Johann Crüger

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Johann Crüger; Memorial picture in the Nikolaikirche by Michael Conrad Hirt
Johann Crüger, engraving by Albrecht Christian Kalle, 1641
Memorial plaque for Johann Crüger, Sankt Nikolaikirche, Berlin-Mitte

Johann Crüger ( Sorbian Jan Krygaŕ , born April 9th July / April 19,  1598 greg. In Groß Breesen ; † February 23rd July / March 5,  1662 greg. In Berlin ) was a composer of well-known Protestant hymns .

Life

Johann Crüger was born near Guben in Niederlausitz , a mixed area of ​​the Sorbian and German language and culture. It is therefore assumed that Crüger had Sorbian roots, but this has not yet been confirmed. His father Georg Crüger was an innkeeper, his mother Ulrike geb. Kohlheim pastor's daughter. Until 1613 he attended the Latin school in Guben.

On his subsequent wanderings via Sorau and Breslau , he came to Regensburg , where he received his first musical training from Paulus Homberger (1560–1634). On the other walk he came in 1615 to Berlin, where Crüger at Berlinische school to the Gray Abbey to the study of theology prepared. From 1620 he studied theology at the University of Wittenberg and continued his musical education in self-tuition. From 1622 until his death he was a teacher at the Gymnasium Zum Grauen Kloster for 40 years and at the same time cantor of the St. Nicolai Church in Berlin.

One of his stepdaughters, Anna Maria Helena Aschenbrenner (* 1625) married the court painter Michael Conrad Hirt , who also portrayed him.

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Johann Crüger is the creator of numerous concert works and music pedagogical writings. In 1643 he met the famous hymn poet Paul Gerhardt , for whom he set various sacred songs to music. In 1640 he published the collection of Newes Vollkömliches hymns . From the second edition of 1647 it appeared under the title Praxis Pietatis Melica (Exercise of Piety in Chants), which became the most important Protestant hymn book of the 17th century in German-speaking countries. During Crüger's lifetime alone, this work appeared - many times changed and expanded - in ten editions, of which not all versions have survived.

In the Geistliche Kirchen-Melodien published in 1649 , conceived as a book to accompany the third edition of Praxis Pietatis Melica published a year earlier and now lost , there are 161 chorales in mostly four-part cantional movements; In 108 numbers, Crüger added two concerting upper parts (violins or tines) ad libitum. This collection alone contains more than 20 chorale melodies by Crüger's compositions, including eight poems by his compatriot Johann Franck . The church music importance of clergy churches melodies lies in the fact that Crüger created here a new, instrumental supported type of polyphonic community chorale, he 1657/58 in which the reformed Brandenburg courtyard designed double hymnal Psalmodia Sacra / Sacred Songs and Psalms again and partly in an expanded form (4–5 trombones instead of 2 violins) and received a broad response from the hymn composers of subsequent generations.

In the current Protestant hymnal can be found, depending on the regional edition, at least 18 of his melodies and choruses, including How should I receive you , Praise the Lord all those who honor him , Cheerful should my heart jump and Deck thyself, O dear soul .

Work editions

  • Emanuel Christian Gottlob Langbecker (Ed.): Johann Crüger's Choral-Melodien: communicated from the best sources strictly according to the original, and accompanied by a brief outline of the life and work of this sacred song composer. Eichler, Berlin 1835 ( digitized version  in the German Digital Library ).
  • Holger Eichhorn, Martin Lubenow (Ed.): Johann Crüger - Critical Edition of Selected Works . Musiche Varie, Germersheim 2014.
  • Burkard Rosenberger (Ed.): Johann Crügers 'Geistliche Kirchen-Melodien' (1649): Text-critical edition (= Scientific writings of the WWU Münster: Series XVIII; Vol. 3). Monsenstein and Vannerdat, Münster 2014, ISBN 978-3-8405-0111-1 ( digital full text via the university publication server of the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster).

literature

Web links

Commons : Johann Crüger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Bunners: Johann Crüger (1598–1662) - Berlin musician and cantor, Lutheran song and hymn book creator : essays, portraits, text documents (= art, music and theater studies. ISSN  1862-6114 . Volume 11). Frank & Timme, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86596-371-0 , p. 179 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  2. ↑ Ekhart Berckenhagen:  Hirt, Michael Conrad. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 236 ( digitized version ).
  3. ↑ 547: 718285M in VD 17 .
  4. ↑ Burkard Rosenberger (Ed.): Johann Crügers "Spiritual Church Melodies". Critical Edition ( Introduction ), accessed May 30, 2020.
  5. ↑ Music publisher MVSICHE VARIE
personal data
SURNAME Crüger, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Crüger, Johannes; Crügerus, Johannes; Krüger, Johann; Krüger, Johannes; Krygaŕ, Jan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer of hymns
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1598
PLACE OF BIRTH Great Breesen near Guben
DATE OF DEATH March 5, 1662
Place of death Berlin