Moritz von Hessen, known as Moritz der Gelehrte, *25 May 1572 Kassel, †15 March 1632 Eschwege, patron and composer, Landgrave of Hesse from 1592 to 1627. From 1586, he studied music with G. Otto, court kapellmeister in Kassel, after whom he named Germany’s first music theater, the Ottoneum, which he built in 1606. Until 1612, he regularly engaged English theater troupes there. In 1598, he founded the Collegium Mauritianum, where the children of courtiers received a thorough and broad education, including in music. In 1606, he affiliated his duchy with the Lutheran Church, and in 1612 he converted to Calvinism. As a result of the Thirty Years’ War, he was forced to hand over power to his son and settled in Eschwege in 1627.
Moritz of Hesse was an outstanding patron of the arts and sciences. He is remembered above all as the discoverer of H. Schütz’s talent, whom he sponsored for musical studies in Venice from 1609 to 1613 and whom he unsuccessfully tried to appoint as Kapellmeister of his ensemble in 1619. Moritz von Hessen corresponded with H.L. Hassler, and among the composers who visited his court or dedicated their works to him were J. Dowland, M. Praetorius, Ch. Demantius, and A. Orologio. A large part of Moritz von Hessen’s compositional legacy has been lost. A special place in his output was occupied by music for Protestant church use, consisting of one-voice and four-voice psalm settings with German texts. His motets, written in the stile antico, show the influence of G. Otto, while his polychoral works reveal the influence of the Venetian style of G. Gabrieli’s school. Based on the extremely rich music collection of Moritz von Hessen (currently in the Murhard’sche Bibliotek der Stadt Kassel), a musicology institute known as the Landgraf Moritz-Stiftung was established in Kassel in 1955.
Literature: H. Birtner H. Schütz und Landgraf Moritz von Hessen, “Hessenland” VII–VIII, 1935; W. Dane Briefwechsel zwischen dem landgräfisch-hessischen und dem kurfürstlich-sächsischen Hof um H. Schütz (1614–1619), “Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft” XVII, 1935/36; Ch. Engelbrecht Die Kasseler Hofkapelle im 17. Jahrhundert, Kassel 1958; W. Blankenburg Landgraf Moritz von Hessen “Musik und Kirche” XLII, 1972); G. Schweikhart Kunst und Kultur in Kassel unter Landgraft Moritz dem Gelehrten (1592–1627) in: Heinrich Schütz: Texte, Bilder, Dokumente, ed. D. Berke, Basel 1985; C. Knispel The International Character of the Lute Music at the Court of Landgraft Moritz von Hessen, “Journal of the English Lute Society” XXXVI, 1996; H. Borggrefe, V. Lupkes, ed. H. Ottomeyer, Moritz der Gelehrte: Ein Renaissancefürst in Europa, Eurasberg 1997; B. Schrammek Begegnung nationaler Stile am Kasseler Hof unter Landgraf Moritz von Hessen, “Sachsen-Anhalt und Thüringen” IV, 2002; D. Schmidt Zwischen Wissen, Repräsentation und Kommunikation: Moritz von Hessen-Kassel und die Bedeutung der Musik für das Herrscherbild der Zeit in: Hofkultur um 1600: Die Hofmusik Herzog Friedrichs I. von Württemberg und ihr kulturelles Umfeld, eds. S. Lorenz, P. Rückert, K. Kremer, Ostfildern 2010; W. Hirschmann Der Souverän und sein musikalischer Idealstaat: Zu den Kompositionen des Landgrafen von Hessen-Kassel, “Schütz-Jahrbuch” XXXIV, 2012; I. Baier „Musica noster amor!”: Der Musiktisch des Landgrafen Moritz von Hessen, “Wissenschaftliche Reihe” II, 2014.
Compositions:
Christlich Gesangbuch, von allerhand geistlichen Psalmen, Gesängen und Liedern, 24 one-voice works, pub. Geismar 1601, expanded ed. 21612, 31649
Psalmen Davids, Nach Frantzösischer Melodey und Reymen art in Teutsche reymen artig gebracht, 26 four-voice works, pub. Kassel 1607, 21608
preserved in collective prints from 1603–1618:
30 motets for 5–6- and 8 voices
Hosanna for 8 voices
pavane for lute
preserved in manuscripts in Kassel, Murhard Library:
Paduanen, Gagliarden (…) für allerley Instrumente
Canzon 5. Toni, for 8 voices
13 fugues for 4 voices
Magnificat, 3-voice, surviving in fragments
3 magnificats for 4 voices
24 villanelles, texts by Petrarch, for 4 voices
songs for 4–8 voices
2 psalms for 12 voices with basso continuo
madrigals
Editions:
13 works from Christlich Gesangbuch in: C. von Winterfeld Der evangelische Kirchengesang…, vol. 2, Leipzig 1845
21 works from Christlich Gesangbuch in: G. Tucher Melodien des evangelischen Kirchengesangs in ersten Jahren der Reformation, vol. 2, Leipzig 1848
14 works from Christlich Gesangbuch in: Handbuch der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenmusik, vols. 2 and 3, eds. K. Ameln, C. Mahrenholz and W. Thomas, Göttingen 1942
23 works from Psalmen Davids and Christlich Gesangbuch in: G. Heinrichs Aus alten hessischen Choralbüchem, iss. 1–2, Homberg 1929, 21933
4 motets ed. F. Blume in: Geistliche Musik am Hofe des Landgrafen Moritz von Hessen, Kassel 1931, repr. 1957
fugues and dances, ed. E. Rabsch, Leipzig 1931
16 dances, «Das Erbe Deutscher Musik», 2nd series, Kurhessen I, vol. 1, ed. W. Dane, Kassel 1936
4 fugues and 5 madrigals, «Das Erbe Deutscher Musik», 2nd series, Kurhessen I, vol. 2, ed. W. Dane, Kassel 1938
Gesamtausgabe der musikalischen Werke von Moritz Landgraf von Hessen, vols. 1–4, ed. P.-H. Leifhelm, Stuttgart 2005–2022
