motet notes - Mendelssohn

"Herr, du bist unsre Zuflucht" is taken from Mendelssohn’s Sechs Sprüche, a set of six short a capella motets for double chorus, concluding with an Alleluia. They were each intended to follow the reading of the epistle in the reordered Prussian Liturgy of 1843 and represented some of the King’s favorite scriptural verses.  Given this now vanished original purpose, they are rarely performed, and now exist in a sort of repertorial limbo.  Written for the Berlin Cathedral Choir between 1843 and 1846, this is Mendelssohn at his most intellectual, and most austere.  The declamatory directness and succinct expression harkens back to the works of Heinrich Schütz. 

‍