Learning From Lazarus

LEARNING FROM LAZARUS: THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY LUTHERAN ART OF DYING
Author(s): Janette Tilley

Source: Early Music History , 2009, Vol. 28 (2009), pp. 139-184
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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Early Music History (2009) Volume 28. © Cambridge University Press
doi-A 0. 1 01 7/S0261 127909000345 Punted in the United Kingdom
Janette Tilley
Email: janette.tilley@lehman.cuny.edu
LEARNING FROM LAZARUS:

THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY
LUTHERAN ART OF DYING
The story of the Rich Man and Lazarus is the foundation upon which Germ
seventeenth century experimented with longer musical forms. Composers interpo
to a higher degree than with any other scriptural story, apart from the Passion.
range from simple funeral songs for Lazarus to elaborate contrapuntal drinking s
and his five brothers. We would expect the meaning imposed on the story in mu
line with local theology and exegesis. However, a close look at musical settings re
diverge from common theological explications. Onto the story of poverty, wealth
the soul are welded other topoi of Lutheran theology, including vanitas, peniten
(Sterbekunst or ars moriendi), which effectively reinterpret the story in a
undertaken by writers of sermons and devotional volumes.
The story of the Rich Man and Lazarus from Luke's Gos
of some of the earliest elaborate sectional musical works in seventeenth-
century Germany. With their high degree of textual troping and musical
variety, these settings often surpass musical treatments of other Gospel
stories in length and complexity. In at least two cases, these long, sectional
works seem to defy classification with the label Actus Musicus, the precise
features of which are elusive, given the paucity of extant pieces bearing this
designation. [ Apart from the Passion, no other biblical story seems to have
captured seventeenth-century imaginations as strongly as that of the Rich
Man and Lazarus. Indeed, with one notable exception, theatrical - that
is, sectional, first-person, dramatised - accounts of the Rich Man and
Lazarus story seem even to have been encouraged by local clergy.2
This work was supported in part by a grant from The City University of New York PSC-
CUNY Research Award Program. Parts of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of
the American Musicological Society, Quebec City, 2007.
Andreas Fromm, Actus musicus de Divite et Lázaro (Stettin, 1649) and Petrus Laurentius
Wockenfuss, 'Actus Musicus de Divite et Lázaro', Brussels, Conservatoire Royal, Bibliothèque/
Koninklijk Conservatorium, Bibliotheek, shelf no. 1000. On the term 'Actus musicus' see
especially H. E. Smither, A History of the Oratorio, ii: The Oratorio in the Baroque Era: Protestant
Germany and England (Chapel Hill, NC, 1977), pp. 28-37 and W. Braun, 'Zwischen Dialog und
Drama Andreas Fromms Actus Musicus (1649)', Studien zur Musikwissenschaft; Beihefte der Denkmäler
der Tonkunst in Österreich, 47 (1999), pp. 7-34.
A performance oí fromm s multi-sectional concerted setting in öchwarzenberg on il July
1672 drew the ire of the visiting official David Köhler, who considered it a disrespectful
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Janette Tilley
A long and varied exegetical tradition intersects with this unusual

body of musical works. The story of the Rich Man and Lazarus was well
known to Lutherans since it served as the Gospel lesson for the First
Sunday after Trinity, falling between 24 May and 26 June.3 Sermons on
the text, collected in cycles for the year or published independently, expose
the most common interpretations as well as a few idiosyncratic views.
Since most musical settings were intended for liturgical use, reinforcing
rather than replacing the reading of the Gospel text, we might expect to
find them strengthening the exegetical traditions out of which they
emerged.
INTERPRETATIVE THEMES: SERMONS AND PLAYS
The story of the Rich Man and Lazarus is a the

The Silesian theologian Valerius Herberger (15
are noted for their rhetorical flourishes and acces
begins his explication of the story by calling it a
this is the most beautiful Gospel of the year.
beautiful, pleasant meadow full of scented flow
described the world, heaven, and hell, where w
close to one another?'4 Lutheran theologians
number of interpretative points throughout the l
teenth century, with the most radical departures
ing in the late eighteenth century.
embarrassment to perform a Jesuit play (commedia) on the nam

(Magdalena Sybilla, born Margräfin of Brandenbug-Bayreut
Dialog und Drama', pp. 13-18. Nearly thirty years earlier, in
the promotion of the organist Johann Lange, the civic cou
composer's settings and names in particular a setting of th
as a model of the kind of concerted music they expected. S
not survive. A. Werner, 'Ein Dokument über die Einführ
Wittenberg', Sammelbände der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft,
Luke s Lazarus is not to be confused with Lazarus, the brother
in the Gospel of John, who is resurrected from the dead. The t
in popular literature. In the late Middle Ages, the name Laz
lepers, giving rise to the eponymous charitable medical and m
Ich dorrtte schier sagen, dali ditf der schönste Evangelien eins
für, wie ein schöner lustiger Wiesengarten voll wolriechend
doch allhier beschreiben die Welt, der Himmel, vnd die Helle,
so hart neben einander hören?' Valerius Herberger, Erster Thal
ordentliche Sontags-Evangelia vnd auch aller fiirnehmen berühmeten Heilige
gantze Jahr auffgeklitschet den Kern ausgeschelet auffs Hertze andächtig
Lahr notwendiger Warnung, nützlichem Trost, andächtigem Gebet, vnstr
Kunst abgerichtet werden (1613; Hamburg, 1653), p. 489.
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Learning from Lazarus
The last shall be first
At its most superficial, the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus seems
reiterate the lesson of Matthew 20: 16: 'So the last will be first, and the fir
last. For many are called, but few chosen.' The prolific Nurembe
theologian and author of devotional texts Johann Michael Dilherr ( 1 604-
69) visually depicts this reversal in an emblem for the first Sunday after
Trinity in his Augen- und Herzens- Lust (1661) (see Figure 1). The pictura sho
two hearts, one resting on a bed of thorns, the other on rose petals. Abov
the hearts are two arms emerging out of the clouds, crossing as they reac
down to the hearts. A fiery sword points down towards the hea
surrounded by roses, while a regal crown is offered to the heart lying in
thorns. The inscription accompanying the emblem reads: 'After joy o
earth follows eternal suffering. After suffering on earth follows heavenl
joy' ('Auf freud der Erd, folgt ewigs leid. Auf leid der Erd, folgt Himmel
freud'). Dilherr explains: 'those who here are injured by the thorny cr
and suffer great pain shall be rewarded there with the crown of glory. O
the other hand, those who live here as if on roses and for all pleasur
must suffer there the fiery flames.'5 Dilherr's simple image belies the m
complex interpretation that unfolds in the prose application of the Gospe
following the emblem. There Dilherr echoes most of the social concerns o
his contemporaries described below, including warning against the misuse
of wealth while exhorting almsgiving and charity.
The rich man is damned
Chief among the concordances in prose exegeses of the story is th

Man's fate to be counted among the damned. Although this may
painfully obvious to readers of the biblical story - we are all familiar
the Rich Man's infernal fate - most writers argue that the Rich
namelessness is evidence that he cannot be counted among the s
Sermon writers cite Psalm 16: 4, 'Their sorrows shall be multipli
hasten after another god; Their drink offerings of blood I will not o
Nor take up their names on my lips', and Psalm 69: 28, 'Let the
blotted out of the book of the living, And not be written with
righteous.' Lazarus, by contrast, does have a name, which some re
5 'daß die jenigen, welche allhier von manchem Creutz-Dorn verlezet, und grossen Sc
ausgestanden; dort die Ehrenkron empfangen werden; hingegen die, welche allhier glei
auf Rosen gegangen, und in allen Wollüsten gelebt; dort die Feuerflammen warde
müssen.' Johann Michael Dilherr, Augen- und Hertzens-Lust; das ist, Emblematische Für
der sonn- und festtäglichen Evangelien (Nuremberg, 1661), pp. 124-6. Available online
the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Signatur: Res/4 Horn. 2403 g <http://mdzl.bib-bv
~emblem/loadframe.html?toc_name=dilhe_augenu.html&img_id=img_dilhe_augenuOO 1
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Janette Tilley
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Figure 1 Johann Michael Dilherr, Augen- und Herzens- Lust (1661), p. 124. Wolfenbüttel,
Herzog August Bibliothek, Th 4° 13
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evidence of the story's veracity (and thus not merely a parable) and others
as evidence of the beggar's sanctity, for, as Johann Arndt (1555-1621)
points out, the names of the saved will be recorded for eternity.6
Sixteenth-century dramatisations of the story frequently break with
theological tradition and invent appropriate names for the Rich Man.
Jakob Frey names the Rich Man Antiochus, after Antiochus IV of Syria,
the despised ruler described in 1 Maccabees.7 In Johann Krüginger's
Comoedia from 1543 and Christophorus Hofmann's play from 1579, the
Rich Man is named Chrysophilus (lover of gold).8 In his well-known
drama of 1590, Georg Rollenhagen names the Rich Man Porphyrius, after
the third-century antagonist of Christianity.9 In many plays he is joined by
a host of other characters including his wife and brothers, various knights,
angels, Lazarus, Abraham and Death.10
Having established that the nameless Rich Man must be counted
among the damned, it is left to ascertain the moral lesson of the story. Why
exactly is the Rich Man condemned? What was his sin and, by contrast,
what was Lazarus's virtue that he should be embraced in the bosom of
Abraham?
Do good and show mercy

According to Luther, in one of his earliest sermons, the lesson espoused by
the story is that one ought to do good to one's neighbour:
Secondly, there is the parable of the rich reveller in Luke 16[: 19-31]. He was not
damned because he robbed or did evil with respect to these goods, for he feasted and
clothed himself sumptuously every day with his own goods. He was damned rather
because he did not do good to his neighbor, namely, Lazarus. This parable adequately
teaches us that it is not sufficient merely not to do evil and not to do harm, but rather
that one must be helpful and do good. It is not enough to 'depart from evil'; one must
also 'do good' [Ps. 37: 27]."
Later, in a sermon for the First Sunday after Trinity, 1522, Luther
connects love of one's neighbour with love of God: 'Then whoever feels
b Johann Arndt, Postilla, Das ist, Außlegung der, Sontags Evangelien, vnnd Texten Durchs, Gantzß Jahr
gepredigt vnnd beschuhen (Frankfurt am Main, 1643), p. 33.
Jakob Frey, Von dem armen Lasaro vnd dem reichen Mann . . . (Strasburg, 1550-5). See S. L. Wailes,
The Rich Man and Lazarus on the Reformation Stage: A Contribution to the Social History of German Drama
(Selinserove, Pa., 1997), p. 134.
8 See Wailes, The Rich Man and Lazarus.
9 Georg Rollenhagen, Vom Reichen Manne vnd armen Lázaro, ein deutsche Action (Magdeburg, 1590).
10 Johann Krüginger, Comoedia von dem reichen Mann . . . (Zwickau, 1543) and Christan Hofmann,
Die Parabel Christi, Luce am sechzehenden, Vom Reichen Manne vnd armen Lázaro, in eine kurze Action
verfasset (Königsberg:, 1579)
1 ' Martin Luther, Luther's Works, li: Sermons I, ed. J. Pelikan and H. T. Lehmann (Philadelphia,
1959), 8. CD-ROM: Luther's Works on CD-ROM (1999).
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Janette Tilley
God's goodness also feels his neighbour's pains. Whoever does not feel
God's goodness, also does not feel his neighbour's pains. Thus just as he
does not love God, so too does he not take his neighbour to heart.'12
A similar theme is expressed by the poet and emblematist Georg Philipp
Harsdörffer (1607-58) in his collection of emblems, poems and prayers
on the weekly Gospels, Hertzbewegliche Sonntagsandachten (Nuremberg,
1649-52):
Getreuer Gott, gieb, daß wir treu Faithful God, grant that we loyally,
den Armen willig geben: Willingly give to the poor:
und daß wir in der Sündenreu And that we, in repentance for sins,
dir wolgefállig leben. Live to please you.
Es ist gewiß deß Reichthums Pfand, It is certainly the pledge of wealth
der Heller in deß Armen Hand, [To offer] a penny in the hands of the
poor
wer in dem Geitz ersoffen, He who drowns in avarice
hat nichts von Gott zu hoffen. Can expect nothing from God.
Dilherr sees it as the duty of the wealthy to care for the poor. His emblem
from the Augen- und Hertzens-Lust, mentioned earlier, includes a short
sermon that identifies the central lesson of the parable: 'The wealthy
should render love unto the poor Christian: they should be the providers
for the poor, the eyes for the blind and feet for the lame, and their faith,
through love of their neighbour, shall always be active.'13
The rich man is godless

Faith and godlessness are at the heart of most exegetical writings on the
story. The Rich Man, most argue, is a godless sinner, condemned for his
lack of faith. Among the earliest is a sermon by Willibald Ramsbeck von
Weissenburg, Von der Historien des Reichen mans vnd armen Lazari Luce 16.
(Wittenberg, 1555) in which the Rich Man is accused of not attending
church and stopping his ears as he stepped over the beggar lying at his
doorstep. Martin Möller (1547-1606), the Görlitz preacher and author of
popular devotional volumes, gives a colourful description of the Rich
Man's life filled with singing, dancing and fine clothes. Who would not
want such a life, he asks. But since the Rich Man was not a criminal, a
murderer, an adulterer or a thief, he must have been damned for the evil
12 Luther, WA, x, no. 3: 'Sermon von dem reichen Mann und dem armen Lazarus' (1. Sonntag
n. Trinitatis) 22 Juni 1522, p. 182. 'Denn wer Gottis gütte fület, der fület auch seyns nehisten
unfall. Wer aber Gottis gütte nicht fület, der fület auch seynes nehisten Unfall nicht, Darumb
wie yhm Gott nicht ge feilet, so gehet yhm auch seyn nehister nicht zu hertzen.'
'Die Reichen sollen den Armen die christliche Liebe erweisen: sie sollen Vätter der Armen, und
deß blinden Aug, und deß Lahmen Fuß, und ihren Glauben, durch die Liebe gegen den
Nächsten, lassen thätig seyn.' Dilherr, Augen- und Hertzens-Lust, p. 125.
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that lay in his heart. Möller enumerates the Rich Man's sins; heading the
list is the accusation that he is 'ein Verächter Göttliches Worts' (a despiser
of God's word) whose heart is filled with unbelief and unrepentance, out
of which all other sins flow. As a result of his faithlessness, the Rich Man
does not pray, does not give thanks to God and puts his trust in wealth.14
Misuse of wealth - clothing, eating and drinking

Sixteenth-century plays make much of the Rich Man's wealth by adding
scenes that display his feasts and fine clothes. For most playwrights, the
character of the Rich Man is an opportunity to criticise social injustice by
building him into a caricature of the wealthy glutton. Sermons, too, often
make much of the Rich Man's wealth, inventing scenarios and inflating his
worth. Martin Mirum (1532-93), in a sermon published in 1592, embel-
lishes the Rich Man's luxurious life, claiming that he ate constantly from
one midnight to the next, had expansive land with a large income and
sacks of gold coins, and feared death because he did not want to lose the
kingdom of riches he had acquired on earth.15 Mirum offers a glimpse of
daily life by imagining what the Rich Man's luxurious funeral might have
looked like, with bells ringing, a long procession of mourners clad in black
and burial within the church. Most plays, too, take advantage of the Rich
Man's death to indulge in a luxurious funeral scene.16 Likewise Martin
Möller describes the Rich Man as eating like a swine and dressing beyond
his station.17
Excessive drink is also a common thread in sermons on the Rich Man
and Lazarus story throughout the century. Some claim that he ate and
drank constantly, placing emphasis on the word 'täglich' (daily) in Luther's
Bible translation. Every day was a Faßnacht (keg night), never a Fastnacht
(fasting night), as Johann Conrad Dannhauer (1603-66) cleverly expresses
it.18 Excessive drink turns people into wild animals, according to Balthasar
Meisner.19 Excessive consumption of alcohol was grave enough a concern
14 Martin Möller, Praxis Evangeliorum, Das ist: Einfältige Erklärung und nützliche Betrachtung der
Evangelien, so auf alle Sontage und vornehmste Fest Jährlich zu predigen verordnet sind . . . Ander Theil
(Görlitz, 1600-1; Lüneburg, 1661), p. 207.
5 Martin Mirus, Eine Predigt, Vber das Euangelium am Ersten Sontage nach Trinitatis, vom Reichen Mann
vnnd Armen Lázaro (Leiozie. 1592).
1 See Wailes, The Rich Man and Lazarus, passim.
Moller, Praxis Evanseliorum, pp. 205-14.
18 Johann Conrad Dannhauer, Evangelisches Memorial oder Denckmahl der Erklärungen, vber die
Sontägliche Evangelien, Welche zu Straßburg um Münster abgelegt, vnd auff inständiges begehren Christlicher
Hertzen, zur künftigen Erinnerung vnd Nachdencken, in Truck außgefertiget worden (Strasburg, 1663),
p. 502.
19 Balthasar Meisner, Meditationes Sacrae, Oder Geistliche Andachten, Über die Evangelien der Jährlichen
Sonn- und Festtagen, Nebenst Erklärung Der von Christo am Creutze gesprochenen Sieben Worten, Anfangs in
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Janette Tilley
to warrant its own collection of sermons and tracts against the sin.20 As we
shall see, depictions of the Rich Man and his drunken brothers appear
with some frequency in musical settings of the story, though not without
their own risks.
The story of the Rich Man and Lazarus provides playwrights and
sermon writers alike with a framework on which to hang their grievances
of social behaviour. For Peter Rinovius, preacher in Havelberg, the story
is an opportunity for the criticism of a wide range of social ills. In addition
to condemning the Rich Man for dressing above his station, Rinovius goes
so far as to criticise all men who take too much care in their clothing,
naming them 'weiche vnbehertzte Männer' (soft, faint-hearted men).21
Among other grievances he names excess eating and myriad abuses of
music in beer halls.
Despite their detailed evocations of wealth, most writers do not
condemn the Rich Man for his riches alone. Dilherr admits that wealth
may be a sign of God's favour: 'Truly wealth, when it is rightly earned, is
a matter of godly blessing and can serve a wise man in many ways.'22
Likewise Mirum points out that several important figures in the Bible were
wealthy, namely Rebecca, Esther and Solomon, but the Rich Man was
damned for his godless heart, not his wealth. Möller, too, points to Old
Testament figures who despite wealth still enjoyed favour with God. In a
sermon from 1675, Matthias Winckelmann points out that the wealthy are
in the best position to assist the poor and that they should not be distracted
by prideful thoughts, but maintain a devout heart under their fine clothing.
He goes so far as to pray for the clothiers themselves that they may be
blessed and take care to clothe the poor.23 Balthasar Meisner, in a
collection of sermons from 1659, also condemns the wealthy for possessing
Lateinischer Sprach beschrieben Durch Weiland Herrn Balthasarn Meißnem . . . (Frankfurt am Main,
1659), p. 324.
See, for example, Sebastian Franck's Von dem grewlichen Laster der Trunkenheit (Pfortzheym, 1559)
or Johann Georg Sigwart's Eilff Predigtenvon den vornemesten unnd zu iedenzeit in der Welt gemeinesten
Lastern ... (Tübingen, 1603), or Guilhelm Fabricius (1560-1634), Christlicher Schlafftrunck
(Frankfurt am Main, 1624) which includes his twenty-six-verse song on the sin of drunkeness
'Christliche Abmahnung von der Trunckenheit. Gesangsweiß, In der Melodey: O Mensch
bewein dein Sünde groß, etc.'. See also Rodolf Mohr, Der unverhoffte Tod Theologie-und
kulturgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zu außergewöhnlichen Todesfallen in Leichenpredigten (Marburger
Personalschriften-Forschungen, ed. Rudolf Lenz, 5; Marburg, Lahn, 1982), 83-96.
21 Peter Rinovius, Die Historia vom Rachen Mann, vnd armen Lázaro, Luca am 16. (Magdeburg, 1591),
p. 18.
22 'Es ist zwar Reichthum, wenn er recht gewonnen wird, auch ein Stück deß Göttlichen Segens,
und kan einem weisen Mann, in vielen Stücken, dienlich seyn.' Dilherr, Augen- und Hertzens- Lust,
p. 125.
23 Matthias Winckelmann, Manna Spirituale, Das ist: Geistliche Himmel-Speise, Aus Gottes heiligen Worte
... (Leipzig, 1675), pp. 826-8.
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large wardrobes and changing clothing too often. Clothing is a necessity,

a reminder of lost innocence, and not a source of pride.24 Likewise,
Christian Hoburg criticises the wealthy who attend church services dressed
in fine clothes, for it is not possible for proud clothes to house a lowly heart
turned towards God.25
Although some point out that the Rich Man was not condemned to hell
because of his wealth, many take the opportunity to warn against putting
excessive value on worldly goods or living beyond one's station. It is,
however, a small step from a pointed critique of excess and inappropriate
wealth to outright rejection of worldly goods - a step, however, that few
make. Rollenhagen ends his dramatisation of the story with a stinging
parody on the Leichenpredigt, the closing moral of which declares 'es ist alles
Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas' ('it is all vanity of vanities, all is
vanity'; Ecclesiastes 1: 2). Few other sermon writers or playwrights go so
far as to reject the physical world altogether - a key point of departure, as
we shall see, for composers.
Lazarus as lesson and model
Lazarus himself is silent in Luke's account. This silence, far from m

him a minor figure in early modern literature and lore, projected
a sort of tabula rasa onto whom models of earthly life and prepar
death could be imposed. For most writers, Lazarus is a mo
emulated; but just as the Rich Man could not be condemned on
of his wealth alone, so too Lazarus could not be rewarded on hi
alone. Luke's Gospel says little about Lazarus except that he was
that dogs licked his wounds. In order to justify his ascension to A
bosom, writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries mould
to fit their interpretation. For most, Lazarus is a model for his for
For a few, Lazarus is model for the dying. Ludwig Dunte (1597
his general handbook on Christian life, advises those suffering a p
illness to think of Lazarus, who never doubted that he was a child
Lazarus offers an even more specific model according to Ram
who lists specific passages from Scripture with which Lazarus
24 Meisner, Meditationes Sacrae, pp. 323-4.

Christian Hoburg, Postilla Evangeliorum Mystica. Das ist: Verborgener Hertzens-Safft, Aller So
Fest- Evangelien Durchs gantze Jahr, Andachten und Seelen-Gesprächen, das Herz in der Kr äf
reinigen, zu erleuchten, zu stärcken, und mit dem Herzen Gottes zu vereinigen, in £eit und E
[1650], pp. 270-1.
b Ludwig (Ludovicus) Dunte, Wahre und rechtmessige Übung des Christenthumb (Lü
Wittenberg, 1678), p. 619.
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Janette Tilley
himself.27 Lazarus was familiar with both the New and Old Testaments
and could paraphrase verses from Matthew, Paul's letters, Proverbs and
Psalms, among others. Martin Möller takes even greater liberty in his
conviction of Lazarus's piety: in his sermon on the Gospel, he enumerates
seven ways in which Lazarus pleased God - many of which were echoed
in sermons by later authors. Among them are the assertions that Lazarus
prayed, served God, had faith and loved his neighbours even when they
were cruel to him, concluding that he even prayed for the Rich Man.28
Death
The deaths of the two main figures in the story figure prominently in so
exegetical writings. An emblem by Johann Michael Dilherr and Ge
Philipp Harsdörffer combines several ideas into a single visual comp
including the reminder that death comes at any time (see Figure 2).2
contains a tripartite image, superimposed on a depiction of the Rich M
and Lazarus story. The Rich Man feasts with men and women at a la
table while Lazarus, covered in sores and licked by a dog, is threatened by
a servant with a large whip. In the background are a figure tormented in
hell and two figures on a cloud in heaven representing the fates of the t
men after death. The emblem proper contains three panels with th
headings 'Gottseeligkeit' (Blessedness), 'und Todes Zeit' (and the mom
of death) and 'Stimmt gleiche Sait' (Sound the same string). The imag
show a young man crowned with thorns and a skeleton crowned w
laurels, each playing a lute (theorbo). In the third image they are sho
playing together. The explanation points out that the crown of thor
reminds the youth to be aware of the difficult situation that awaits us i
death. Death, on the other hand, is crowned with laurels, showing t
death brings joy and glory. The two sit together as a reminder that life
death belong together. A good life will be rewarded with a good de
while a wicked life will end with eternal death. A subscript™ confirms t
the antithesis between a good and a wicked life revolves around piety
27 Willibald Ramsbeck, Von der Historien des Reichen mans vnd armen Lazari Luce 16. Eine sehr nö
Vermanung oder Predigt zu besondern nutz vnd bestendigem trost, allen jtzt betrübten, veriagten vnd geplagt
Christengeschreiben (Wittenberg, 1555).
28 Moller, Praxis Evangeliorum, 209.
29 Johann Michael Dilherr and Georg Philipp Harsdörffer, Drei-ständige Sonn= und Festt
Emblemata, oder Sinne-bilder (Nuremberg, 1660; repr. Hildesheim, 1994); electronic edition
Nuremberg, 1669 edn. at <http://diglib.hab.de/drucke/tb-l 58- l/start.htm?image=000
http://diglib.hab.de/drucke/tb-158-l/start.htm?image=00042, http://diglib.hab.de/druc
tb- 1 58- 1 /start.htm?image=00 1 6 1 >.
30 The subscriptio was not printed in the 1669 edition used as the source for both the electr
edition and the 1994 facsimile reprint published by Georg Olms. The texts from the 16
edition are transcribed in the appendix to the 1994 facsimile edition.
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Figure 2 Johann Michael Dilherr and Georg Philipp HarsdörfTer, Drei-ständige Sonn= und
Festtag- Emblemata, oder Sinne- bilder (Nuremberg, 1669), p. 161. Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August
Bibliothek, TB 158 (1)
Vom Leben und Tod der Menschen On the life and death of man
Das Leben und der Tod in gleichem Life and death are of the same standing.
Stande schweben:
Der seelig sterben will, muß GOTT Who will have a blessed death must love
gefällig leben. God obligingly.

Es giebt der Frommen/Bösen Tod deßThe pious/wicked's death is life's same
Lebens gleichen Lohn; reward;
Dann Tod, und Leben stimmt der For death and life sound piety/evil's last
Frommkeit/ Laster letzten Ton. note.
For Dilherr and Harsdörffer, the Rich Man and Lazarus parable offere
an opportunity to contemplate the transience of life through the oft-used
metaphor of music, and even more specifically the lute. The lute draw
attention to the vanitas theme underlying the parable, a theme that will b
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Janette Tilley
explored in greater detail below.31 Here, the vanitas theme is merely

evoked, but not explored as the primary moral foundation of the story.
MUSICAL INTERPRETATIONS
None of the surviving compositions from the m

eighteenth century emphasises mercy, faith or t
most sermons do. Instead, Lutheran settings im
activities derived not from Luther's explicat
socialising plays, but from contemporary priva
specifically preparation for death.
Composers of the first half of the century tended
text with respect, avoiding tropes and additions
simple pictorial setting of the Gospel's first-pe
true of settings of 'Vater Abraham' by Melch
Schütz, Johann Rudolph Ahle and Andreas Hamm
compositions omit the words of the Evangelist
dialogue between Dives in hell and Abraham.
Schütz's work, all these compositions suit their
their relatively small performing forces and brevit
ate for small printed volumes. Since these works
for liturgical performance, the lack of exegesis wou
problem: combined with the sermon, the musical de
culminating moment after death would serve as an
not stand on its own in the service. The many
volumes attest to their widespread acceptan
churches. Other settings with relatively limite
Seile's 'Es war aber ein reicher Mann' and Wolfga
Abraham'.33
Beginning with Andreas Fromm's Actus Musicu
1649, a number of lengthy, dramatised accounts of
employ textual and musical tropes to a relatively
written with very specific performances in mind f
31 Much has been written on the use of the lute in the vanitas pain
lute, the sound of whose strings dies away swiftly, offered an a
of life's transience. See, for example, Liana Cheney, The Symbolism o
and Music: Comparative and Historical Studies (Lewiston, NY, 1992
32 Melchior Vulpius, in Ander Theil Deutscher Sonntäglicher Evang
Heinrich Schütz, SWV 477 (c. 1640-50); Johann Rudolph Ahle, in E
(Erfurt, 1648); and Andreas Hammerschmidt, in Ander Theil geistlic
Dresden, 1656)
33 Thomas Seile's manuscript was prepared c. 1646-53. Wolfgang
Evangelischer Blumengarten (Gotha, 1667).
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these compositions survive, with only a few exceptions, in manuscript

form.
By the last decades of the seventeenth century, composers of cantata
cycles for the liturgical year avoid setting the Gospel text itself in favour of
texts with greater poetic variety and freedom. Briegel's setting for the First
Sunday after Trinity from his 1680 Musicalische Lebenbrunn, for example,
forgoes the dramatic elements of the Rich Man and Lazarus story in
favour of poetic reflections on the Gospel's central lesson. By the turn of
the eighteenth century, direct references to either the Rich Man or
Lazarus in cantata settings are rare.
The call for penitence

Among the simplest settings of the Rich Man and Lazarus story is
Wolfgang Carl Briegel's four-voice motet-style composition from the third
volume of his Evangelischer Blumengarten (Gotha, 1667). The first-person
sections of the biblical text (Luke 16: 24-5) are followed by a strophic
aria, asserting that the sinning Rich Man will go to hell and asking Jesus
for help to avoid sin and contemplate eternity:
Ach du verstockter Sünder Oh, you stubborn sinner,
Auff es ist hohe Zeit Rise, it is time.
Du Prasser Flucher Schinder You reveller, curser, cheater,
Die Höll ist schon bereit Hell is ready
Dich grimig zu verschlingen To swallow you with wrath,
Gleichwie den reichen Mann Just like the Rich Man.
Ach eile dich zu schwingen Oh, make haste and turn yourself
Zu Gott durch Büß hinan. To God through penitence.
O Jesu laß mich weichen O Jesus, let me turn away
Von bösen Wegen ab From evil ways,
Daß ich nicht mit dem Reichen That I do not go with the Rich Man
Fahr in des Satans Grab To Satan's grave.
Gib daß ich mich mag lencken Allow me to turn
Zu dir ohn Heucheley To you without hypocrisy.
Ja lehre mich bedencken Yes, teach me to consider
Was Ewig Ewig sey. What will be for eternity.
Typical of Gospel settings in this collection, Briegel imposes a personal,

moral element on the story. He extracts the dramatic or theatrical sections
of the Gospel, much as his older contemporaries might have done, but
adds a first-person prayer to conclude, drawing the penitent listener into
direct engagement with the story.
A contemporaneous setting by the North German Kapellmeister
Augustin Pfleger (e. 1635-é' 1690) also calls for penitence after presenting
the Rich Man's suffering in Hell (see Example 1). Pfleger adds scriptural
passages to depict the Rich Man's cries:
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Janette Tilley
O ihr Berge fallet über mich und ihr Oh ye mountains, fall on me and ye
Hügel bedecket mich. hills, cover me. (Hos 10: 8, altered)
Weh weh! ich leide Pein. Woe, woe! I am tormented. (Luke 16:
24)
Verflucht sey der Tag der in ich Cursed be the day in which I was born,
gebohren bin. (Jer. 20: 16)
Daß meiner Mutter mein Grab gewesen That my moth
und ihr Leib ewig schwanger grave, And her wo
geblieben wäre. with me. (Jer. 20: 17)
Pfleger also takes up the theme of death that lies at the

Gospel. The apostrophising opening arioso-like segment see
that the torments of the Rich Man are a result of his carefree
how bitter you are, when one who has fine things and abu
lives without care thinks of you . . .'. ('O todt wie bitter bist du
gedencket ein Mensch der gute dinge und gnug hatt und
lebt . . .'). No further mention is made about the Rich Man's li
and his possible sins.
Concluding the work are four stanzas sung by the two
throughout the work have offered commentary on the Gos
O Sünden Mensch bedenck den Todt O sinning man think on d
Der letzten Stunden Angst und Noth. The last hour's anxiety an
Mach dich durch wahre buss bereit Make yourself ready throu
penitence
zu leben in der Ewigkeit. To live in eternity.
Here, the final stanza is directed at the listening congregation, advising it

to ready itself for eternity through penitence. The Rich Man's sins, apart
from lack of penitence, figure in neither Briegel's nor Pfleger's setting.
Both end with a contemplation on eternity and eternal judgement and not
socialising behaviour.
Memento mori and concomitant motifs: vanitas, ubi

sunt and contemptus mundi
While some preachers recognised that the Rich Man's wealth was not the
primary reason for his eternal punishment, most do warn against putting
excessive faith in the pleasures of the physical world. If we consider the
audience for printed sermons - literate, at least moderately wealthy -
preaching against wealth in and of itself would hardly have been well
received. Not surprisingly, most theologians tiptoe about the issue of wealth,
calling on biblical figures to justify it, yet cautiously warning against
excessive reliance on wealth and living beyond one's proper station. Several
musical treatments are decidedly less cautious in their condemnations of
wealth. The calls of theologians not to be seduced by wealth and finery and
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61
Tenor I IB f <U [ { 'l Í If p' g | ||J f (} f f |

Ach weh! Ach ich lei - de Pein O ihr Ber - ge
2 6 5 tf
Continuo ^
64
t ß
fai - - - - let fai - let ü - ber mich und ihr
"4'n,i j ij ] i
66
t ¡Bf p p P^ i1 J [jl f > 7 p p'wJ'lttp C.

Hu-gel be-de-cket mich. Weh Weh! Ich lei - de Pein Weh! Weh!
6 6 m #
»-e- Dy*«
69
t iî/1 ^H'p r iw> p p p r (i p piiJi

Ich lei - de Pein. Ver - flucht sey der Tag der in ich ge -
B-C-[tv:*llttJ J !.. ^^
71
T l11^' p" p p" p r v p ir > r i

boh - ren bin. Ver- flucht sei der Tag weh!
2 «
b4v:'|I J. BJ IJ J ^
Example 1 Augustin Pfleger, 'O Todt wie bitter', bb. 61-72. Uppsala, Universitets-
biblioteket Vmhs 73:15
the latent vanitas message of Harsdörffer's emblem are realised explicitly in

a number of musical settings. The Rich Man and Lazarus parable
becomes a backdrop for memento moñ and ytfmto-themed treatments.
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Janette Tilley
Kaspar Förster's Latin setting of the story is an entirely pessimistic piece

that reminds the listener of the transience of life.34 Förster (1616-73)
studied with Marco Scacchi in Warsaw and later in Rome with Carissimi
and his musical style reflects these Italian influences. Despite the Italianate
musical treatment, the moral content of the setting would have been very
attractive to German Protestants; Förster served as Kapellmeister to
Danzig's Protestant Marienkirche from 1655 to 1657. His setting com-
bines excerpts from the story from the Vulgate with newly written Latin
texts and the popular phrase from Ecclesiastes 1:2, 'Vanitas vanitatum et
omnia vanitas' (Vanity of vanities, all is vanity'). Förster begins in medias res
with the death of the two characters. Unlike Heinrich Schütz, Andreas
Hammerschmidt and Johann Rudolph Ahle, all of whom begin with the
cry of the Rich Man from hell ('Father Abraham'), omitting all narration,
Förster introduces the scene with a new Latin text paraphrasing the first
four verses of the story.35
Lazarus plays absolutely no role in the work and the Rich Man's sins are
not explored, in keeping with the biblical text itself. Förster imposes a
moral interpretation on the work only in the opening and concluding tutti,
in which all three singers admonish the listener: CO mortals, in what way
are transitory and inane things helpful? Worry will benefit nothing at all.
All these things pass away like shadows. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.'36
There is no redeeming call to Jesus for forgiveness, nor is the parable used
as a vehicle for social critique. Förster exposes the emptiness of earthly
existence, but offers no glimpse at redemption or optimism of eternal life.
Like Förster, Briegel frames another of his settings of the parable with
the repeated 'Vanitas vanitatum' refrain, but also imposes another memento
mon device borrowed from medieval literature: ubi sunt.37 The refrain 'ubi
sunt', literally 'where are', explores the transience of life through a series
of questions, usually recalling people or things of the past. The rhetorical
strength of the conceit lies in the obvious answer - they are all gone. The
conceit is a familiar one in poetic memento mori, appearing in the works of
34 'j)iajOgQ â tre voci . . . sopra 1. Sabbathi post Trinitati. de Divite et paupere Latzaro'; Uppsala,
Universitetsbiblioteket Vmhs 81 (tablature) and Vmhs 22:19 (parts).
'Ad ianuam divitis Lazarus jacebat cupiens saturari de mieis quae cadebant de mensa eius.
Factum est autem ut ambo morerentur et dives sepultus est in inferno. Unde vidit Lazarum in
sinu Abrahae. Clamans, dixit: pater Abrahi, fili recordare ob aeternitas.' 'Lazarus lay at the
door of the wealthy man's [house], desiring to be satiated by the crumbs that fell from his table.
So it happened that both men died, and the rich man was relegated to hell. From there, he saw
Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham. Shouting, he said: 'Father Abraham, remember your son
on account of eternity.' Thanks to Gavin Hammel for this and other Latin translations.
36 'O Mortales, quid fatales et inanes juvant? Cura nil omnino pro futura. Omnia ista tanquam
umbra transeunt. Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas.'
37 Ferdinand van Ingen traces the roots of the ubi sunt motif as far back as ancient Greece. F. van
Ingen, Vanitas und Memento Mori in der deutschen Barocklyrik (Groningen, 1966), pp. 73-5.
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Christian Hofmann von Hofmannswaldau and Martin Möller, among

others.38 In his setting for the first Sunday after Trinity from his
Musicalischer Lebensbrunn (Darmstadt, 1680),39 Briegel borrows verses from
a hymn attributed to Johann Matthäus Meyfart (1590-1642), which
appears in hymn books well into the eighteenth century.40 The verses ask
not 'where are' but 'what are' in a line of questioning that exposes the
emptiness of worldly glamour:
Sag an was ist die Welt Say now, what is the world
mit ihrem Gut lauter Geld? With its goods and gold?
Sie ist pur lautter nichts, It is absolutely nothing;
was darffst du mehr Berichts? What more do you dare claim?
Was hilfft Glück, Gut und Ehr, What good are fortune, wealth and
glory
wanns auch blüht noch so sehr, When it blossoms so well;
wie Feuer, Rauch und Wind Like fire, smoke and wind
verschwindet es geschwind. It quickly disappears.
Was ist eur roth Gewand, What is your red robe

das Purpur wird genand, That might be called crimson,
ein schnöder Schneken Schweiß A worthless snail's trail
der nichts von Hoffarth weiß. That knows nothing of courtly etiquette.
Was ist der SeidenPracht? What is that magnificent silk
und wer hat ihn gemacht? And who has made it?
ein Würmlein das verschwind A little worm that vanishes
und sich zu tode spinnt. And spins itself to death.
Was sind nun solche Ding? What, then, are such things?
für der Welt so gering So insignificant before the world
Erd, Wurm und Schneckenblut Earth, worm and blood of the snail
uns machen solchen Muth. Put us in such a state.
Meyfart's rhetorical questions echo those in Christian Hofmann von

Hofmannswaldau' s well-known contemplation of the world's vanity, 'Die
Welt' (c. 1647-8):
38 See Christian Hofmann von Hofmannswaldau, 'Die Welt', and Martin Moller, 'Von der
Zergäncklichkeit dises Mühseligen lebens', in Chronica Oder Beschreibung aller Römischen Kay ser,
Durch Adolarium Rothen (Heidelberg, 1584), in P. Wackernagel, Das deutsche Kirchenlied von der
ältesten £eit bis zu Anfang des XVII. Jahrhunderts, v (Leipzig, 1877), pp. 58-60. Moller's is a
fifty-five-verse enumeration of deceased figures of history, half of which end with the phrase
'Allding zergencklich' (All things must pass) and the others 'Gottes wort bleibet ewig' (God's
word remains for ever). 'Wo ist Cyrus vnd Priamus? / Wo Augustus vnd Julius? / wo Pompeins
vnd Claudius? / Allding zergencklich . . . Hie wird nu fein auch fürgestellt / der reiche Mann
der liebt die Welt, / von welchem Lucas am sechzehn meldt. / Allding zergencklich. / Der sein
Sinn, muth sezet allein / auff Pracht, Fressen, gut sein, / zu lezt ihn doch der Todt nimpt
ein. / Allding zergencklich.'
39 A manuscript concordance is in Uppsala, Universitetsbibliotheket Vmhs 5:6 (part) and Vmhs
82:23 (tablature).
40 According to Albert Friedrich Wilhelm Fischer, Kirchenlieder- Lexicon (Gotha, 1878), 232. Most
appearances of the text are uncredited, as is the case in Johannes Olearius's Geistliche Singe-Kunst
(1672).
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Janette Tilley
Canto |||gi>"Va-ni-tas
PB(1va-ni
FF- ta-tum,
F F PFIFF FFP P PFIFF 7P PPP P{i(iiP(i(i PEPf PP I f" P*f II
va-ni - ta-tum va-ni-ta-tum va-ni - tamim etom-ni-a om-ni-a om-ni-a om-ni-a om-ni-a va - ni-tas
Aito |j{» n Fpp PP [7 [J PPlPP ppF F [7¡71pp ^P p ß P PpplPpp P^r PPlf F ÍÜ
Tenor IB ^ « P ß g F F "p [7 fr fr I fr fr "i P F P P F I P P ^F F fl P ]iP g B 1 F fi M E 5 r PPlT |fE f 11
Va-nrtas va-ni-ta-tum. va-ni-ta-tum va-ni-ta-tum va-ni -ta-tum et om-ni-a om-ni-a om-ni-a om-ni-a om-ni-a va - ni-tas
HP* i i i rif pttf h

vioimo i <m<*rrrrrrr rrlrr rrrrrrirr^ ' ' rrrrrrirrrrrrrrlli m ' 11 "
^r Ibdlltlll'll I I I I I 1 ' I I ' lUjlbd'lbdIMIIJ1' ' "
-H- m
Violino11 -H- ^ " ¿nSl m

6 tt <t6tt 6tt tt 4 tt 8
conF:z b:ti<
Example 2 Wolfgan
stadt, 1680),
Was istWhatdie
is the world and its Welt,
well-known u
gläntzen? glitter?
Was ist die Welt und ihre gantze What is the world and all its splendour?
Pracht?
Ein schnöder Schein in kurtz-gefasten A contemptuous semblance with brief
Gräntzen borders,
Ein schneller Blitz bey Schwartz- A flash of lightning in the black-clouded
gewölckter Nacht. night.
BriegePs setting in the Musicalischer Lebensbrunn is not a theatrical,

first-person setting of the parable as was common among his contempo-
raries. He focuses entirely on the moral lesson. The only reference to the
pericopic text comes in the final verses which mention the 'rich man'. The
congregation would certainly have been familiar enough with the Gospel
text not to need a full presentation of the story. The strophes cited above,
sung by solo voices, alternate with the entire ensemble (CATB), which
musically hammers home the phrase 'vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas'
(Vanity of vanities, all is vanity') (see Example 2). The setting, homo-
phonic, rhythmically persistent, harmonically stable and lacking any
melodic interest whatsoever, eschews even the vanities of music -
pleasurable melodies and harmonies, subtle phrasing, intelligent counter-
point, colourful instrumentation - in favour of a stark, almost agitated,
motto-like treatment.
Briegel commonly concludes his Gospel settings with a tutti statement of
a chorale or a new strophic aria in which a decisive moral statement is
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made. Here, Meyfart has provided one in the last few strophes of his hymn
text with an Abschied:
Fahr hin du reicher Mann Farewell, you rich man!

was du hast umb und an What you have on and around you
mag seyn dein Ernd und Schnitt May be your harvest and portion:
deß Himmels bis du quitt. You are expelled from Heaven.
Fahr hin, O Welt! fahr hin, Farewell, O world, farewell;
bei dir ist kein Gewinn, With you there is no reward,
weil ichs viel besser weiß For I know better,
veracht ich dich mit Fleiß. I despise you diligently.
Fahr hin, leb wie du wilt Farewell, live as you like;
hast gnug mit mir gespielt, You have toyed with me enough.
Nah ist die Ewigkeit Eternity is near
die mich dafür erfreut. And for that I rejoice.
Briegel's setting is hardly socially conforming and shares little with the
sermons that preach the benign nature of wealth. Instead, he condemns
wealth for its own sake, expressing a weariness of the physical world and
all its trappings of beauty. Curiously, he does not set the final two strophes
of Meyfart's text, which form a sort of concluding prayer:
Herr, lehr uns durch dein Geist, Lord, teach us through your Spirit,
der uns zum Himmel weist, Who points us towards heaven,
daß in der schnöden Welt, In this contemptuous world
wir thun, was dir gefallt. To do your bidding.
Damit wir deine Gnad That we may truly
hie spüren in der That, Sense your mercy here,
und nach der Eitelkeit And after this vanity
bey dir seyn allezeit. Be with you always.
The result is that Briegel's composition remains almost entirely pessimistic

and focused on the theme of vanitas in general and contemptus mundi in
specific, without the redeeming power of faith in Christ.
Lazarus as a model pious Lutheran - model Sterbekunst

An anonymous setting of the parable from the Dresden State and
University Library strikes a tenuous balance between the pessimistic vanitas
theme and the positive model of Lazarus as the suffering yet pious
Christian.41 Right from the outset, the anonymous composer juxtaposes
41 'Es war ein reicher Mann / Dialogo von reichen Manne', Dresden, Sächsische Landes- und
Universitätsbibliothek MS 2-E-516. This manuscript was formerly part of the Grimma
Fürstenschule collection. Under the direction of Kantor Samuel Jacobi (1652 1 721), the school
acquired a large number of music manuscripts representing a broad range of local composers
from Thuringia and Saxony, with the largest number of pieces attributed to the Leipzig Kantor
Sebastian Knüpfer. See F. Krummacher, 'Zur Sammlungjacobi der ehemaligen Fürstenschule
Grimma', Die Musikforschung, 16 (1963), pp. 324 -47.
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Janette Tilley
the Rich Man and Lazarus with emphasis on their contrasting attitudes
towards life and death. The Rich Man (Bassus) introduces himself with a
text derived perhaps from Luke 12: 19 or Wisdom 2:
Wohl an, ich will Wohl leben und gute Now then, I want to live well and have
Tage haben. Ich gehe hin und eße mein pleasurable days. I go forth and eat my
Brodt mit Freuden und trunke meinen bread with joy and drink my wine in
Wein mit guten Muth denn mein Werck good humour for my work pleases God.
gefüllet Gott.
Lazarus (Tenor II), by contrast, looks forward to death and eternity with
the first verse of Christoph Knoll's 'Herzlich tut mich verlangen' (1599):
Hertzlich thut mich verlangen With my whole heart I long
Nach einen Seigen End, For a blessed end,
Weil ich hie bin umbfangen For here I am surrounded
Mit Trübsal und Elend By misery and distress.
Ich hab lust abzuscheiden I want to leave
Von dieser argen Welt, This cruel world,
Sehn mich nach Engel Freuden I long for the joy of angels.
O Jesu kom nur baldt O Jesus, come soon
After death, the two characters are further contrasted, with the role of
Abraham sung by another bass and the Evangelist sung by another tenor.
The Rich Man suffers in hell with words taken directly from the Gospel
pericope (Luke 16: 24-31). Lazarus's ascension to heaven is celebrated by
two canti, perhaps representing angels, who sing from the apocryphal
book of Wisdom: 'Die gerechten Seelen sind in Gottes Hand und keine
Qual rühret sie an' ('The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and
no torment will ever touch them'; Wis. 3: I).42 Lazarus himself, who is
silent in the Gospel, also celebrates his expected redemption with the
seventh verse from Philipp Nicolai's 'Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern'
(1597):
Wie bin ich doch so herzlich froh, How my heart is so elated
Daß mein Schatz ist das A und O. That my beloved is the Alpha and
Omega,
Der Anfang und das Ende! The beginning and the end!
Er wird mich doch zu seinem Preis He will take me up to his reward,
Aufnehmen in das Paradeis, Take me up to paradise,
Des klopf ich in die Hände. I clasp it in my hands.
Amen! Amen! Amen! Amen!
Komm, du schöne Freudenkrone Come you beautiful crown of joy,
Bleib nicht lange, Do not be long,
Deiner wart' ich mit Verlangen! I await you with longing!
42 This verse is one that is recommended by Möller in his Sterbekunst as a passage with which the
dying may comfort themselves.
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The Rich Man has spent his days enjoying the pleasures of his earthly
life, apparently without consideration for the inevitable end. Lazarus, by
contrast, waits for death with expectancy and preparation. Through two
popular chorales, Lazarus is established as a model Lutheran, ready for
death and placing his faith in Christ the redeemer. The generally positive
eschatological tone of the work changes, however, in the final section with
a line of questioning that is reminiscent of the ubi sunt:
Ach, was erhebstu dich doch, O Oh, what do you value, O Man,
Mensch,
Du elende Erde undt Asche, O Mensch, You wretched earth and ash, O Man
Was ist dein Stolz undt Übermuth What is your pride and high spirits,
Eitelkeit Vanity
Was ist der Geitz What is meanness,
Eitelkeit Vanity
Was ist dein Pracht What is splendour,
Eitelkeit Vanity
Was ist die Zeitliche Ehre What is mortal honour,
Eitelkeit Vanity
Was ist die Weldt What is the world,
Alles alles ist Eitelkeit nichts als Eitelkeit. Everything is vanity, nothing but vanity.
O Mensch du musst sterben, drumb O Man, you must die, therefore think
dencken nur an Gott, bis Fromm undt only of God, be pious, and remain
helt dich recht so wirstu Selig werden. upright, then you will be blessed.
Although the anonymous composer attempts to strike a balance between

the optimism of Lazarus's redemption and the pessimism of the vanitas
theme, there is no doubt about which prevails at the end of the work.
While the two tenors (labelled 'Evangelista' and 'Lazarus') sing the five
rhetorical questions 'Was ist . . .', the first bass (labelled 'Abraham')
steadfastly answers with the word 'Eitelkeit' (Vanity), a total of sixteen
times in succession (see Example 3).43 Likewise, as the tenors sing the
concluding moral, the bass sings 'O Mensch du musst sterben' twelve
times. The final admonishment to remain pious and upright is
underscored by the insistent repetition 'you must die' (see Example 4).
With its emphasis on the possibility of redemption alongside blatant
reminders of the inevitability of death, the anonymous setting offers not
just a memento mori, but models the actions and attitudes of the Lutheran
Sterbekunst (Art of Dying).
STERBEKUNST
The Lutheran Sterbekunst, or art of dying, was very much a lifelon

devoted to preparing the soul for the final and crucial momen
43 Clefs are as given; presumably the C-soprano clefs ought to be performed by teno
lower than written.
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Janette Tilley
218
was ist dein Stoltz was ist dein Stolz undt ü - ber muth
Tenor 2 '> fr * m m m ß ~ * >

Lazarus ||g fr V * ' p m m Ç m [i [ ß * =
was ist dein Stoltz was ist dein Stoltz und ü - ber - muth
Bassus ¿y i _ _ «' i « ff' fl I

Abraham Bassus 7 ¿y |,4? i
Ei-tel-keit Ei-tel-keit
vioiin 2 "^flr^rzzT"* r r r-f = zz
Basso ~ kï'L <fe i9-'--

Continuo i-L ~ ' ' Ó
221
T1 if^
was ist der Geitz
T2 ^ - - - ^r^=^^f^
was ist der Geitz
B! yi, f p r" I - - - -I
Ei - tel-keit Ei-tel-keit Ei-tel-keit Ei - tel-keit
-^ ^
vin.2 (i t> - ^^p p r r r j^ r - ^^ - ^ - =
b.c. |v:b„ p r J L Ij J Io ~ü
Example 3 Anonymous, £j war ein reicher Mann, bb. 218-25. Dresden, Sächsisch
Landes- und Universitätsbibliothek MS 2-E-5 1 6
eternal judgement. Much more than memento mori, the mere reminder of
and reflection on the transience of life, the Lutheran ars moriendi required
active participation and preparation throughout one's lifetime. Death
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226
ti .... v i ' r ü rn* - ft - ^ hPCPPCicrir ' - t -

.... B ' v v v i=î=
was ist die Pracht was ist die Zeit-lich-e Eh - re
" g h * p ? F r m - - - îjj p
was ist die Pracht was ist die Zeit-lich-e Eh - re
.. m^=rrr'
Ei-tel-keit Ei-tel-keit Ei-tel-keit
r Û , _ - i
vin i (L '> , _ - - i 'yrrffffEr
Vln 2 -^-P
B.C.
■£
«>,, :==f- '
-
was ist die Welt was ist die Welt was ist die Welt
t: ^ i p p - p - fg
was ist die Welt was ist die Welt was ist die Welt
- w^=- f TTT^^'- 'T Ei - tel-keit Ei - tel-keit Ei - tel-keit
Example 3 Continued
could come at any time; thorough p

was necessary, lest one be caugh
heaven. In fact, a sudden, unexp
more favourable was the death in w
her mental faculties, could assert h
both a comfort to the dying and
friends, who could be consoled w
enjoyed eternal peace with Christ
The Lutheran understanding of de
theology of justification by faith. L
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Janette Tilley
244
T1 'tfl r r p p i r J i i r - i f p p f i1 p
O Mensch du must ster - ben du du du must ster - ben drumb
O Mensch du must ster - ben du O Mensch du must ster - ben
Bi y i, - [ifißftlrJiilJ.hJ^Jj
O Mensch du must ster -ben du du must ster -ben
v,,2 <^r * - 'i r r U I r - ^^

bc- |l y>. j J | J j J j I j J r I J J
248
Tl ||Bb P P P P r" I " I ~ I

den-cken nur an Gott
T2 ¡i»
¡i» - Ils
= - ^ r i P r r p ^=f ff ff z=^z
ge-denck-e nur an Gott
Bi y'> - 1 - | - IjiJpß
O Mensch du must
vin.i í jL i> - i r i r fr f r H i f * i
vin.
-Pn- 2
fk fk
b - >b -r
-¿- $
',r -¿-
ß _ -rh r ß r _ r r
bc- |y i» J j J H f U J J 1 * * f ^
6 5 4 3
Example 4 Anonymous, £!î âr áw reich
determinant for salvation - good work

would not assure salvation. Instead, only
the cross could bring eternal peace in
through good works or the intercessio
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252
ti ||^ 7p V V P P [T p I f - I - I- 7 [7 [? ft
bis from bis from und halt dich recht bis from bis
T2 [g^PPßPpp'ß^r " = " ^ 7F F F

biß from biß from und halt dich recht biß from biß
bi yj>f r " ItJrppNf" I " ^

ster - ben O Mensch du must ster-ben
v*.. 'fa - i - u rfCTir ir i

Vln. 2 ^ b =: f | I |_J | p I
bc ||y i> r f J r n-
256 , ,
"ln'rPTriT , , - i i - i
from und halt dich recht
T2 ..il r ff r J fp - : - =
from und halt dich recht
bi ?'> - I ^ç r r Mr p p r j N J - i
O Mensch du must ster - ben du du must ster - ben
vin. i & v = = " r Lír r
_ä
■tr l u |-t-
bc- p:^ r 't j I't r J 'r r j I» ^^

Example 4 Continued
death, it was incumbent upon the living to ensure the preparedness of their
souls through faith in Christ.
Preparation for death began early with the memorisation of scriptural
passages, prayers and song verses that offered assurance of salvation
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Janette Tilley
through faith. As the moment drew nearer, more specific preparations

might be made, including details of the obsequies such as the selection of
biblical passages for the funeral sermon, the ordering of a sarcophagus,
and for women, the preparation of a burial dress. Such was the case of
Ursula of Promnitz, who many years before her death had been given a
particularly fine piece of linen which she marked with a cross and at the
appropriate time called for it to be cut into her Sterbekittel.44 Hymns were
selected to be sung at the interment, or new compositions commissioned.
We need only think of two cases involving Heinrich Schütz to be reminded
of the importance music played in the preparation of funerary rites by the
living: the Musicalische Exequien (1636, SWV 279-81) requested by the
widow of Heinrich Posthumus Reuss according to the deceased's detailed
instructions, and Schütz's own request in 1670 for a motet on Psalm 1 19
- the scriptural passage he had chosen for his funeral sermon - from his
former student Christoph Bernhard, which was performed at his funeral in
Dresden in 1672. In at least one case, a full dress rehearsal of the
procession and ceremonies was conducted.45 Such external preparations
were not the primary objective of the Sterbekunst, but merely the outward
evidence of the soul's readiness to depart the physical world.
It was, of course, not always possible to be certain that the mind would
be in complete control in the body's final moments. In this case it was
especially important that hymns, prayers and biblical passages be easily
and quickly recalled from memory lest, in the throes of death, the mind
44 Martin Mylius, Sterbenßkunst, Gefasset in Schöne außerlesene Exempel, etlicher frommen Christen, welche
seliglich von dieser Welt abgeschieden, Daraus man zu lernen, wie man sich zu einem Christlichen Ende bereyten,
vnd selidich von hinnen fahren sol (Görlitz, 1593), pp. 184-6.
45 'Beschreibung des Leichen=Begängnisses, so sich Käyser Carolus V. noch bey seinem Leben
halten lassen, de Anno 1558' (Description of the funeral procession held by Emperor Charles
V (1500-58) while he still lived in the year 1558). The procession included all of the usual
processions, prayers and music, and towards the end those in attendance wept as though he
really had sunk into the grave ('worauff bey denen Umstehenden das Weinen von neuen
angieng, und zwar dermassen hefftig, nicht anders, als ob er schon würcklich ins Grab
eingesencket würde'). Johann Christian Lünig (1662-1740), Theatrum Ceremoniale Historico-
Politicum oder Historisch^ und Politischer Schau- Platz Aller Ceremonien, Welche bey Päbst- und Käyser-
auch Königlichen Wahlen und Crönungen, erlangtem Chur- Würden, Creirung zu Cardinälen und Patriarchen,
[etc.] Ingleichen by Grosser Herren und dero Gesandten Einholungen, Einzügen und Zjisamenkünjften,
Ertheilung Audienzen Visiten und Revisiten Rang- Streitigkeiten, Beylagern, Tauffen und Begräbnissen,
Conferirung Geist- und Welticher Ritter- Orden ...als Politicis, vorgegangenen solennen Actibus beobachtet
worden . . . (Leipzig, 1719), p. 553. It was not uncommon for Lutheran writers to find models of
Christian behaviour vis-à-vis preparation for death among Catholics. This was particularly the
case early in the Reformation when few Protestant models were to be counted among the
deceased. See the descriptions of deaths by Bruno Quinos {Disce More. Oder SterbeKunst. Das ist,
Ein sehr schönes vnd nützliches Handtbüchlein, darinnen etliche außbündige Exempel Hoher Christlicher
Personen zu finden, Daraus man anleitung zu nemen, vnd zu lernen, Wie man sich zu einem Christlichen Ende
bereiten, vnd Seliglichen von dieser Welt scheiden solle, Aus glaubwirdigen Aden, Historien, vnd LeichPredigten
zusamen gezogen, vnd frommen Christen zu gute in Druck verordnet. Jetzund an vielen orten gemehret vnd
gebessert, 1592) and Mylius, Sterbenßkunst.
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wandered and became distracted by fearful images.40 The devil lay in wait
for a moment of weakness to frighten the dying with images of graves,
bodies and decay in order that the dying might, out of horror, turn from
God at the last moment. Such was the fear of the preacher Caspar Hanis
who, while attending the mortally wounded Caspar von Minckwitz in May
1592, refused at first the dying man's request for a piece of paper out of
fear that he might write something inappropriate out of weakness. Instead,
the wounded man astonished everyone gathered around him as he wrote
the phrase 'Ich weiß das mein Erlöser lebet' (I know that my saviour lives),
a phrase he had often cited in life.47 Luther and other early Reformation
writers on the Sterbekunst direct Christians to dwell not on death, sins and
hell, but instead on Christ, whose own death made possible the salvation
of all Christians.48 Through faith alone, salvation is assured. Thus, by the
late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Sterbebücher include examples
of prayers, hymns and scriptural passages in which the dying may find
comfort. On the whole, these passages and verses assert faith in Christ and
readiness for death; by reciting them on their deathbeds, or assenting to
them being read aloud, Christians reaffirmed their faith and thereby their
salvation.
Reports of the final hours of particularly pious Lutherans were collected

and published in Sterbebücher and authors of Leichenpredigten took care to
demonstrate that the dearly departed 'fell asleep' with the correct
deportment. Typically, the grievously ill would call their pastor to their
side to hear a prayer, confess sins and perhaps take communion. Close
family members would be invited into the sickroom for final farewells. The
creed might be said and several pious prayers recited and appropriate
hymns sung. When the dying became too weak to speak, those present,
particularly the pastor, would ask questions confirming the faith to ensure
that the deceased's final words were ones of assurance and faith.
Johann Conrad Dannhauer, the Strasburg theologian and defender of
music against Calvinist calls for its banishment from churches, points to
the consolatory function of Lutheran hymns for the dying:
4h Martin Luther, 'A Sermon on Preparing to Die, 1519', in Luther's Works, xlii: Devotional Writings
/, ed. J. Pelikan and H. T. Lehmann (Philadelphia, 1969), 101-2. CD-ROM: Luther's Works on
CD-ROM.
'Nun ist solches ja zuverwundern, Ja zum höchsten ists zuverwundern, das einer so sehr
beschedigter, auffs vbelste verdorbner, außgeblutter, im Gehirne verwundter, todtkrancker, ja
jezt gleich sterbender Mensch, ohn alle verrückung seiner Wize vnd Vernunfft, einen so
starcken festen Glauben, vnd ein so herzlich gewiß vertrawen an seinen vnd vnsern HERRN
vnd Erlöser, Heylandt vnd Seligmacher Jesun Christum gehabt hat.' Mylius, Sterbenßkunst,
312-13.
A. Reinis, Reforming the Art of Dying: The Ars Monendi in the German Reformation (1519-1528)
(Aldershot, 2007), pp. 247-8.
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How many . . . thousand people have received such strong consolation, in their
affliction and distress, particularly when it is recommended at the time of death to their
last breaths, from such graceful, merciful song that they were thereby strengthened and
departed with peace and joy out of this temporal and into the eternal life. And the spirit
could also be perceived in the sweet love-tears, divini amoris rara hora, parva mora.
Bernh. Serm. 23 in Cant, (the rare hour of divine love, short delay; Bernhard of
Clairvaux, 23rd Sermon on the Song of Songs).49
The singing of hymns in the sickroom was advised by many writers of

Sterbebücher and a number of Leichenpredigten attest to the importance of
music in the final hours. Johannes Olearius (1611-84) instructs those
caring for the deathly ill that they should offer comfort through prayer,
conversing about the assurance of God's love and 'mit andächtigen Singen
der schönen herzerquickenden Trostlieder' (with prayerful singing of
lovely heart-refreshing consolatory songs).50 In his Geistliche Sing-Schule
of 1672, Olearius gives the texts for no fewer than 150 songs appropriate
for the sick and dying. Most hymn books of the mid- to late seventeenth
century include, as Olearius does, a section of Sterbelieder. In one of
the most popular books on the art of dying, Martin Möller lists fifteen
common hymns as appropriate and particularly comforting for the dying.
He writes:
One has the feeling that much sadness and melancholy can be sung away by lovely
songs when sung with devotion; on the other hand much consolation can also be sung
that makes the heart happy and in good humour; think thereby about the heavenly
angels' music which we will assist there and together praise God in eternal joy. One
should think of the patient and sing to him what he would like.51
49 'Wieviel . . . tausend Menschen, haben in ihrem Creutz und Elend, sonderlich wann es in
Todesnöthen zun letzten Zügen gerathen wollen, auß solchen holdseligen Gnadenreichen
Liedern, so kräfftigen Trost empfangen, daß sie dadurch gestärcket, mit Fried und Freude auß
diesem zeitlichen in das ewige Leben abgeschieden sind. Und wird sonderlich auch der Geist
in süssen Liebes-Thränen gespüret, divini amoris rara hora, parva mora. Bernh. Serm. 23 in
Cant.' Johann Conrad Dannhauer, Catechismusmilch . . . Achter Theil (Strasburg, 1673), p. 544.
J Johannes Olearius, Gymnasium E0ANASIAX Christliche Sterbe- schule In welcher die Nothwendige
Vorbereitung, Schuldige Erweisung, und Freudenreiche Erfolgung der Unfehlbaren Seligen Sterbe- Kunst, nechst
beygeßgter NOSOSOPHIA und beständigen Krancken-Trost, wie auch BIOLOGIA und DIÊTA
Betrachtung deß schnellfliegenden Menschlichen Lebens, und notwendigen Anstalt desselben, aus GOttes Wort
pezewet wird (Leipzig, 1669), p. 322.
51 'Es gibt die Erfahrung, das man durch schöne Gesänge, wenn sie mit Andacht gesungen
werden, viel trawrigkeit und schwermuth aus dem Herzen weg singen, Dagegen auch viel
schönes Trostes hienein singen kan, das die Herzen dabey frölich vnd gutes muths werden,
Erinnern sich dadurch der Himlischen Engel Musica, welche wir dort werden halten helffen,
vnd sampt ihnen Gott preysen in ewigen Frewden. Man sol sich aber nach dem Patienten
richten, vnd ihm singen was er haben wil.' Martin Moller, Manuale de pmparatione ad Mortem.
Heilsame vnd sehr nützliche Betrachtung, wie ein Mensch Christlich leben, vnd Seliglich sterben sol (1593;
Görlitz, 1605), pp. 238-40. Among the hymns Moller lists are the funerary hymns 'Mit Fried
und Freud ich fahr dahin', 'Nun last uns den Leib begraben', 'Es ist das Heil uns kommen her'
and 'Wenn mein Stündlein verhanden ist'.
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Evidence of singing in the sickroom is plentiful in the funeral literature.

Leichenpredigten and collections of deathbed accounts in Sterbebücher point to
singing as a meaningful, consolatory act and assertion of faith. King
Frederick II of Denmark, for example, fell ill shortly before Easter 1585.
Wishing to celebrate Easter services, the King made plans to have the
service in his room. On Holy Wednesday he took communion, had the
Gospel read to him and asked his family to visit with him. On Holy
Thursday he heard the service and sang 'with a rather strong voice' the last
verses of the Our Father and a Psalm. His health took a turn for the worse,
however, and later that afternoon 'took about three breaths and then softly
went to sleep in the Lord'.52 Christian, Churfürst of Saxony, prayed and
wept often on his deathbed, consoling himself with hymns such as 'Wenn
mein Stündlein vorhanden ist' and 'Allein zu dir Herr Jesu Christ' and
requested that all around him participate.53 Likewise, the 18-year old
Duchess Catherine, daughter of the Duke of Braunschsweig-Lüneburg
and wife of Duke Heinrich the Younger, Burggraf of Meissen, sang the
evening before her death 'from her heart with strong, firm faith and from
true inner spiritual joy'.54 As Austra Reinis has pointed out vis-à-vis
Reformation Sterbebücher, the primary emotion of the Lutheran Sterbekunst
was joy and contentment since salvation could be assured through
steadfast faith in Christ.55
LAZARUS AS A MODEL FOR THE DYING
In several musical settings of the Rich Man and

transform Lazarus into a model in preparedness for dea
of the Rich Man and Lazarus story by the Danzig org
(1621-78), or Strutius, provides such a musical model of
52 'Am grünen Donnerstag zu Morgens, begerete er Predigt zu h

Sengerknaben solten, vor vnd nach der Predigt etliche Psalmen singe
den andern Zuhörern, die zuuorn auch bey der Communion gewesen,
im Himelreich, etc. sungen, Hat vnser seliger König in seinem Ges
aufgeschlagen, vnd mit zimlicher starcker stimme, sonderlich die let
vnser, vnd auch einen Verß in dem Psalm, Nu bitten wir den Heyligen
Darnach das Psalmbuch der Konigin, die fürm Bette saß, vnd stets au
gegeben. Darauff ward gepredigt der spruch Christi welchen vnser se
vnd hochgehalten, Also hat Gott die Welt geliebet, etc. Diß ist die let
er in diesem leben mit fleiß vnd andacht gehöret ... hat er drey mal
vnd ist damit ganz sanfft vnd stille im HERREN entschlaffen.' Mylius
" Ibid., pp. 70-84.
'Darnach, fing sie an zu singen, von herzen aus starckem festen gl
innerlicher, geistlicher frewde, dis folgende Liedt, dasselbe sang sie v
Christ der du bist der helle tag, für dir die nacht nicht beliben mag,
More, p. 27.
'™ Reinis, Reforming the Art of Dying, p. 256.
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his composition from the second half of the seventeenth century now,
sadly, lost, Strutius illustrates Lazarus's piety and preparation for death
through several popular and appropriate chorales and biblical verses.5'
Lazarus first introduces himself in three newly written verses. He then
sings at least one verse each from the popular late sixteenth-century hymns
'Warumb betrübst du dich mein Hertz', 'Was mein Gott will, das gescheh
allezeit', 'Herzlich thut mich verlangen', 'Wie schön leutchet der Morgen-
stern' and finally 'Herzlich lieb hab ich dich O Herr'. Far from the silent,
sickly beggar of the biblical source, Lazarus here is musical, pious and
undoubtedly Lutheran. He has committed appropriate verses to memory
and recalls them even as he dies. The hymns that Strutius chooses to depict
Lazarus are, not surprisingly, among those recommended by authors of
Sterbebücher for the dying, and also among those listed in hymn books as
being appropriate for times of sickness and the approach of death.
Alternating with Lazarus is a chorus of the blessed {Chor der Gottseligen) ,
a choir of angels and Jesus himself. Members of the chorus of the blessed
remind Lazarus not to dwell on worldly concerns in his final hours: 'If you
concern yourself with things of the flesh, with favour, health and great
wealth, you will soon grow cold.' And later: 'If the cross is also bitter and
heavy, think about how hot Hell could be, into which the world runs.'57 In
the words of the chorale 'Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh' allezeit',
Lazarus reminds himself that God is near him in his need:
Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh' allzeit,

What my God wants, may it always
occur,
Sein Will', der ist der beste; His will is what is best;
Zu helfen den'n er ist bereit, He is ready to assist
Die an ihn glauben feste; Those who firmly believe in him;
Er hilft aus Not, der fromme Gott, He helps in need, the good God,
Und züchtiget mit Massen, And chastises in moderation.
Mi 'Einfaltige Abbildung der Ewigen Himmlischen Freuden Lebens, und der immerwährenden
Höllen-Angst, in einem Musicalischen Gespreche Nach Anleitung der Lehrreichen Geschieht
von Lázaro und dem Reichen Manne, Luc. 16 von Christo fürgestellet, und aus allerhand
Geistreichen Gesängen, Biblischen Texten, anmuthigen und die Historie vermehrenden und
zum Theil erklärenden Versen in eine zu solchen Gesprächen sich reimende sing-und
klingende Harmonie gesetzet, und Gott bevoraus zu Ehren, wie auch allen Liebhabern der
Music zu besonderen Gefallen und keinlicher Nachricht die Textworte desto besser zu
verstehen zum Druck befordert, und in der Kirchen zur heil. Dreyfaltigkeit am 1 . Sontage nac
Trinitatis zur Vesper-Predigt praesentiret von Thoma Strutio Organisten daselbst.' A summar
of the piece is included in H. Rauschning, Geschichte der Musik und Musikpflege in Danzig (Quellen
und Darstellungen zur Geschichte Westpreußens, ed. Westpreußischen Geschichtsverein, 15
Danzig, 1931), p. 264.
57 'Wenn es ging nach des Fleisches Mach, mit Gunst, Gesundheit, großem Guht würdt ihr gar
bald erkalten.' 'Ist auch das Creutz biter und schwer, Gedenckt wie heiß die Helle wer, darein
die Welt thut rennen'; ibid., p. 266.
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Wer Gott vertraut, fest auf ihn baut, Who trusts in God and builds firmly on
him,
Den will er nicht verlaßen. He will not be abandoned.
And God is indeed at hand, for Jesus himself responds: 'A

servant, dear Lazarus, because by God's love you have been
from misery, anxiety, nakedness, hunger, sorrow, death, life.
servant, dear Lazarus, enter into the joy of your Lord.'58 With
at hand in his final moments, Lazarus can be assured of salvatio
his steadfast faith.
The second part of the composition describes the fate of the
who, contrariwise, does not sing any familiar chorale tunes,
firmly outside the circle of the faithful. Instead of welcoming
peace and joy as Lazarus does, the Rich Man is fearful and ad
in galloping amphibrachs of new poetry:
O böses Gewissen, 0 terrible conscience,
Du fälst mir zu stränge, You strike me so severely;
Was sol ich, ich armer, ich armer
What should I do, poor me.
angehn,
Du machst mir durch Dräuen You make the earth too narrow
Die Erde zu enge, For me with your threats.
Ich muß es, Ich muß es gestehn, 1 must, I must confess it,
Ich bin in den Sünden mit Sünden I was born with sin in sin,
bebohren,
Ich steck auch in Sünden biß über die And I am up past my ears in sin.
Ohren
Although Strutius's music does not survive, the large number of chorales
employed in his setting and the metrical variety of the Rich Man's strophes
gives us a good impression of the work's overall effect. Strutius juxtaposes
the familiar and traditional sacred realm - through hymns - with the new
and secular through dance-like metres and new poetry. Lazarus is familiar
and the model to be followed, while the Rich Man remains foreign,
different and outside the trusted world of the Lutheran faith.
Andreas Fromm's Actus Musicus de divite et Lázaro (Stettin, 1649), a large
multi-sectional work with theatrical elements, also uses Lutheran chorales
to depict Lazarus's proper preparation for death.59 Fromm's engagement
of the Sterbekunst goes beyond even preparation in life by employing
58 'Ey du getreuer Knecht, lieber Lazare, weil dich weder Trübsal, weder Angst, weder Blöße,
weder Hunger, weder Kummer, weder Todt, weder Leben, von der Liebe Gottes geschieden
hat. Ey du getreuer Knecht, Lieber Lazare, gehe ein in deines Herren Freude'; ibid., p. 266.
Although most of this work was destroyed in the war, fragments survive in the University
Library of Wroclaw (PL-WRu) and an edition was prepared by Hans Engel in the 1 930s. See
A. Fromm, Vom Rachen Manne und Lázaro, ed. H. Engel (Denkmäler der Musik in Pommern, 5;
Kassel, 1936).
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Janette Tilley
consolatory techniques encountered in funeral music itself. He opens his

work with a Symphonia and the first verses of the biblical pericope sung by
a tenor soloist. Lazarus (Alto) enters with the first verse of Christoph
Knoll's 'Herzlich tut mich verlangen' and then Luther's 'Mit Fried und
Freud ich fahr dahin'
Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin With peace and joy I travel
In Gottes Wille, In God's will;
Getrost ist mir mein Herz und Sinn, Comforted are my
Sanft und stille. Peaceful and still.
Wie Gott mir verheißen hat, As God promised me
Der Tod ist mein Schlaf worden. Death has become my sleep.
In at least one performance, Lazarus sings this hymn from beneath the
altar, accompanied by a viola da gamba.60 He is instructed to move up to
join the heavenly choir positioned above the congregation in a loft near
but not at the organ, for the organ must also accompany the profane choir
on the church floor below. The physical placement of the dead or dying
Lazarus beneath the altar is a theatrical conceit borrowed from funeral
performances. The placement of singers behind the coffin at funerals,
projecting the imagined voice of the deceased, offered tangible solace to
the bereaved.61 Lazarus's singing of a hymn with gamba accompaniment
in animated counterpoint is not just a means of Tersonalizierung' as
Werner Braun describes it,62 but places Lazarus within Lutheran funeral
traditions, making him a familiar figure all the more able to model pious
behaviour through his participation in common rituals.63
That death is to be embraced and welcomed with joy is confirmed by
Fromm in the concluding chorus, a jubilant choral setting of the
penultimate verse of Nicolai's 'Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern'.
60 The controversial Schwarzenberg performance of 1672. See Braun, 'Zwischen Dialog und
Drama', p. 32.
' For example, Christoph Heinrich Pfefferkorn's 'Abschied Aria' for the 1 702 funeral of Sabine
Elisabeth von Brandenstein is a consolatory dialogue between the deceased and her surviving
sister. Pfefferkorn places a boy soprano next to the deceased's coffin and another beside the
grieving sister in the performance of the piece directly before the coffin was lowered into the
crypt. Christoph Heinrich Pfefferkorn 'Abschieds Aria', in Die rechte Vergnügung bey dem
Hochadelichen und Volckreichen Leichen=Begängniß Der Wohlgebohnen [sie] Fräulein, Fräulein Sabinen
Elisabeth von Brandenstein . . . (Langen-Salza, 1 702). Stolberg Leichenpredigtsammlung 5628. See
also J. Tilley, 'Rhetoric and Personification in Sacred Dialogues', in 'Dialogue Techniques in
Lutheran Sacred Music of Seventeenth-Century Germany' (Ph.D. diss., University of Toronto,
2003), pp. 47-114. G. S.Johnston, 'Rhetorical Personification of the Dead in 17th-Century
German Funeral Music: Heinrich Schütz's Musikalische Exequien (1636) and Three Works by
Michael Wiedemann (1693)', Journal of Musicologi, 9 (1991), p. 202.
Braun, 'Zwischen Dialog und Drama', p. 33.
63 On the use of the viola da gamba in funerary contexts see Eva Linfield, 'The Viol Consort in
Buxtehude's Vocal Music: Historical Context and Affective Meaning', in Paul Walker (ed.),
Church, Stage, and Studio: Music and Its Contexts in Seventeenth-Century Germany (Ann Arbor and
London, 1990), pp. 163-89.
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Lazarus (Alto) introduces the verse alone with a florid accompaniment by

the viola da gamba. The six-voice chorus (CCATTB) repeats the last four
lines of the verse with a pair of cornetti lending even greater celebratory
pomposity to the section.
While Lutheran chorales serve to model pious activity in the pieces cited
above, they serve quite a contrary function in the final and latest
composition under examination. Petrus Laurentius Wockenfuss's (1675-
1721) 'Dom. 1. p. Trinitat: Actus Musicus de Divite & Lázaro' survives in
an undated manuscript housed in the Brussels Conservatoire.64 The piece
must have been composed before 1714 since the text was printed in
Wockenfuss's Musicalische Fest-Andachten (Kiel, 1714). Although it was
probably written in the early years of the eighteenth century, perhaps
while Wockenfuss served as Kantor at the Nicolaikirche in Kiel, a position
he held from 1 708, it looks backward at Andreas Fromm's Actus Musicus
from mid-century. Its theatrical textual form, with its combination of
biblical, chorale and poetic texts, shares little in common with his
contemporaries' reflective, lyrical works for the first Sunday after Trinity
- most early eighteenth-century German settings for this Sunday forgo
dramatising the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus altogether, opting
instead for wholly lyrical works. In its musical forms, however, Wockenfuss
does take note of new fashions in recitative and closed aria forms.
Wockenfuss presents the listener with a more developed picture of the
Rich Man than any of the other compositions. We hear at the outset not
only the hedonistic choir of the Rich Man and his table of feasting revellers
- limited to Wis. 2: 6-9 - but also insight into his mental state before
death. Immediately after the drunken choir, the Rich Man sings the
praises of earthly pleasure in a short, light-hearted continuo lied. Surface
musical pleasures such as rapidly descending hemisemiquaver flourishes
and semiquaver turns prove the frivolity of the Rich Man's earthly delights
(see Ex. 5). The light-hearted B flat major confection is interrupted by the
Bass (God, perhaps), who warns the Rich Man in a verse from Luke 12:
20 of death's immanence in a striking shift to G minor (see Ex. 6). The
Rich Man responds in the new key, admitting his fear of death but
believing it yet to be far off:
Wie bitter ist der Todt. How bitter is death,
Ach wie ist mir so bange, Oh, how I dread it!
Ich meint es war noch lange I think it could be yet long
Biß zu des Todes Noth Until the moment of death.
Wie bitter ist der Todt. How bitter is death!
64 Brussels, Conservatoire Royal, Bibliothèque/Koninklijk Conservatorium, Bibliotheek, shelf no.

1000 (B-Bc).
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Janette Tilley
72
T|B"ht *E p ¿£nr > > *hf tf&r *p

Ach ed - le
*c-k" 6 6 6 6
75
kan - stu doch so wol
6 6 6 6 6
78 ^
wol
»c-k^Lj
7 5 6
T l'I» p
kan nichts in der Welt so hoch als dein Ver-gnü
6 6 6 6 6 6
gen, als dein Ver-gnü- gen sehet ------
B-c-k» r r f r r r fir ir
6 6 6
Example 5
no. 1000
172

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I04 adagissimo
T |IB^||: - 'j 1 [7 &P ^^R Wie bit - ter Wie
vini f(|^|M * p [J¿r ^""3 1 J
vln" ^:* vpr7]jtjr~]^ *
6 it lj 6 l|
106
bit - ter Wie bit - ter ist der Todt, wie bit - ter wie
vin ' [^ i p US i ^^ htJ J J
vm. II ^L 7 J, ^jp 7 !|J J J = J J J 7 7
b.c. ^): , k J J J H J J J 1 E J I J I
7
e li i» « 7 7 tt tf it
Example 6 Wockenfuss, 'A
In contrast to most theol

is not presented as a god
hedonist, one of the sins
onward, but he is also il
inevitable end.
The Rich Man's errors find their antithesis in Lazarus's two-strophe aria.
Responding to the Rich Man's indulgence in pleasure, Lazarus sings of the
mercilessness he endures. Far from earthly amusement and cheer, Lazarus
can barely reach the scraps intended for the dogs. In his second strophe, he
173

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Janette Tilley
contrasts the Rich Man's fear of death with his own willing anticipation.
'Oh, if only I had a coffin / I would in good time / Prepare for my end' (cAch
hätt ich einen Sarg / so wolt ich mich bey Zeiten / zu meinen End bereiten').
Lazarus's death brings the composition's first chorale, a verse from
'Herzlich lieb hab ich dich O Herr'. Sung by a solo can tus with two violins,
the verse confirms Lazarus's salvation through faith and willing expect-
ancy of death. That the chorale itself is sung by a cantus and not the altus
assigned as the role of Lazarus suggests, perhaps, that Lazarus's soul, freed
of its physical body, now sings with the angels in a higher range analogous
to their heavenly elevation. The notion of resurrection finds a musical
analogy in Wockenfuss's setting, with the continuo line elevated up to the
alto range at the mid-point of the verse ('Als den von Todt erwecke mich')
(see Example 7):
Ach Herr laß dein lieb Engelein Oh Lord, let your sweet little angel
Am letzten End die Seele mein, In the end carry my soul
In Abrahams Schoß tragen, To Abraham's bosom,
Den Leib in sein Schlaf kämmerlein The body in its sleeping chamber
Gar sanft ohn einge Qual und Pein, Will rest softly without torment and
suffering
Ruh biß an Jüngsten Tage, Until Judgment Day.
Als den von Todt erwecke mich Then, awaken me from death
Daß meine Augen sehe dich So that my eyes see you
In aller freude Gottes Sohn In all joy, Son of God,
Mein Heyland und Gnade Trohn My Saviour and throne of mercy.
Herr Jesu Christ erhöre mich Lord Jesus Christ, hear me,
Ich wil dich preisen Ewiglich. I will praise you for eternity.
The delicate violin accompaniment lends the chorale a lightness of

character that contrasts strikingly with the next chorale, Johann C rüger
and Johann Rists's fiO Ewigkeit du Donnerwort', sung by the now
deceased Rich Man (see Ex. 8). Only one verse appears in Wockenfuss's
setting, appropriately, the first which expresses anxiety at the thought of
eternity vis-à-vis death. That anxiety transfers to the violin accompani-
ment in nervous repeated notes beneath the otherwise calm, familiar
melody. If Lazarus is painted as a positive model for his acceptance of
death and appropriate mental preparation, the Rich Man is developed
here into a more fully fleshed-out negative model. And that model is made
all the more tangible through familiar chorales. This is not a foreign,
heathen, or godless Rich Man, separated from the audience by great
misdeeds or caricature. Rather, he is all too familiar. The Rich Man sings
the same body of works that the congregation might also have known. He
could be heard as a failed member of the community, offering a stern and
altogether tangible warning to the congregation that it is not only the
godless heathen and gluttonous epicure who will be punished, but even the
174

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164 adagio
c|i|A - i> r r r <I|J J r r Ach Herr laß dein lieb En - ge -
vin.i (fol»"»7P7J7J^j7j 7^7 J 7 El ^j|J 7 J 7 «*
vin.n ^t>j7j7j7^J1Ë(>7f7f7r7 =J7J7f7p7

"77 *^ Q J ' -J L -I
»■e |w j J J j J~P] I J J J J JPi I ÜTJ J J J J

I* e it » 6
167
c i||g^^ * " i* r r r '"^ -1 r r

lein am letz - ten End die See - le
vini JLV J y J i J y =J=5
vin.ii A ^ f 7 ^ ^y J ^y t|J
« 6 tf I» )t 6
Example 7 Wocke
ill-prepared Ch
point out in thei
to his five brot
above all else.65 A
to Dannhauer.66
í>:> Lucas Osiander, Ei

Bruderschafft, deß Rei
Reichen Mann, vnd
Dannhauer, Evangelisc
b(> Dannhauer, Evange
175

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Janette Tilley
T I IB1' - | - U J J Y
O Ew - ig -
Vlnl t r^r riTr IrTTr1^ j_¿^ N ^ ** r r~F
V'"." (| ^ Jj^J Jj^-j-jj-J J J J J ^ J J J J J
b.c. Iw r r r r r r r r Ir r r r r r r r Ir r r r rrrr
e 5 4b i i i i
i'> 3 2 51. Gt
t
keit du Don - ner - wort
|B"
vini l^1' f f r r r r r r
vmi, 4^ rTTr |J.J
6 5
5 3 6
Example 8
The Rich
Franck an
Herr Lord, I have transgressed
ich h
Und mich drückt der Sünde last And the burden of sin weighs on me.
Ich bin nicht der weg gewandelt, I did not travel the path
Den du mir gezeiget hast That you showed to me
Und jetzt wolt ich gern aus schreckenAnd now I would out of fear
Mich für deinen Zorn verstecken. Hide myself away from your anger.
The admission of sin comes too late for the Rich Man. Without proper
preparation of his soul in life, he can expect no mercy now in death. He
176

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curses the pleasures he had earlier lauded in a brief aria that mirrors some
of his earlier melodic material (see Example 9):
O böse Lust 0 terrible pleasure
Der ich in jenen Leben To which in this life
Mich gar zu sehr ergeben 1 was so devoted,
Nun ist mir nichts bewüst Now I know nothing
Als Noth anstadt der Freuden, But misery instead of joy,
Vor Wolseyn ewig Leyden, Instead of health, eternal suffering,
O böse Lust. O terrible pleasure.
Wockenfuss includes the biblical dialogue between the Rich Man

and Abraham, though Abraham sings in rhyming paraphrase while the
Rich Man remains true to Luke's Gospel. Finally, the Rich Man sings a
last aria asking that death take him away from his torments. It is a curious
end, for he has already died. But it confirms what we have seen in musical
exegesis of the story, for the Rich Man admits that he feared death but
only now, too late, as learned he should have embraced it (see Example
10Ì
Grausamkeit nimm ab und brich Cruelty, fall away and cease.

Seyd ihr Berge denn nicht stärcker Are you hills then no stronger
Als wie dieser Höllen wercken Than these hellish deeds?
Fallet her und tödtet mich Fall here and kill me
Ich hab vor den Todt gescheuet, I dreaded death,
Der mich nun zur Quaal geweihet, Which now has doomed me to torment;
Komm nun Todt und tödte mich Come death and kill me
The work ends with Christoph Demantius's chorale 'Freu dich sehr O
meine Seele' (1620) which calls on the Christian to embrace death when
it comes. It is a jubilant four-voice setting with an animated four-part
string accompaniment that captures the joyful view of death advanced by
Luther and the Reformers (see Example 11).
Rather than contemporise the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus by
embellishing it with couleur locale as so many writers and playwrights do,
describing feasting and drinking, avarice and inappropriate dress in a
modern context, composers do so through select chorales and familiar
church hymns. The juxtaposition of scriptural text and chorales both lends
compositions an immediate familiarity and imbues the chorales themselves
with renewed authority. In the mouth of the beloved beggar, chorales are
elevated to near-scriptural validity. If Luke failed to record Lazarus's
words, chorales offered a sanctioned, poetic version of what he might have
said. The silent Lazarus of the story is transformed into a pious Lutheran,
the ideal model for the living and dying.
177

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Janette Tilley
288
t|Bi> j *pr rj-i J * p r fftl ■! » » *P=

O bö - se
ac-W
6 5 6 5 L I I J
9 4« 6 7 4 it
291
Tillar L¿rr
bö - se
B-c-w ^T^l , [
6 6
gar zu sehr er-ge - ben nun_ ist mir nichts be-wüst als
B.c.|vv[ r r r r r r r i|* p ^ r ft f
7 3 6
t |B'r
Noth an -Stadt der Freu - den, vor Wotseyn e - wig Ley - den, o
■».cl?!,!' [Jf ^JjiTT^ | [_lt|» -1 JJ J I] J~J^

6 6 6 tt 6 6 6 ií tí
297
TjB^r i^J ^pir ij;J > i - i

bö - se
6 5
6 5 6 7 4 #
Example 9 Wockenfuss, 'A

134.220.1.139 on Tue, 25 Aug 2020 13:45:22 UTC
39] adagissimo.
rilüi'iM r Cnf
Grau-sam - keit
Bchniig r J
6 tí 6 4 tf 6
T|B^
brich Grau-sam - keit
r
bcw i» |>
Ü 6 6
tiB
keit
Bck" 6 5
r r r ir
6 4 3 6
406
TiB"h> r r ir r i r ¿>i r J > i> r ri

seyd ihr Ber - ge denn nicht stär-cker als wie
ich hab vor den Todt ge - scheu -et, der mich
Bc|v:^r r r iJ r ir r ' r r r i
6 6 6 6 6 6
411 | presto
tw r r i
die - ser Hol - len wer - cken fai - let her
nun zur Quaal ge - weih - et, komm nun Todt,
*.cWt r J r i r j j i j r r ir r j i
6 6
Example
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Janette Tilley
cft}^» r r if t t i> r r ir r^
Freu dich sehr freu dich sehr o
a e i'b ii r r i r * ? u r r i r r i
t B^g» r r ir
"IvVgt F f | J
vi" ■ rjbl«> r r irf
- 1 Bi^p rr Pm ^^ r r
via.» | e ¿ g r r : f t i
Bcjy^t r f 1 j i i h r
Example 1 1 Wockenfuss, 'Actus Musicus de Divite e
THE NEGATIVE MODEL: THE RICH MAN AND HIS CHOIR

OF DRUNKEN BROTHERS
The greatest problem for composers seems to have a

depictions of the Rich Man. While stage productio
century and sermons throughout the seventeenth ce
no words in their depictions and descriptions of the
funeral of Dives, musical compositions, particularl
dangerous course towards the inappropriately theatr
180

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-iti'^ i 'r ' i ■ i' r^

mei - ne See - le und ver -
* iiaiM' cri y r i - u r r i
mei - ne_ See - le und ver -
Bl;n'- j r
- rf '' o^
- 1 ki¿ r er # r ^^î r r
via. h I ih i'b r [^ r r = " ^ r
B.c.[y^ j r I J fi " l> Ia «i
Example 1 1 Continued
surprising that the problem of depicting the Rich Man and his brothers in
liturgical music persisted through to the eighteenth century. The objection
to a performance of Fromm's Actus in Schwarzenberg on 22 July 1672 says
only that it was too much like a Jesuit commedia. Town leaders also signed
a declaration against the piece and the performance of such secular scenes
as drinking and dice playing in order to encourage people to turn to
181

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Janette Tilley
penitence and piety.67 Johann Adolph Scheibe's objections to similar

music, printed in 1745, could also echo concerns of an earlier period.
Scheibe makes specific reference to the Rich Man as a potential pitfall for
composers of sacred music:
We must also often set to music such Cantatas whose wicked and coarse disposition
nearly compels us to indecorous debauchery. When, for example, a choir of the Rich
Man's drunken brothers, a choir of devils, of whores, of blasphemers and the like is
presented to us; when we should depict such characters who already in and of
themselves contradict goodness but even more so the sanctity and gravity of the place.
One should prevent such unwarranted audacity and choose, for the completion of
sacred cantatas, only those poets who have reasonable strength in poetry, morality and
more than a common understanding of theology, especially in regard to the music,
attend thereby the prudent ideas of the composer. In this way church music can be
arranged in a decent, sacred and edifying manner.68
In all settings of the Rich Man and Lazarus story, the text that depicts
the Rich Man or his chorus of drunken brothers is entirely based on verses
from the apocryphal book of Wisdom or, in one case, Ecclesiastes. Briegel,
in his 1680 setting from Evangelischer Gespräch, Fromm, Strutius and
Wockenfuss all assign Wisdom 2: 6-9 'Wohl her und lasset uns wol leben
weils da ist' ('Come, therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that exist').
The anonymous composer of the Dresden manuscript includes a similarly
themed text, this time a first-person rendering of Ecclesiastes 9: 7: 'Wohl
an ich will wohl leben und gute tage haben. Ich gehe hin und esse mein
Brodt mit freuden' ('Now then, I want to live well and enjoy fine days. I
go my way and eat my bread with joy'). In none of the pieces is a wholly
new text employed. It seems that seventeenth-century composers shared
Scheibe's concerns about the inclusion of drunken choirs in sacred music.
By quoting Scripture, composers perhaps found an acceptable means of
depicting earthly hedonism without resorting to potentially inappropriate
secular texts and their overly vivid musical settings.
67 See Braun, 'Zwischen Dialog und Drama', pp. 13-17.

'Wir müssen auch sehr oft solche Cantaten in die Musik setzen, deren üble und schlüpfrige
Einrichtung uns zu unanständigen Ausschweifungen bey nahe zwingt. Wenn uns, zum
Exempel ein Chor der Saufbrüder des reichen Mannes, ein Chor der Teufel, der Hurer, der
Gotteslästerer und dergleichen vorgeleget wird; wenn wir solche Charaktere ausdrücken sollen,
die schon an sich selbst der Wohlanständigkeit widersprechen, um so vielmehr aber der
Heiligkeit und Ernsthaftigkeit des Ortes zuwider sind. Man sollte billig eine so strafbare
Verwegenheit hindern, und man sollte nur solche Dichter zu der Verfertigung geistlicher
Cantaten auslesen, die mit einer vernünftigen Stärke in der Dichtkunst, die Sittenlehre u. eine
mehr als gemeine Einsicht in die Gottesgelahrtheit verbunden hätten, dabey aber die
vernünftigen Vorstellungen des Componisten, die Musik insonderheit betreffend, auf das beste
beobachteten. Auf diese Weise würden die Kirchenmusiken auf anständige, gottselige und
erbauliche Art einzurichten seyn.' Johann Adolph Scheibe, Critischer Musikus. Neue, vermehrte und
verbesserte Auflage (Leipzig, 1745; facs. edn. Hildesheim and New York, 1970), pp. 164-5.
182

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Wockenfuss perhaps pushes the bounds of liturgical decency. In

addition to quoting Scripture, he invents an aria where Scripture lacks
first-person speech. Interpolated in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus
is Luke's parable of another rich man who denies death's presence (Luke
12: 16-21). The Rich Man's aria 'Ach edle Lust' prompts God's
admonition from Luke 12: 20: 'Du Narr, diese Nacht wird man deine
Seele von dir fordern' ('Fool! This night your soul will be required of you'),
which in turn inspires the Rich Man's fear of death in a second new aria.
The Rich Man's arias are fickle and superficially delightful, befitting their
texts. But instead of depicting worldly sin and debauchery alone, as
Scheibe fears, Wockenfuss depicts frivolity as the absence of true consider-
ation of death, in keeping with earlier musical settings.
CONCLUSION
Seventeenth-century Lutheran composers constructe

cal reading of the story on many levels from the
music with transience and vanity, to the direct mod
behaviour. Moreover, they negotiate a path between
its exegetical traditions on the one hand and th
Lutheran concern for encouraging pious activity o
The tension between external and internal actio
nal and private relationship with God, seems to b
in settings of the Rich Man and Lazarus stor
contemporary concerns over the nature of Christian
Pieces from around mid-century, such as those by A
and Schütz, present the story as a theatrical setting
Nothing is added to Scripture and in the interest
even the role of the Evangelist is removed in ord
mimetically, with only those speaking roles in Sc
cally. Theirs are objective settings, meant to br
Scripture to the congregation of passive listeners. P
context, the works might be explicated by a serm
arm's length and are experienced alike by the com
By mid-century and later, however, tropes to th
apparent and directly personal moral message. Th
more fully fleshed out, is no longer a silent figure, b
on contemporary experience. The characters are b
contemporary reality, blurring the lines between pe
Moreover, the lesson imparted by the settings seem
theatrical roles to implicate the congregants in
reading that demands immediate, personal, pious
183

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Janette Tilley
- behaviour. In this way, troped settings of the story enact what many
contemporary theologians hoped to foster through devotional reform - a
personal, engagement with Scripture and more pious behaviour in
general. Composers certainly played a role in both formal devotional
reform vis-à-vis newly written hymns, and also in informally supporting
pious activity and the so-called neue Frömmigkeit through the positive, and
negative, role models in their works. The Rich Man and Lazarus story
seems to have attracted especial attention, perhaps for its easy comparisons
with contemporary life, but also for its underlying moral message, one
central to Lutheran soteriology, for these musical settings instruct not only
how to live, but how to die.
Lehman College,
City University of New York
184

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Learning From Lazarus

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LEARNING FROM LAZARUS: THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY LUTHERAN ART OF DYING

Author(s): Janette Tilley

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