Not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name SWV 43

Scoring:

Schütz’s setting of Psalm 115 Nicht uns, Herr, sondern deinem Namen is the only one of his Psalmen Davids, published in Dresden in 1619, which begins with a unison intonation, as also found in his late works (“Schwanengesang”). The three choirs in the work have different tessituras. The middle one is scored purely for voices, whereas in the one with a high tessitura only the lowest part is sung, and conversely in the one with low tessitura only the highest part is sung – the extremes are left to cornetts and trombones.

Through this artistic treatment, the effect of the widely-spaced tessitura used to achieve color is considerably enhanced. With this publication of Psalm 115 in a separate edition, the last of the Psalmen Davids is now available in a separate edition corresponding with the principles of the Stuttgart Schütz Edition.