ABSTRACT
Until the early 1630s Augsburg had been spared from any direct depredation from the periodic military conflicts that ravaged areas of Bohemia and northern and western Germany. Worsening economic conditions and periodic outbreaks of plague affected both sides of the confessional divide equally. Musically, no identifiable 'confessional style' emerged on the part of Protestants or Catholics. The damage done to the city's musical institutions by the war is expressed no better than in a short entry in the cathedral chapter's minutes. Erbach, who had served the city so loyally as a composer, organist, leader of the Stadtpfeifer and as a member of the Catholic city council. Augsburg's Protestant community had little time to reconsolidate their institutions before the threat of violence returned. On 6 September 1634, the Swedish army was routed at Nordlingen, and within four weeks Imperial and Bavarian troops had surrounded Augsburg.
