Urban Langhans

Langhans, Urban, was a native of Schneeberg, in Saxony. He was for some time cantor, i.e. choirmaster, at Glauchau, in Saxony; and then from 1546 to 1554 diaconus there. In 1554 he became diaconus at Schneeberg, and still held this position in 1562. The date of his death is not known; but his successor in office died in 1571 (Blätter fur Hymnologie, 1884, pp. 7-12, 25-27, 190). Whether he wrote any hymns is doubtful. The only one ascribed to him which has passed into English is:—
Lasst uns alle fröhlich sein. Christmas. The first stanza of this hymn is found at p. 17 of Martin Hammer's Laudes Immanuelis (a sermon on “Grates nunc omnes reddamus"), published at Leipzig, 1620 [Ducal Library, Gotha]. The full form, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, has not yet been traced earlier than to the Ander Theil of the Dresden Gesang-Buch, 1632. It is also in J. Niedling's Lutherisch Handbuchlein, 1655, p. 578, in Freylinghausen's Gesang-Buch, 1704; the Berlin Geistlicher LiederSchatz, edition 1863, No. 171, &c. In the Arnstadt Gesang-Buch, 1711, Langhans is given as the author of the text, and in the Dresden Gesang-Buch 1656, as the author of the melody. Dr. J. Zahn, in his Psalter und Harfe, 1886, No. 27, gives both text and melody from the Dresden Gesang-Buch, 1632. Translated as:—
1. Let us all in God rejoice. In full, by Dr. M. Loy, in the Evangelical Review, Gettysburg, July, 1861, p. 152, repeated in the Ohio Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal, 1880, No. 19.
2. Let us all with gladsome voice. In full, by Miss Winkworth, as No. 29 in her Choral Book for England, 1863. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)