Johann Albrecht Kress, a vice-Kapellmeister and later a director of the Hofkapelle in Stuttgart, was regarded highly as a composer. The compositional output of Kress is quite
modest: he left only two printed collections, funeral music, and some manuscripts. His print Musicalische Seelen-Belustigung he entitled rather in a tradition of German devotional
books than common musical printed collections. Some rare texts Kress used in his Seelen-Belustigung let us make an assumption that he wanted to create his own musical devotional work which should be a compendium of the different, sometimes extraordinary text sources, musical genres and compositional features. A few other pieces are not included in Seelen-Belustigung and kept as a part of convolute in the German State Library. The questions of their origins, affinity of Seelen-Belustigung with devotional books and a character of compendium are the focus of present investigation.
1. Bonaventura, Johannes. 1611. Officium quinque plagarum Jesu Christi. Venetia: apud Nicolaum Misserinum.
2. Bongo, Pietro. 1599. Numerorum mysteria. Bergomi: Typis Comini Venturæ.
3. Bourbon, Nicolas. 1533. Nicolai Borbonii Vandoperani Nugae. Basileae: Cratander.
4. Calvisius, Sethus. 1594. Sethi Calvisii Hymni sacri Latini et Germanici, quorum in illustriludo, qui est Portae ad Salam, usus est. Erfurt: Baumann.
5. Frandsen, Mary E. 2006. Crossing Confessional Boundaries: The Patronage of Italian Sacred Music in Seventeenth-century Dresden. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
6. Gero, Olga. 2016. Dietrich Buxtehudes geistliche Vokalwerke — Texte, Formen, Gattungen. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis (Studia musicologica Upsaliensia, 0081–6744; 26).
7. Harsdörffer, Georg-Philipp. 1645. Frauenzimmer-Gesprechspiele: so bey Ehr- und Tugendliebenden Gesellschaften, mit nutzlicher Ergetzlichkeit, beliebet und geübet werden mögen, Teil 5, In welchem Unterschiedliche, in Teutscher Sprache niebekante Erfindungen, Tugendliebenden Gesellschaften aus zuüben Vorgestellet worden. Nürnberg: Endter.
8. Kegel, Philipp. 1655. Zwölff geistliche Andachten. Nürnberg: [s.n.].
9. Lütkemann, Joachim. 1674. Harpffe von zehen Seyten. Franckfurt: Wild.
10. Mattheson, Johann. 1739 [1999]. Der vollkommene Capellmeister, ed. by Friederike Ramm. Kassel: Bärenreiter.
11. Mattheson, Johann. 1740 [1910]. Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte, woran der tüchtigsten Capellmeister, Componisten, Musikgelehrten, Tonkünstler, etc. Leben, Wercke, Verdienste etc. erscheinen sollen, ed. by Max Schneider. Berlin: Liepmannssohn.
12. Musculus, Andreas. 1573. Precationes ex veteribus orthodoxies Doctoribus. Ex ecclesiae Hymnis & Canticis. Ex Psalmis denique Davidis collectae & in certos locos digestae / per Andream Musculum. Lipsiae: Schneider.
13. Rauner, Narziß. 1670. M. Narziß Rauners wolgestim[m]ter und mit doppelten Saiten neubezogener Davidischer Jesus-Psalter. Augspurg: Göbel; Augspurg: Koppmayer.
14. Siegele, Ulrich. 2021. “Kreß, Johann Albrecht.” MGG Online, ed. by Laurenz Lütteken. Kassel: Bärenreiter; Stuttgart: Metzler; New York: RILM, 2016–. Accessed March 31, 2022. https://www.mgg-online.com/mgg/stable/400556.
15. Silesius, Angelus. 1657. Heilige Seelen-Lust oder geistliche Hirten-Lieder der in ihren Jesum verliebten Psyche. Breßlaw: Baumann.
16. Stiefel, Eberhard. 2001. “Kress, Johann Albrecht.” Grove Music Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.15521.
17. Wollny, Peter. 2016. Studien zum Stilwandel in der protestantischen Figuralmusik des mittleren 17. Jahrhunderts. Beeskow: Ortus Musikverlag.