Novum et insigne opus musicum (Breslau 1620) (review)

A vast quantity of vocal polyphony was published in central Europe around 1600. Many of these editions catered to the expanding market for music in churches and homes, but composers also sought to display their skill and gain prestige by appearing in print. Such was the prevalence of music printing in the period that numerous musicians are now known only from their printed collections. One such figure is Thomas Fritsch (1563-1619), whose Novum et insigne opus musicum was published a year after his death. It is a weighty set of accomplished motets that also offers many insights into the music in Fritsch's town of Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland). English-speaking musicologists are generally unaware of the vibrancy of musical life in seventeenth-century Breslau and the surrounding region of Silesia, so a brief introduction to the topic is appropriate here.

In the seventeenth century, Silesia was populated by a mix of Czechs, Germans, and Poles. It was one of the few regions in central Europe where both Lutheranism and Catholicism were tolerated. In Breslau most of the parish churches were Protestant, but the cathedral was Catholic, and several Catholic orders ran monasteries in the city. Jesuit missionaries endeavored to increase their faith's presence in the city, while the Protestant clergy maintained strong links with the Lutheran heartland of Saxony. This religious duality gave rise to a rich musical culture. The Lutherans fostered musicmaking among the laity, introducing chorales to involve the people in worship and including music on the curriculum of most schools. The Catholics continued to cultivate musical genres such as Marian motets abolished by the Reformation, while both confessions used Latin-texted motets in the style of Orlando di Lasso.

Fritsch exemplified the blend of faiths and musical cultures in Breslau. Although born into a Lutheran family in Görlitz, he spent his career in Breslau in the Catholic monastic order of the Crusaders of the Red Star. His motet collection was tailored to the Catholic church year and bore similarities to the output of Catholic composers such as Jacobus Handl (Gallus)—yet it was dedicated to two Protestant princes, and some of its contents were performed in Lutheran churches such as St. Christopher and St. Elizabeth in Breslau.

One of the dedicatees of Fritsch's book was Georg Rudolph of Liegnitz-Brieg, a prince whose interests further demonstrate the vitality of Silesian culture in the 1610s. Rudolph dabbled in composition as a young man and later became a renowned collector of printed music, attracting gifts of presentation copies from Johann Hermann Schein and Heinrich Schütz as well as from local musicians such as Fritsch. Many of his music books still survive today, dispersed among several Polish libraries (see Aniela Kolbuszewska, Katalog zbiorów muzycznych legnickiej biblioteki ksiecia Jerzego Rudolfa "Bibliotheca Rudolphina" [Legnica: Legnickie Towarzystwo Muzyczne, 1992]). Rudolph's patronage and tastes deserve a detailed study, which would help elucidate the context for Fritsch's compositions.

Fritsch's Novum et insigne opus musicum contains 119 motets; Rudolf Walter's new critical edition includes an extra piece, "Gabriel angelus apparuit Zachariae," which only survives in manuscript, but which Fritsch might have added to his collection had he not died partway through its preparation. Almost all the motets set Latin texts from the Proper of the Mass or the breviary, but the collection is not ordered liturgically, nor does it provide motets systematically for every day in the church calendar.

Most of the pieces are set for five to eight voices. The more modestly scored motets, reminiscent of Lasso or Handl, offer a pleasing variety of...