Concert

Musical avant-garde in the Haller Damenstift

Works by the collegiate bandmaster Christoph Sätzl

The noble ladies in the aristocratic ladies’ convent in Hall in Tyrol, founded by Archduke Ferdinand II for his sisters Magdalena and Helena
Magdalena and Helena, afforded themselves truly princely and therefore befitting music. In 1632, they brought Christoph Sätzl (ca. 1592-1655), one of the new stars of the Tyrolean music scene, to Hall as Kapellmeister at the “Parthenon Halensis”, as the ladies’ convent was known in Latinised form. Sätzl had been in charge of the Brixen cathedral music since 1621. In the year he took up his post in the Tyrolean episcopal city, he presented the “Ecclesiastici concentus”, a collection with which he demonstrated his progressive attitude: The motets from this collection are innovative in many respects; in a sense, they represent the musical avant-garde of their time. In the motets in this collection, Sätzl was one of the first composers north of the Alps to turn to the affect-emphasised “seconda prattica”. The same applies to the “Novem Missae Novae” from 1646: here Christoph Sätzl proves himself to be a practitioner by presenting virtuoso settings of the Ordinary of the Mass, with scoring ranging from one to four voices. Sätzl was one of the very first to transfer the principles of the style nuovo accompanied by basso continuo to mass composition – once again proving his originality. In this concert, we dedicate a personale to the important Tyrolean composer. The beautiful-sounding positive organ by Johann Caspar Humpel, owned by the Tyrolean Folk Art Museum, will be used.

BONUS: 18.15 pre-concert