The Mystical 16: Psalm 116 in Motets from the 1616 Collection, and in Early and Contemporary Versions

In the year 1616 Burckhard Grossmann, a merchant from Jena, Germany, after surviving a near death experience, in gratitude commissioned 16 composers from central Germany to write settings of Psalm 116. Among them were master composers of church music such as Heinrich Schütz, Christoph Demantius and Johann Hermann Schein. Our program will feature motets from this collection by these three composers, as well as Gregorian Chant, and works by Benedictus Ducis and Orlando di Lasso and J.S. Bach.