The score for Homilius's "Der Messias" includes a personal dedication from the composer to Duke Friedrich von Mecklenburg-Schwerin, known as "The Pious" for his pietistic inclinations.
Composer Biography
Homilius served as the music director at the Kreuzschule in Dresden for 30 years, primarily working in the Frauenkirche after the Kreuzkirche was destroyed in 1760.
Cultural Impact
Homilius's music was widely popular throughout German-speaking Protestant Europe, reaching from the Baltic to Switzerland, and even to Moravian Church settlements in the New World.
Performer Biography
The Sächsisches Vocalensemble, founded by Matthias Jung in 1996, is known for its standard-setting performances of early music and its commitment to performing unknown or rarely heard compositions from the Dresden court.
Composition History
Despite its title, Homilius's "Der Messias" is a Passion oratorio, not a continuation of Handel's famous work, and was first performed in Dresden's Frauenkirche on Good Friday 1776.
Composer Biography
Gottfried August Homilius, the composer, was highly praised by his contemporaries, with one critic calling him "our greatest church composer" and "the greatest organist I have ever heard."
Critical Reception
Homilius's compositions were largely overshadowed by Johann Sebastian Bach's works and considered part of a "period of decline" in Protestant church music during the 19th and 20th centuries.
