Matthias Weckman

At a concert during the 27th Annual SSCM Conference in Durham (NC) last April, a work was performed that most who heard it found deeply moving--yet few in the audience knew much about its composer beyond his name. The composer was Mattias Weckman (1616-1674), and the work was Wie liegt die Stadt so Wüste, a setting from the Book of Lamentations for voices and strings. Weckman is one of the few composers from the seventeenth century who has had an asteroid named after him, but there are much better reasons for giving him our attention. Although only a relatively small body of his works survived the years and the devastation of wars, among those works are many rare gems. These include, in addition to heart-wrenching sacred text settings, choral preludes and variations with vast structures and breathtaking counterpoint, playful chamber music for unusual and colorful combinations of strings and winds, and harpsichord pieces full of strange harmonies and unpredictable twists and turns.

Weckman did enjoy a surge of interest in the early years of the twentieth century, when German musicologists were trying to promote him as "the missing link" between Schütz and Buxtehude in the line of succession to Bach, but that interest never spread to the rest of the musical world, in part because of subsequent political developments. A first life-and-works, by Gerhard Ilgner, appeared in 1939; since it was published in the Third Reich at the onset of World War II, few copies made their way to the free world, and to this day it continues to be a hard-to-find item. The later years of the century saw the appearance of a few journal articles and editions of hitherto unpublished works (as well as better, less corrupt editions of those already published), which in turn gave rise to more performances and recordings of his music. However, what has been lacking until now is a full-scale study that offers the musical world a comprehensive view of this composer and his work. Is this need finally filled by the volume under review, a study on "The Life of the Hamburg 'Jacobi-Organist' [referring to his appointment at St. Jacobi] and his Work for the Vox Humana"? The answer is yes and no.

A main reason for the "no" answer should be obvious from the work's title. Its author, Heiko Maus has largely limited himself to Weckman's compositions for "the Vox Humana"--referring not to an organ stop but to his vocal works--which leaves roughly half of the composer's output out of consideration. He does not provide a reason for using this Latin term in his German title; neither does he offer a very satisfactory explanation for his exclusive focus on Weckman's vocal music other than that the significance of the composer's organ music was already adequately covered in Hans Davidsson's 1991 Gothenburg dissertation. It surely does not mean that he does not think Weckman's chamber music and harpsichord works worthy of attention, which would be hard to believe considering the exceptional quality of these works. More likely, there were other, unstated constraints that forced him to limit this study to the vocal repertory.

There is, nevertheless, much in support of a "yes" answer to the question whether this volume should be regarded as an indispensable resource on Matthias Weckmann, to be welcomed by all who have an interest in this composer. First of all, it presents the most detailed account of this composer's life available in print, incorporating recent archival findings, and correcting and supplementing much of the information offered in earlier biographies, which was based on less reliable sources, such as Johann Mattheson's Ehren-Pforte (1740). The new findings allowed us, for instance, to move the composer's likely birthdate from 1619, as given in early- and mid-twentieth-century biographies, to 1616. Maus's account is further enhanced by numerous reproductions of contemporary documents, manuscripts, maps, and illustrations of places where Weckman lived and worked.

At least as welcome is the treatment of the sacred concertos, which occupies the bulk of the volume. Fourteen of these extraordinary works survive, and we know the titles of another seventeen from old catalogues and other sources. The count of the surviving concertos includes the most recent addition, which came to light as a result of RISM cataloguing: Freue dich des Weibes deiner Jugend. This setting from the Song of Songs, composed for the wedding of Weckman's friend Jacob Kortkamp and published in Hamburg in 1650, is the only work of his printed during his lifetime except for the continuo songs (see below). Most of these concertos are scored for a small complement of voices and instruments, and, with only a couple of exceptions, their texts were adapted from the scriptures.

Rather than analyzing each work in turn, the author decided to highlight both their common and their special features (p. 3). He writes that he tried to avoid approaching their analysis with modern, anachronistic procedures, but rather attempted to look at these works from perspectives contemporary to their creation, guided by writings on composition from Christoph Bernhard to Johannes Mattheson (p. 3). The emphasis in these texts on the use of rhetorical models, or Musica Poetica, led Maus to divide his discussion according to the principles of rhetoric: Inventio (text selection, thematic choices), Dispositio (form, instrumentation), Elaboratio (melody, harmony), Decoratio (doctrine of figures), and Elocutio (performance practice). Artificial as such an approach might seem, it proves quite successful, providing in a highly readable account a deeper understanding of what makes these works so special--what makes them stand out beyond those of most of his contemporaries. He notes, furthermore, that even though Weckmann spent many years in Dresden with Schütz, first as student and later as assistant, certain aspects of these works, such as the elaborate choral fugues that often conclude them, make him appear closer to Buxtehude and J.S. Bach than to Schütz or to composers of his own time (p. 65).

Maus approaches Weckman's continuo songs rather differently. Undoubtedly these works are the least familiar part of Weckman's œuvre. To my knowledge none has ever appeared on a commercial recording; in fact, during nearly fifty-years of interest in this composer I don't recall hearing a single one performed in public. It may well be this neglect that motivated Maus to offer a rather detailed introduction to the flourishing Hamburger Liederschule that forms the background of these songs. Its poetry was contributed by noted figures from Hamburg's literary world and generally consisted of strophic verses written for specific occasions and dedicated to friends and patrons of the poets. The poets preferred the musical settings--probably created at their behest--to be simple so as not to interfere with their poetic conceits.

All of Weckman's nine continuo songs are based on poems by Philipp von Zesen, a major personality in seventeenth-century German literature, and all appeared in print in three anthologies of this author's poetry, published in 1668 and 1670. According to Maus, Weckman's contributions generally transcend the limitated musical qualities of the average product of the Hamburg school. They occasionally incorporate elements of Italian arias and French dances; in fact, three of the songs as modeled on a gavotte, a gigue, and a sarabande, respectively. Nevertheless, Maus admits that "these songs are not masterworks for eternity, when compared with the Lied compositions of the generation after Mozart. Nevertheless, they sound very graceful even today and deserve more attention. Weckman's songs are time-bound little musical treasures--they don't try to be more than that" (p. 130).

Strong support for the value and usefulness of this Weckmann monograph is surely offered by its substantial appendix. It includes, among other materials, the most comprehensive available bibliographies of musical sources, biographical documents, and secondary literature on Weckman, as well as of early and modern writings on his musical environment, modern editions of his works, a selective discography, and, perhaps most useful of all, a catalogue of all his surviving and known lost works, with their sources. Who could ask for anything more?...

Alexander Silbiger, Professor Emeritus
Department of Music, Duke University