The Andächtige Kirchen Music of the Merseburg court kapellmeister Johann Theile is dedicated to Frederick I, “King in Prussia”, and therefore has to be considered a document of early 18th century Berlin music history. Theile was promoted by Queen Sophie Charlotte and lived and worked in a number of different places, including a prolonged stay in Berlin as a teacher after 1700.
For the ten compositions of the Andächtige Kirchen Music (two of which are transmitted only in the manuscript libretto) the composer did not indicate any specific genre. Together with about twenty other surviving works of the same or a similar type these ten pieces belong to a genre which today would be generally called “cantata” or “sacred concerto”.
In their overall profile the cantatas of the Andächtige Kirchen Music correspond with the then “modern” standard reached in protestant church music in central and northern Germany around 1700. […] Most probably they were written during the first decade of the 18th century and thus belong to the composer’s late period, represent a document of protestant sacred music from the generation before Bach that is interesting both for its generic history and its overall artistic quality.
Contents
- Es ist nichts Verdammliches an denen
for SATB, 2 Vl, Va, Vc, Org
- Die Güte des Herrn ist’s
for S, 2 Ob, 2 Vl, 2 Va, Org
- Wohl denen, die ohne Wandel leben
for SATB, 2 Ob, Bsn, 2 Vl, 2 Va, Org
- Denen, die Gott lieben
for SATB, 3 Ob, Bsn, 2 Vl, 2 Va, Org
- Das Blut Jesu Christi
for STB, 2 Vl, Vla, Vc, Org
- Es ist in keinen andern Heil
for SATB, 2 Ob, Bsn, 2 Vl, 2 Va, Vc, Org
- Laudate pueri Dominum
for AB, 2 Trp, Tmp, 3 Ob, 2 Bsn, 2 Vl, Va, Org
- Dennoch bleib ich stets an dir
for ST, 2 Ob, Bsn, 2 Vl conc/rip, Va conc/rip, Vc/Bsn, Org
