2. The =next stage= of the sacred song took the Canticles instead of the Psalter as its model. The spiritual marriage of the soul is its main theme. Feeling and fancy are predominant, and often degenerate into sentimentality and trifling. It obtained a new impulse from the addition of a mystical element. =Angelus Silesius= (§ 156, 4) was the most distinguished representative of this school, and while Protestant he composed several beautiful songs; _e.g._ “O Love, who formedst me to wear;” “Thou holiest Love, whom most I love;” “Loving Shepherd, kind and true.” =Christian Knorr v. Rosenroth=, who died at Sulzbach A.D. 1689, wrote “Dayspring of eternity.” =Ludämilie Elizabeth=, Countess of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, who died in A.D. 1672, wrote 215 “Songs of Jesus.” =Caspar Neumann=, professor and pastor at Breslau, died A.D. 1715, wrote, “Lord, on earth I dwell in pain.”
3. =Those of Spener’s Time and Spirit=, men who longed for the regeneration of the church by practical Christianity. Their hymns are for the most part characterized by healthy piety and deep godliness. Spener’s own poems are of slight importance. =J. Jac. Schütz=, Spener’s friend, a lawyer in Frankfort, who died A.D. 1690, composed only one, but that a very beautiful hymn: “All praise and thanks to God most high.” =Samuel Rodigast=, rector in Berlin, died A.D. 1708, wrote, “Whate’er my God ordains is right.” =Laurentius Laurentii=, musical director at Bremen, died A.D. 1722, wrote, “Is my heart athirst to know?” “O thou essential Word.”--=Gottfried Arnold=, died A.D. 1714, wrote, “Thou who breakest every chain;” “How blest to all thy followers, Lord, the road!”-- In Denmark, where previously translations of German hymns were used, =Thomas Kingo=, from A.D. 1677 Bishop of Fünen, died A.D. 1703, was the much-honoured founder of Danish national hymnology.[471]--Continuation, § 167, 6.
§ 160.5. =Sacred Music= (§ 142, 5).--The church music in the beginning of the seventeenth century was affected by the Italian school, just as church song was by the influence of Opitz. The greatest master during the transition stage was =John Crüger=, precentor in the church of St. Nicholas in Berlin, died A.D. 1662. He was to the chorale what Gerhardt was to the church song. We have seventy-one new melodies of his, admirably adapted to Gerhardt’s, Hunnius’s, Franck’s, Dach’s, and Rinkart’s songs, and used in the church till the present time. With the second half of the century we enter on a new period, in which expression and musical declamation perish. Choir singing now, to a great extent, supersedes congregational singing. =Henry Schütz=, organist to the Elector of Saxony, died A.D. 1672, is the great master of this Italian sacred concert style. He introduced musical compositions on passages selected from the Psalms, Canticles, and prophets, in his “_Symphoniæ Sacræ_” of A.D. 1629. After a short time a radical reform was made by =John Rosenmüller=, organist of Wolfenbüttel, died A.D. 1686. A reaction against the exclusive adoption of the Italian style was made by =Andr. Hammerschmidt=, organist at Zittau, died A.D. 1675, one of the noblest and most pious of German musicians. By working up the old church melodies in the modern style, he brought the old hymns again into favour, and set hymns of contemporary poets to bright airs suited to modern standards of taste. The accomplished musician =Rud. Ahle=, organist and burgomaster at Mühlhausen, died A.D. 1673, introduced his own beautiful airs into the church music for Sundays and festivals. His sacred airs are distinguished for youthful freshness and power, penetrated by a holy earnestness, and quite free from that secularity and frivolousness which soon became unpleasantly conspicuous in such music.--Continuation, § 167, 7.