The name Gottfried August Homilius is practically unknown today, even among music scholars, though lately his stock has been on the rise. Credit for this is due in part to Carus's admirable and ongoing project of bringing forth rare works by now-obscure composers such as Homilius through published editions and recordings. Recent increase in name recognition is due also to the mounting evidence of Homilius's close connection to the Bach circle. This makes him a subject of particular interest to scholars at the Bach-Archiv in Leipzig, as well as to those at the Packard Humanities Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who are working together to produce a complete edition of the works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. While the link between C. P. E. Bach and Homilius might not be immediately apparent, it turns out to be essential. On the surface, it would seem unlikely that the two men's paths had crossed: Bach spent his professional life first at the Prussian royal court in Berlin and later as Music Director in Hamburg, while Homilius worked almost exclusively in Dresden. Emanuel Bach knew Homilius's music, however, and thought highly enough of his Passion settings to incorporate music from them generously and regularly into his own Passion music for Hamburg (see Paul Corneilson's Introduction to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Passion according to St. John (1776) in Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works, series 4, volume 7.2 (Los Altos: The Packard Humanities Institute, 2009), xi–xiv). Bach's pattern of musical borrowing in this case demonstrates many things, not the least of which is the wider network of interpersonal connections among his musical contemporaries. We might not know much about Homilius today, but that is not because he was equally invisible in his own time.

As more of Homilius's music becomes available in modern editions, the reasons behind Bach's esteem for his colleague emerge. Homilius was raised and educated in Dresden, and spent his professional life there at the pinnacle of the city's considerable and well-deserved musical fame. He left the Saxon capital for only a few short years to pursue a law degree at the nearby University of Leipzig (from 1735), during which time he is reported to have been a student of J. S. Bach. There, he almost certainly participated in performances of Bach's church music while serving as assistant organist at the Nicolaikirche. In 1742 Homilius returned to Dresden, taking up the much-coveted position of organist at the Frauenkirche. In 1755 he won the even more important post of Cantor at the Kreuzkirche and in the very same year was promoted to the city's top musical position (outside of the Saxon court): Music Director in Dresden. In the context of his day, Homilius achieved greater public prominence as Music Director in the Saxon capital than old Bach had done in Leipzig. Considering his résumé, the least we might expect from Homilius is competence. We get that and more.

Of the three large-scale works by Homilius on these discs, the first, the Passion cantata Ein Lämmlein geht, stands out most strikingly above the rest for the quality of its composition as well as of the performance presented here. To begin with, it hangs together as a dramatic work far better than its sister work, the Johannespassion (reviewed below), which perhaps explains why the cantata was the better-known piece. The musicians of the Düsseldorfer Hofmusik along with the Basler Madrigalisten do an excellent job of realizing the work not just technically, but musically. Particularly impressive is the dramatic pacing within and especially between movements. Homilius often spices transitions with bold harmonic effects (for example, No. 10, ‘Daran ist erschienen’, into No. 11, ‘Die Mörder kommen schon’), and the force of his gestures is not lost in this performance because his strategy is consistently well understood by conductor Fritz Näf and his musicians. Their intelligent, sensitive rendering of this tightly constructed work allows its inherent drama to unfold as it should. The ensemble has achieved a level of virtuosity that allows it to play flexibly, expressively and free of distracting mannerism. The result is an elegant, natural and highly musical performance.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Dresdner Barockorchester's performance of the Johannespassion under Roderich Kreile. While there are some very fine voices among the soloists, the orchestra frequently suffers from fundamental problems such as poor intonation (especially in the strings, and consequently between the strings and winds) and imprecise ensemble coordination. Plainly said, there is little technical rigour or sense of direction to be found. Additionally, attempts at musical expression are inconsistent, oddly placed and often awkwardly executed. I am thinking particularly of the sharply telegraphed grammatical breaks in most of the chorale movements as well as of some relatively undramatic moments that get singled out for special emphasis for no apparent reason, while so many other circumstances that call for it more urgently are allowed to pass unobserved. One example of this is the Evangelist's recitative ‘Simon Petrus aber folgete Jesum nach’ (No. 10), where the tenor lingers inexplicably over the depiction of servants and officers keeping warm by the fire, even though this is an insignificant detail in the sweep of the passage, which for some reason concludes with a less dramatic rendering of Jesus being questioned by the high priest. Overall, one gets a sense of underlying lack of commitment to the music, which is usually a symptom of uninspiring leadership.

In part, though, the problem with the Johannespassion is also rooted in the libretto, which is very different from that of the Lämmlein cantata, despite the fact that they celebrate the same liturgical event. Even the voice of admiration has to admit that the Passion is simply not one of Homilius's best pieces. The fundamental flaw is the librettist's awkwardly inserted reflective moments within the unfolding Biblical action of the story. Homilius compounds the librettist's dramaturgical misjudgment by composing recitatives that are more musically expressive than the arias. The brief recitative segments therefore end up being far more musically interesting than the arias themselves, which, while successfully communicative on a superficial level, are hardly profound stuff. Apart from problems of placement, the arias are also uncomfortably lightweight in the context of surrounding events. In short, they are not musically interesting enough to warrant as much structural repetition as they contain. The problem here is that the new type of expressive work expected of arias by the third quarter of the eighteenth century (which is to say direct communication with a general public of Kenner and Liebhaber) sits awkwardly with older forms such as the da capo aria. Homilius knew that there were other choices available, so he must have had some purpose in retaining da capo at this point. His reasons are up for debate.

The third of the discs under consideration here contains repertory for Christmas. Overall, the music is attractive, charming and absolutely worth hearing. The pairing of Homilius's Weihnachtsoratorium with a Christmas cantata by the totally unknown Christian August Jacobi is successful, even though Jacobi was a generation older than Homilius. It is difficult at times to resist comparing Jacobi's work to that of his contemporary, J. S. Bach, yet even in the face of such fierce competition, Jacobi's piece remains delightful. Homilius's Christmas oratorio is equally engaging and does not suffer from any of the weaknesses of his Johannespassion. The performances on this disc are fully respectable, although they do suffer from a sort of stylistic identity crisis. The orchestra plays on modern instruments in a historically informed way, but the singers, who overindulge in vibrato, do not attempt anything similar, which is a shame. The result is that the performance is neither fish nor fowl. Still, these two pieces are excellent examples of the value of Carus's various music-historical excavation projects. The publisher makes high-quality works accessible that would otherwise be effectively extinct, even though they were the real everyday fare of their time. Our understanding of the living context in which more broadly studied compositions appeared is enriched by every ‘new’ piece that the publishers at Carus, and others like them, produce. It is important work they accomplish; music scholars whose work is rooted in this repertory should be grateful.