Heinrich Schütz
Christoph Spätner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Born in 1585 in Köstritz, in the Reuss region of Thüringen in the Holy Roman Empire, Heinrich Schütz demonstrated musical talent at an early age. When he was five, his family moved to a town called Weißenfels, where Schütz began his musical career as a chorister. In 1609, he travelled to Venice where he studied at St. Mark's Basilica with Giovanni Gabrieli.

He returned to Germany in 1615, moving to Dresden and becoming court composer to the Elector of Saxony. He married and had two daughters, but his wife died six years after their marriage.

In 1628, Schütz made another visit to Venice, where he was influenced by the compositional style of Claudio Monteverdi, as is evident in the homophonic texture and use of recitative in Schütz's cantatas such as Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz. Simple chords underlie melodic lines, allowing the text to be clearly understood, aligning very much with Protestant sensibilities. Schütz also composed the first known opera in German, Dafne, but the music for this has been lost.

To escape the Thirty Years' War, he moved to Denmark in 1633. During this time, he kept composing, but his compositions took on a smaller scale due to the financial constraints the war placed on his patrons. He returned to Dresden in 1641, and spent many years asking to be allowed to retire due to his age. He was eventually released and returned to his childhood home of Weißenfels, where he spent the rest of his life, passing away in 1672 at the age of 87.