Johann Balthasar König (baptised 28 January 1691 – buried 2 April 1758) was a German Baroque composer, especially of hymn melodies, having published a hymnal with 1,913 melodies. He was the church musician at

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

's main Protestant church, the Katharinenkirche, and the town's Kapellmeister. He was also closely associated with

Georg Philipp Telemann Georg Philipp Telemann (; – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hild ...

Career

Born in

Waltershausen Waltershausen is a town in the south-western part of the district of Gotha in the state of Thuringia, Germany. Geography Geographic location Located on the verge of the Thuringian Basin just before the Thuringian Forest, Waltershausen is so ...

, König was a son of Johann Jakob König. He was in Frankfurt a chorister of the municipal gymnasium. He joined the municipal chapel when

was its director. König married in 1717 Anna Maria Pfaff, the daughter of a tailor. Telemann became the godfather of their son Georg Philipp, born in 1718. König was appointed director of the chapel at the Katharinenkirche. He was promoted to municipal Kapellmeister (director of music) in 1727, succeeding Johann Christoph Bodinus (1690–1727).Christiana Jungius: ''Telemanns Frankfurter Kantatenzyklen.'' Bärenreiter, Kassel 2008, , pp 73–84. König composed several hymns, cantatas and operas. His most important work is the 1738 collection ''Harmonischer Liederschatz'', with 1,913 melodies, of which 358 were not published before. The full title reads: Three of his hymns are part of the current Protestant hymnal '' Evangelisches Gesangbuch'', "O daß ich tausend Zungen hätte" (EG 330), "" to lyrics by (EG 354), and " Ich will dich lieben, meine Stärke" (EG 400). Martin Rößler, who analyzed the melody for ''Liederkunde zum Evangelischen Gesangbuch'' which supplies scholarly background information of songs in the EG, summarized that it follows the "emotional elements" of the text well by a focus on expansion at the beginning, and on concentration at the beginning of the ''

abgesang Bar form (German: ''die Barform'' or ''der Bar'') is a musical form of the pattern AAB. Original use The term comes from the rigorous terminology of the Meistersinger guilds of the 15th to 18th century who used it to refer to their songs and the ...

'', is well structured and offers some

word painting Word painting, also known as tone painting or text painting, is the musical technique of composing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song's lyrics or story elements in programmatic music. Historical development Tone painting of words ...

Literature

* Peter Cahn: ''Kirchenmusik an St. Katharinen''. In: Joachim Proescholdt (ed.): ''St. Katharinen zu Frankfurt am Main''. Verlag Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main, 1981. * Christiana Jungius: ''Telemanns Frankfurter Kantatenzyklen.'' Bärenreiter, Kassel 2008, , pp 84–109. *

References

External links

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Johann Balthasar König (Composer)
Bach Cantatas Website 2006
Johann Balthasar König
hymnary.org
Harmonischer Lieder-Schatz
reader.digitale-sammlungen.de
Johann Balthasar König / Komponist, Musikdirektor
Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek
Johann Balthasar Konig, "I have found the ground"
on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Konig, Johann Balthasar German Baroque composers People from Waltershausen 1691 births 1758 deaths Music directors