While the 30-year war rages around him, the plague rages and a small ice age destroys the harvests, the German composer Heinrich Schütz writes the soundtrack of his time. But what kind of music do people need when their lives are surrounded by pain, suffering and death? Schütz dedicates his entire oeuvre to this question. The search for a sound that gives comfort, that can be mourned to and that evokes peace takes him from Weißenfels to Venice, from Dresden to Breslau and Copenhagen. Heinrich Schütz was a European long before the word even existed. His work is the result of these travels. By combining different musical traditions, he created a new musical language and used it to open up completely new sound spaces. Schütz’s works paint pictures with sounds and offer his audience an almost ecstatic listening experience. The composer gives words new radiance and uses his music where human language ends.

What significance does his music have for us, who are once again living in times of war, drought and pandemic? The film highlights the most important stages in the life of the European Heinrich Schütz. Personalities of the contemporary music scene. Through them, we get to know the “Musicus poeticus” better, immerse ourselves in the soundscapes of the past and discover the relevance of his work in the here and now.