Motet notes - Schütz

Schütz’ setting of the 23rd Psalm, the appointed psalm for today in the Revised Common Lectionary, was composed for the Becker Psalter published in 1628. Cornelius Becker (1561-1604) was a Lutheran pastor in Leipzig who produced a German-language metrical psalter. These simple homophonic settings were geared to congregational singing. Yet they are miniature masterpieces packed with tremendously colorful harmonic passages and an unsurpassable rhythmic vitality that show the finished perfection that we have come to expect from Schütz.