Dana Marsh, director
Joanna Blendulf, director
Marsh and Blendulf combine on a program of early Baroque German music by relative unknowns Samuel Capricornus (1625–1665) and Johann Rudolf Ahle (1625–1673). The Capricornus motets and one of the Ahle group set the same text of the Vesper Hymn for the Office of the Holy Name, “Jesu dulcis memoria.”
Beckemeyer will sing as soloist on three of the four Capricornus motets, the Ahle vesper hymn of the same text, and an additional duet for soprano and tenor, joined by viol consort, continuo, and violins.
Capricornus was an important figure in the development of German sacred music between Schütz and J.S. Bach. He was ambitious – he sought and won the approbation of Schütz and Carissimi – and prolific, being one of the few German composers of his time whose works were widely distributed both in manuscripts and prints. Extant inventories list over 400 works, although many of them are lost, especially from his secular music, which included chamber music, ballets and operas. His sacred music, which was still in use liturgically in the early 18th century, includes large concerted works (Opus musicum) and many small concertos, both with instruments (Geistliche Harmonien, Theatrum musicum) and with only continuo accompaniment (Geistliche Concerten). He showed a strong preference for Latin devotional texts, which he set in a very expressive, Italianate manner.
–Grove Music Online
Samuel Capricornus. Source: Grove Music Online
Johann Rudolf Ahle (b Mühlhausen, Dec 24, 1625; d Mühlhausen, July 9, 1673). German composer, organist, writer on music and poet, father of Johann Georg Ahle. He was a prolific composer of popular sacred music, notably songs, in central Germany a generation before J.S. Bach.
The date of Ahle’s birth derives from a report published in the Neues Mühlhäusisches Wochenblatt (1798, no.31; see Wolf). He was educated first at the local Gymnasium and then, from about 1643, at the Gymnasium at Göttingen. In the spring of 1645 he entered Erfurt University as a student of theology. Nothing is known of his musical training, though in 1646, while enrolled at the university, he was appointed Kantor at the elementary school and church of St Andreas, Erfurt, and at this period he became well known for his ability as an organist. He returned to Mühlhausen to marry in 1650, but only at the end of 1654 does he seem to have obtained his first and only position as a musician there, as organist of St Blasius. In addition to this post, in which his fame grew throughout Thuringia and in which his son succeeded him after his death, he held several municipal offices, belonged to the town council and in the year of his death was elected mayor.
–Grove Music Online