Reformation

Joachim Fridericus Fritzius (um 1550 in Brandenburg a.d. Havel - 1605 in Styria?) was a protestant and we unfortunately nothing about his early life nor what happened to him after the Counter-reformation began to actively fight Protestantism in Styria. None of his compositions other than two books of motets printed in Graz by Widmanstetter in 1588 has survived. These are however clear evidence of a perhaps larger Protestant role in music in Styria. What is surprising about these works is that they are not only dedicated to the protestant nobility but also to the Styrian abbots - in other words to the representatives of both confessions. In addition, Fritziu makes textual concessions to Catholicism. Obviously the Protestan composer was thinking more in terms of economical factors than of religious covictions with this apparent comprimise.(siehe A. Gigler). (E. Stadler)