Gottfried Vopelius (28 January 1645 – 3 February 1715), was a German

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

academic and hymn-writer, mainly active in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

. He was born in Herwigsdorf, now a district of Rosenbach,

Oberlausitz Upper Lusatia (german: Oberlausitz ; hsb, Hornja Łužica ; dsb, Górna Łužyca; szl, Gōrnŏ Łużyca; pl, Łużyce Górne or ''Milsko''; cz, Horní Lužice) is a historical region in Germany and Poland. Along with Lower Lusatia to the ...

, and died in Leipzig at the age of 70.

Robert Eitner Robert Eitner (22October 18322February 1905) was a German musicologist, researcher and bibliographer. Life Robert Eitner was born and grew up in Breslau, the rapidly industrialising administrative capital of Silesia. He attended the St. Elisabet ...

. " Vopelius, Gottfried", pp. 298–299 in Vol. 40 of ''

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, german: Universal German Biography) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Aca ...

''. , 1896.

''Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch''

Vopelius is primarily remembered for the ''Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch'' (New Leipzig Hymnal) which he published in 1682. The subtitle of the publication reads: Or, translated: The ''Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch'' is, to a certain degree, a third edition of

Johann Schein Johann Hermann Schein (20 January 1586 – 19 November 1630) was a German people, German composer of the early Baroque music, Baroque era. He was Thomaskantor in Leipzig from 1615 to 1630. He was one of the first to import the early Italian styl ...

's , which originally had been published in 1627, with a new edition in 1645. Over 90 settings in the ''Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch'' were copied or adapted from Schein. All other composers are represented with less than 10 settings in the hymnal. Of these, only

Johann Crüger Johann Crüger (9 April 1598 – 23 February 1662) was a German composer of well-known hymns. He was also the editor of the most widely used Lutheran hymnal of the 17th century, ''Praxis pietatis melica''. Early life and education Crüger was bo ...

and

Andreas Hammerschmidt Andreas Hammerschmidt (1611 or 1612 – 29 October 1675), the "Orpheus of Zittau," was a German Bohemian composer and organist of the early to middle Baroque era. He was one of the most significant and popular composers of sacred music in Ge ...

are mentioned for more than three settings.Lukas Lorbeer
"L-1682", pp. 108–111
i
''Die Sterbe- und Ewigkeitslieder in deutschen lutherischen Gesangbüchern des 17. Jahrhunderts''.
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012.

Reception

The ''Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch'' was one of the last important hymnals in the ''Kantional'' format (i.e. printed with music, including part-songs): congregational singing was generally becoming monodic, with an instrumental accompaniment, for which hymnals with only texts became the new standard. In his Leipzig time (1723–1750),

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

used the ''Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch'' as a reference work for many of his sacred compositions. For the closing chorales of his cantatas BWV 27 and BWV 43 he used the harmonisation as found in the hymnal.Work at

Bach Digital Bach Digital (German: ), developed by the Bach Archive in Leipzig, is an online database which gives access to information on compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach and members of Bach family, his family. Early manuscripts of such compositions are ...

website BWV^2a (1998)
p. 468
/ref> For other chorale settings, such as BWV 281, he stayed close to the harmonisation published by Vopelius.

Later editions of the ''Leipziger Gesangbuch''

In 1693 Vopelius published the ''Leipziger Gesangbuch'', which he describes as a republication of the ''Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch'', however without the chorale settings, but with more hymns, and enriched with engravings. The next edition appeared in 1707. Later editions of the ''Leipziger Gesangbuch'', in 1729, 1733 and 1752, further enlarged the number of hymns, to 852, 856 and 1015 respectively, and referred to Vopelius as the former editor of the hymnal. The 1758 and 1767 editions kept the number of hymns at 1015, keeping also the referral to Vopelius as former editor on the title page.Carl Gottlob Hofmann
''Das privilegirte Vollständige und vermehrte Leipziger Gesang-Buch''.
Leipzig: Barnbeck, 1767

References

External links

* * J. S. Bach'

at {{DEFAULTSORT:Vopelius 1645 births 1715 deaths People from Görlitz (district) German Lutherans Writers from Leipzig