Heinrich Schutz's Weihnachtshistorie:Trombones for the Three Kings?

Abstract

In this study I will consider the instrumentation for three central movements of Heinrich Schutz's late work, Historia der freuden- und gnadenreichen Geburt Gottes und Marien Sohnes Jesu Christi, SWV 435, commonly called Weihnachtshistorie, to see whether there exists only one possible instrumental complement for the fourth Intermedium, or scene - two violine and one bassoon, as in primary source material and many editions - or whether it may be equally or even more valid to assign the coloristic consort lines to two sackbuts (trombones, in modern application) and a bassoon. In so doing, I will address a select but typical set of decisions that preparing a Schutz work engenders, in order to equip conductors to apply similar methodology and evidence when approaching works of this composer and of the early Baroque era in general.I will demonstrate that using three sackbuts in an historically enlightened performance - or trombones, their modern analogues - would be preferable to the violine and bassoon the extant manuscript prescribes in the fourth Intermedium (each Intermedium consists of sinfonia [optional], recitative, and chorus) of Heinrich Schutz's Weihnachtshistorie.