Rosenmüller’s Kernsprüche

With the Johann Rosenmüller Kritische Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke, Verlag Dohr and general editor Holger Eichhorn have taken a major step toward making an extensive repertoire of instrumental and sacred vocal music from the mid-seventeenth century available in quality editions. Johann Rosenmüller (ca. 1617–1684) has long been recognized as a key figure in German music at the twilight of the Thirty Years’ War, but until now much of his music has remained unpublished or, as with both volumes of Kernsprüche, has been issued piecemeal in practical editions. Compared to the bulk of the composer’s output, the volumes of Kernsprüche (1648 and 1653) are exceptional for their contemporary reception. While most of his works survive only in manuscript, date from his years in Italy, and only traveled north to select institutions, the Kernsprüche volumes were published during his early career in Leipzig and were widely distributed in Germany.

In each volume, Rosenmüller offered twenty concertos that filtered the Italian concerted style through the lens of Lutheran devotion. The word Kernsprüche was common parlance in Rosenmüller’s time. The composer Stephan Otto, for example, advertised a collection of sacred music as containing “little works drawn from the best Kernsprüchen of Holy Writ” (preface, Kronen Krönlein, oder Musicalischer Vorläuffer [Freiburg: Georg Beuther, 1648]; all translations are mine). If Kern denotes the kernel, core, or essence, Kernsprüche are quintessential sayings or proverbs. Rosenmüller’s title advertises the nature of his texts: “Kern-Sprüche, taken partly from Holy Scripture, Old and New Testaments, and partly from several old Doctors of the Church” (diplomatic transcriptions of the title pages are given in the critical reports to both volumes, p. 231 [Kernsprüche I] and p. 267 [Kernsprüche II]). Of the biblical texts from both volumes, most (26) are from Luther’s translation, but a few (3) are from the Vulgate. Of the nonbiblical texts, a few are liturgical, but most (6) come from the pseudo-Augustine Meditations or Manuale, sources on which Schütz also drew. Like most dicta, Rosenmüller’s texts are short, ranging from one to five verses or sentences.

Both new editions of the Kernsprüche, edited by Michael Heinemann with assistance from Konstanze Kremtz and Holger Eichhorn, are not intended for practical use. The editors have kept the original C clefs in vocal parts; the figures under the unrealized basso continuo line stay as close as possible to the original, which means that the editors retained the ♭ under chords on E and A to indicate a minor third above the bass; and although the editors have decided not to indicate when text underlay is editorial, they have kept most original spellings. While the sparsely edited figured bass and original spellings present no undue barrier to performers, and are a welcome relief from the heavy-handed editorial style in older editions, the vocal C clefs might disconcert. Fortunately, Dohr intends eventually to issue the works of Rosenmüller in practical editions with modern clefs. Until then, performers who want to avoid original clefs can still turn to some individually published concertos. Of the forty pieces in both volumes...