Dulcissime, amantissime
O tu vita felicissima
Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld
O Wunderlieb, o Liebesmacht
O felix jucunditas
Da mihi, Domine Deus meus
O süßes Lamm
Erweit’re dich, mein Herzens Schrein
O quam gloriosum est regnum
O amor qui semper ardes
Was schadet mir des Todes Gift?
O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid
Quis dabit capiti meo aquam
Protector in te sperantium Deus

The figure of Samuel Capricornus has been unfairly neglected by modern historians of music, editors and performers. Not only was Capricornus admired by his contemporaries even beyond the frontiers; the extraordinary standard of his works and the originality and variety of his output make him quite simply one of the greatest composers of religious music of the seventeenth century.

Capricornus’s most original compositions are the Lieder von dem Leyden und Tode Jesu (Songs on the sufferings and death of Jesus) and Theatrum musicum. The former are a kind of German equivalent to the leçons de ténebres of the French Baroque. The texts by Paul Gerhardt are handled ‘in the manner of a concert for two voices and four viols’. The collection entitled Theatrum musicum consists of twelve ‘sacred scenes’ for three voices (alto, tenor and bass), four viols and basso continuo. As their title indicates, these pieces are dramatized sacred poems.

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Recording: 19-21 January 2006 at Saint Quirin, Moselle (France)