Johannes Christoph Andreas Zahn (1 August 1817 in Eschenbach/ Pegnitz – 17 February 1895 in

Neuendettelsau Neuendettelsau is a local authority in Middle Franconia, Germany. Neuendettelsau is situated 20 miles southwest of Nuremberg and 12 miles east of Ansbach. Since 1947 it has a Lutheran seminary ( ''Augustana Hochschule''). Diakonie Neuendettelsau ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

best known for his opus ''

Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder A Lutheran chorale is a musical setting of a Lutheran hymn, intended to be sung by a congregation in a German Protestant Church service. The typical four-part setting of a chorale, in which the sopranos (and the congregation) sing the melody a ...

'', a critical anthology of almost 9,000 hymn melodies developed and used in 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 ...

churches.

Biography

Johannes C. A. Zahn was the son of the Eschenbach teacher and cantor Johannes Zahn. Between 1832 and 1837 he attended the

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

high school, and studied afterwards in Berlin to obtain his degree in theology in 1841. After attending the Predigerseminar in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

, he became a house teacher for the residence of Gustav Schulze, a prominent merchant. In 1847 he was named teacher and prefect of the Royal Schullehrer Seminar in Altdorf bei Nürnberg, and became its head in 1854. Johannes Zahn dedicated himself particularly to the recovery and critical revision of melodies and hymns developed during and after the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, which he started publishing in 1889, in

Gütersloh Gütersloh () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the area of Westphalia and the administrative region of Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a district of the same name and has a population of 100,194 peo ...

. The classification system he developed is still used by hymnologists worldwide, in the form ''Zahn ###'', where the number represents the location of the melody or hymn in Zahn's anthology.James Lyon. ''Johann Sebastian Bach, chorals: Sources hymnologiques des mélodies, des textes et des théologies''. Editions Beauchesne, (2005) Zahn also contributed articles to journals like ''Siona'', ''Hymnologie'', and ''Euterpe''. Zahn also composed hymns, and is known for writing the original melody ''Dein König kommt in niedern Hüllen'', which appears today as number 14 in the German Protestant hymnal.

Works

*''Handbüchlein für angehende Cantoren und Organisten'', Nürnberg (1871) *'' Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder, aus den Quellen geschöpft und mitgeteilt von Johannes Zahn'' (6 volumes), Verlag Bertelsmann, Gütersloh (1889–93). urther edited by the Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Edition des deutschen Kirchenlieds. Hildesheim, New York: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1998. 6 volumes. *''Die Melodien des Deutschen Evangelischen Gesangbuches in vierstimmigem Satze für Orgel und für Chorgesang aus Auftrag der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenkonferenz zu Eisenach'' (with G. Freiherr von Tucher and Immanuel Faißt),

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

(1854) *''Vierstimmiges Melodienbuch zum Gesangbuch der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche in Bayern'', Erlangen (1855)

References

Sources

* *James Lyon. ''Johann Sebastian Bach, chorals: Sources hymnologiques des mélodies, des textes et des théologies''. Editions Beauchesne, (2005) , 336 pages.
Correlation between Zahn numbers and HTI tune numbers
1817 births 1895 deaths German Lutherans 19th-century Lutherans 19th-century German musicologists {{Germany-musicologist-stub