Giant Remembered

In Philadelphia's Church of St. Luke and the Epiphany last week, music lovers heard something that was avowedly "different": the beginning of a three-day festival of music by Heinrich Schuetz (1585-1672). It was staged by Conductor William H. Reese of the Haverford College Glee Club, partly because he wanted to avoid the "usual mishmash and hodgepodge" of choral programs, partly because from the time he was in college himself, he has been a stout Schuetz admirer.

Composer Schuetz was one of music's 17th century giants*; known as "the father of German music," he composed the first German opera (Dafne), and was the man who managed to fuse solid German choral counterpoint with Italy's exciting new "concerted" style that combined voices and instruments. Schuetz's music has long been shadowed by Bach, but once modern ears are accustomed to it, its impact is dramatic as well as spiritual.

The first program (by 190 voices, an orchestra of 20) ranged from delicate, pure-sounding choruses, e.g., For God So Loved the World and Blessed Are the Faithful, to the haunting cantata, Saul, Saul, Why Persecutest Thou Me? Director Reese hardly expected to make Schuetz fans of his audience in one concert, was ready for one listener's "My, it's very different, isn't it?", another's hopeful sigh after the final Amen, "Is it really over?" At least among his choristers, familiarity bred delight. As one young singer burbled after the music was over: "Wait till you hear tomorrow's program. That 84th Psalm-- it's terrific!"

* Others: Holland's Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck, Italy's Giovanni Gabrielli, Claudio Monteverdi and Girolomo Frescobaldi.

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