Officia de Nativitate, Wittenberg 1545 (review)

Georg Rhau. Officia de Nativitate, Wittenberg 1545. Herausgegeben von Franz Krautwurst. (Musikdrucke aus den Jahren 1538-1545 in praktischer Neuausgabe, 12.) Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999. [Pref. in Ger., Eng.: p. ix-xvi; facsims., p. xvii-xxi; score, 396 p. Krit. Bericht, p. 397-426; Die Komponisten und ihre Werke, p. 427-28; Alphabetisches Verzeichnis der Textanfänge, p. 429-32. Cloth. ISMN M-006-49634-1; BA 4272. DM 405.

In 1955, under the general editorship of Hans Albrecht, Bärenreiter and the Concordia Publishing House in St. Louis launched the (unintentionally long) project of publishing in practical new editions the major collections of polyphonic music published by the Wittenberg printer Georg Rhau (or Rhaw) between 1538 and 1545 (Georg Rhau: Musikdrucke aus den Jahren 1538 bis 1545 in praktischer Neuausgabe). Four volumes of the set were issued before Albrecht's death in 1961, followed by two more volumes (vol. 7, 1964; vol. 5, 1970) under the supervision of Albrecht's colleagues at the Landesinstituts für Musikforschung and later the Musikwissenschaftliches Institut der Universität Kiel. Publication languished until 1980, when Joachim Stalmann took up the project, now sponsored by the Arbeitsstelle für Gottesdienst und Kirchenmusik der evangelish-lutherischen Landeskirche Hannovers. Bärenreiter had become the sole publisher when the next volume appeared in 1988, followed by three additional volumes in 1989-92. In 1999, the edition of Rhau's Musikdrucke at last neared its close with the publication of the penultimate volume--an edition of the 1545 collection of sacred music for the Christmas season, Officiorum (ut vocant) de Nativitate, Circumcisione, Epiphania Domini, et Purificatione etc. tomus primus. (This is the form of the title on the tenor partbook; the title on the other three partbooks begins Officia and lacks tomus primus at the end. Bärenreiter has used this latter form for the title of the volume.)

Rhau was primarily concerned with producing printed music for use in the Lutheran liturgy. He dedicated some of his editions to the works of single composers such as Balthasar Resinarius (Responsorium numero octoginta [1543; ed. Inge-Maria Schröder, vols. 1-2, 1955-57]) and Sixt Dietrich (Novum ac insigne opus musicum triginta sex antiphonarum [1541; ed. Walter E. Buszin, vol. 7, 1964]). Others comprise an anthology of motets (Symphoniae jucundae [1538; ed. Hans Albrecht, vol. 3, 1959); collections of various composers' works appropriate for particular sacred services (Vesperarum precum officia [1540; ed. Hans Joachim Moser, vol. 4, 1960] and Postremum vespertini officii opus ... Magnificat octo modorum seu tonorum numero XXV [1544; ed. Paul Bunjes; vol. 5, 1970]); compositions composed for particular feast days (Selectae harmoniae ... de Passione Domini [1538; ed. Wolfgang Reich, vol. 10, 1990] and Officia paschalia, de Resurrectione et Ascensione Domini [1539; ed. Robert L. Parker, vol. 8, 1988]); and Rhau's compilations of two- and three-voice pieces appropriate for use in schools (Bicinia gallica, latina, germanica ... tomus I and Secundus tomus biciniorum ... [both 1545; ed. Bruce Bellingham, vol. 6, 1980]; Tricinia ... latina, germanica, brabantica & gallica [1542; ed. Thomas L. Noblitt, vol. 9, 1989]; and Newe deudsche geistliche Gesenge CXXIII ... für die gemeinen Schulen [1544; ed. Joachim Stalmann, vol. 11, 1992]).

Rhau is a publisher unfamiliar to many, even in the field of Renaissance musicology, but his contribution to the sacred music literature of the sixteenth century was extremely important. Born in 1488, Rhau studied in Wittenberg as a young man, greatly influenced by Martin Luther and other Protestant theologians. Though best remembered today as a printer, Rhau was also active as a musician and teacher of music, holding the post of cantor for two years at the Thomasschule in Leipzig (the same position that Johann Sebastian Bach would hold some two centuries later) and lecturing on music theory at the University of Leipzig. Although his compositions are no longer extant, Rhau apparently was a competent composer, and he may have written the lost twelve-voice Missa de Sancto Spiritu sung for the opening of the Leipzig Disputation in 1519. Settling in...