This is one of my favorite mid-17th century works. Written in 1650 as part of Schutz’s Symphoniae Sacrae III, Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich is a powerful three minutes of music that contains sacred text from Acts Chapter 9. Amazingly, this short work only uses three lines of text and the way Schutz uses them is masterful. From the San Francisco Bach Choir, I found the following translation:
Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich?
Es wird dir schwer werden,
wider den Stachel zu löcken.
Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
It will become hard for you
to kick against the thorns.
These three lines of text are so artfully crafted, varied, and developed that this work never gets tiresome or repetitive. Schutz passes the text from voice to voice allowing for different ranges and voice timbre to highlight the lines and individual words especially at the end when the tenor proclaims “Saul” over and over (see the tenor part below).
Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich uses a large(ish) ensemble (mostly voices) that pre-dates the idea of the orchestra yet is orchestral in concept and execution. It is polychoral and I like that even though it is from the middle of the Baroque it does not follow all of the rules of tonality and is modal.
To finish off this #songoftheweek that is over 360 years old I challenge all composers and songwriters out there: what can you do with just three lines of text?
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