Schütz rarely parodied his own works, first because he seldom reset a standard text, as did sixteenth-century composers with the Ordinarium Missae, and second because parody would only have loosened the close relation of music and text. In a few instances, however, Schütz reused either his own pieces or those by modern Italian composers. In the former case, he usually only translated the text in order to perform the composition under different circumstances, whereas the reworking of the Italian compositions served to deepen his skills in new styles, such as the madrigal, polychoral music, the stile concitato, thoroughbass, and ostinato.

Works: Schütz: "Gloria patri" for the 111th psalm from Psalmen Davids, SWV 34, Es steh' Gott auf, SWV 356, from Symphoniae sacrae, part two (20), Der Engel sprach zu den Hirten, SWV 395, from Geistliche Chormusik (20), O Jesu süss, wer dein gedenkt, SWV 406, from Symphoniae sacrae, part three (20), Ach Herr, du Schöpfer aller Ding, SWV 450 (20), Güldne Haare, gleich Aurore, SWV 440 (20).

Index Classifications: 1600s

Contributed by: Andreas Giger