Tyrolean Musical Treasures 26

Musica sacra - Hall in the Tyrol
Sacred Music by Christoph Sätzl (1592/93-1655)
Christoph Sätzl is one of the foremost Tyrolean composer personalities enjoying international repute. How much he was esteemed in his day is proven not least by the fact that several of his motets were included in famous supra-regional collections. Sätzl composed only church music, as appropriate for his position, first as the director of cathedral music for the Tyrolean prince-bishop in his hometown of Brixen, and later as the director of music at the royal religious institution for noble ladies in Hall. His exceedingly remarkable works were almost all published in Innsbruck, then a music-publishing center on a European scale. Only part of Sätzl’s compositions has survived. Those resources still available were transcribed from the old part books into modern musical notation in the framework of the Tiroler Landesmuseum’s collection project over the last few years. They now serve as the basis for future concert activities.
This CD production is the live recording of our Musica sacra concerts at the Jesuit Church of Hall in the Tyrol in April 2002. Christoph Sätzl worked in Hall for 23 years, were he also composed the works premiered at this concert. Outstanding among them are four examples from his collection of masses, Novem missae novae published in 1646 in Innsbruck. The title of the printed music is not only a clever play on words but also refers to the fact that Sätzl’s series of nine masses is in many respects a stylistic novelty, even in an international context. In this magnificent work, keeping the particular conditions of his place of activity in mind, by varying the scoring of the individual masses he succeeded perfectly in adapting to the contemporary ideal of flexibility in sacred music practice in completely novel fashion. This CD also features a concertizing mass for two choirs, in lavish Baroque style, and two motets.

Track 4, 1:53
Sanctus
from mass nr.3