Jacobus Vaet is yet another one of those renaissance composers whose early demise cut short a very promising career. He was probably born in 1529 either in Kortrijk or Harelbeke and was enrolled as a choirboy at Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk in Kortrijk aged thirteen. When his voice broke in 1546 the church gave him a scholarship to attend the University of Leuven which he entered in 1547. By 1550 he was serving the Emperor Charles V in 1550 as a tenor. He must have stood out because by January 1st 1554 he had become Kapellmeister to Archduke Maximilian of Austria – the future Emperor Maximilian II. He remained as Maximilian's Kapellmeister until his death aged 37 on Jan 8th 1567. Maximilian was generous to Vaet His death was mourned by Maximillian who wrote of it in his diary and by his fellow musicians many of whom composed elegies mourning his passing. His influence persisted after his death with many of his motets being used as the basis for Mass settings by a constellation of composers including his pupil Jacob Regnart, and such luminaries as Jacob Handl, Antonius Galli, and Johannes de Cleve. His Missa quodlibetica seems to have been the first of the genre and was used as a model by Regnart, Losio and Luython among others.
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Johann Kuhnau (1660–1722) is often dismissed by musicologists as a sort of footnote to Johann Sebastian Bach but this is a mistake. Bach was influenced – quite heavily influenced and in more ways than one, by Kuhnau who preceded him as Thomaskantor. To give but two examples, it was Kuhnau who collaborated with Bach in the latter's examination and certification of the Halle organ, and it was Kuhnau who inspired Bach in his choice of the title Clavier-Übung for four keyboard publications. He's of interest not only because he was a very talented composer in his own right, but also because his career represtents a bridge between Schütz and Bach. His motet 'Tristis est anima mea' (My soul is sorrowful) is interesting both because of it's extreme expressiveness and because it's a very good example of late orthodox Lutheran music. Most Lutheran thinkers weren't adverse to the traditional Latin texts or to the traditional church style it had its place but that place was no longer the pride of place. It's sung below by the King's Consort Choir conducted by Robert King. Enjoy :-).
