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standard edition (1885-94). They are numerous and extensive, all being sacred except some early madrigals (1611), various pieces for court festivities, and the singspiel Dafne (1627, but score lost), often called the first German opera. To the list in the oratorio style belong the Resurrection (1623), the Seven Words (1645) and the four Passions, to which may be added the Psalms (1619) and the ''Symphoniæ sacræ'' (motets, 1629-50), in which the treatment of choruses often rises to concert grandeur.


 * Heinrich Schütz?

From about 1650 there was a striking increase in originality in all German music, affecting both sacred and secular writing. In the vocal field a notable feature was the attention to solos more or less of the folk-song pattern, which, however, as dramatic impulses became stronger, tended to give way before the concertistic aria. The use of instruments in combination was free and often ingenious, especially as concerns the handling of certain wind instruments (like krummhorner and zinken). Almost all leading composers began to pay attention to dances of several sorts as offering scope for artistic development. All this new life had important historic relations to the work of the next century. The achievements, then, of the greater Bachs rested upon extensive earlier experiments.

Leading names among the many in the period following Schütz are these:—

Heinrich Albert (d. 1651), Schütz' nephew and early pupil, who, though trained for the law, was from 1630 cathedral-organist at Königsberg. Himself a good poet, he became famous as one of the first real song-composers (8 collections, 1638-50, besides other works), and is often called the father of the German 'Lied.'

Andreas Hammerschmidt (d. 1675), a Bohemian, was from 1635 organist at Freiberg (Saxony) and from 1639 at Zittau. His works (from 1639) range from dances and other instrumental pieces to many-voice masses, and include interesting melodic and concerted effects as well as some good counterpoint. Specially noted are his Dialogues between God and a Believing Soul (part-songs, 1645).

Johann Rosenmüller (d. 1684), educated at Leipsic and teacher in the Thomasschule there in 1642-55, under a charge of immorality fled thence to