th century but later disappeared.
Composer Biography
The composers on this album had close connections: Nikolaus Bruhns was a favorite pupil of Buxtehude, who succeeded Franz Tunder, and J.S. Bach admired Bruhns and traveled to hear Buxtehude.
Compositional Technique
German composers of this period applied structural and communicative principles of rhetoric to their music, adapting Italian musical inventions to the German mindset.
Historical Context
The political and economic situation in northern Germany during the second half of the 17th century, marked by the Thirty Years War and the decline of the Hanseatic League, was not conducive to artistic activity.
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