Sacred concerto

Sacred concerto (German: geistliches Konzert, plural: geistliche Konzerte, lit. 'spiritual concerto (or: concert)') is a 17th-century genre of sacred music, characterized as settings of religious texts requiring both vocal soloists and obbligato instrumental forces for performance. Starting from Italian models, the genre flourished primarily in Germany. It is a broad term for various genres of chamber concerto for a small number of voices and instruments popular in Germany during the 17th century and prefiguring the late baroque church cantata and solo sacred cantata forms.

The stylistic roots of the concert lie in early baroque Italian models brought back to German by musicians such as Heinrich Schütz, and popularised by his contemporaries such as Samuel Scheidt. Some of these concerts take an Italianate dialogue or oratorio form, notably the works of Kaspar Förster and the dialogues of Schütz.

The next generation of composers working in this form include Johann Schelle, Johann Philipp Förtsch, Sebastian Knüpfer, Dieterich Buxtehude and early members of the Bach family, the works of whom have been partially preserved in the Altbachisches Archiv. Johann Pachelbel is another composer contributing to the genre, for instance his Christ lag in Todesbanden, P 60, for SATB voices, strings, bassoon and continuo.