Motet notes - Schütz

Most of the music written for the last Sundays before Advent have a heavy Eschatological slant. "Hütet euch" from the Third Book of Sacred Symphonies by Schütz  takes its text of dire warning from the Twenty-first chapter of Luke. It tells of the dangers of debauchery, that one must stand with the Savior against the pleasures of the world.  Unlike the sometimes self-righteous quality of some of the Epistle readings of this type, the Gospel passage is hair-raisingly direct.  Schütz has set the passage with intensity and his usual marvelous specificity.