Samuel Rodigast

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Samuel Rodigast (born October 19, 1649 in Gröben near Jena , † March 19, 1708 in Berlin ) was a German poet.

He is considered to be the author of the hymn text What God does is well done ; he also wrote numerous poems.

Life

Samuel Rodigast attended high school in Weimar and studied in Jena . In 1671 he obtained his master's degree and from then on held philosophical lectures in Jena. He remained connected to his university all his life; He repeatedly took over the chairmanship of doctoral procedures there. The 180-page folio catalog of his library, which he had printed in 1708, testifies to his erudition (and his scholarly pride) . In 1680 he became vice rector and 1698 director of the grammar school for the gray monastery in Berlin . He was also buried in the church of the Gray Monastery, as he had never changed his job, although he had been offered a professorship in Jena.

Rodigast is mentioned in Theodor Fontane's novel Frau Jenny Treibel as a pious poet schoolman.

"What God does is well done"

In Jena, Rodigast may have composed the text for the famous hymn to comfort his sick friend, the cantor Severus Gastorius - or because Gastorius wanted a song for his funeral. He is said to have set the work to music. The circumstances surrounding the creation of the song are, however, controversial in research. What God does is done well became a favorite song of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. , at whose funeral it was also sung. The song can still be heard at funerals today. In the Praise of God it can be found under No. 294, in the Evangelical Hymnal under No. 372.

The first verse is not from Rodigast himself, but from Michael Altenburg ; the rest of the text is thematically based on Dtn 32.4  LUT .

Johann Sebastian Bach used the song in at least four different cantatas. His chorale cantata from 1724, What God does, that is well done, BWV 99 , is based on the complete chorale , which has been repositioned in the middle stanzas. Cantata BWV 98 , created in 1726, uses only the first stanza, while cantata BWV 100, written between 1732 and 1735, contains all six stanzas of the song. In the early cantata Weinen, Klagen, Sorge, Zagen , BWV 12, from the Weimar period, the last sixth stanza forms the final chorale.

Works (in selection)

  • Spes in fundo sive Trias ante novissimum diem sperandorum. Bielcke, Jena 1686
  • Thoughts on the words Matth. cap. 20 BC 16 and cap. 22 BC 14. Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1733

As expected from an educated clergyman of his day, Samuel Rodigast gave and published numerous funeral speeches .

literature

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Hans Burose: Catalog of the Calvörschen library in the university library of the TU Clausthal . Clausthal – Zellerfeld 1972, p. 582.
  2. ^ Catalogus Bibliothecae Libris Theolog. Philosopher. Philolog. & Historicis Instructae. à B. Dno. M. Samuele Rodigasto, Rectore Gymnasii Berolinensis
  3. ↑ Reinhard Görisch, Andreas Marti : 372 - What God does is well done . In: Wolfgang Herbst , Ilsabe Seibt (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelischen Gesangbuch . No. 16 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-525-50302-7 , pp. 44–51 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ↑ Proof of the funeral speeches of Samuel Rodigast in the directory of prints of the 17th century published in the German-speaking area (VD 17)
personal data
SURNAME Rodigast, Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German poet
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1649
PLACE OF BIRTH Groben near Jena
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 1708
Place of death Berlin