A history of Protestant church music in the seventeenth century that does justice to historical reality has not yet been written. It must be based on a topography of church music that defines more precisely which music was performed in which form by which protagonists in which places and under what circumstances, and what relationships existed between these places. Hendrik Wilken presents one of these necessary basic studies, devoted to the musical history of Breslau between 1621 and 1690.
Musical and textual sources in German and Polish libraries, some of which have been analysed for the first time, provide a comprehensive picture of the musicians who worked in Breslau's churches. At the same time, the complex history of the city's libraries, in particular the genesis and composition of the present Bohn Collection. In his detective work, the author investigates the musical and architectural conditions of each of the of the individual main and branch churches in order to reconstruct the conditions of performance. Catalogues of works by twelve Wroclaw composers form the basis for analytical observations on the stylistic development of Protestant church music in Wroclaw. The influences of Heinrich Schütz and Michael Praetorius become visible again and again, but also the decisive role played by Italian composers in the stylistic change towards the end of the period.
