Short Name: | Johann Crüger |
Full Name: | Crüger, Johann, 1598-1662 |
Birth Year: | 1598 |
Death Year: | 1662 |
Johann Crüger (b. Grossbriesen, near Guben, Prussia, Germany, 1598; d. Berlin, Germany, 1662) Crüger attended the Jesuit College at Olmutz and the Poets' School in Regensburg, and later studied theology at the University of Wittenberg. He moved to Berlin in 1615, where he published music for the rest of his life. In 1622 he became the Lutheran cantor at the St. Nicholas Church and a teacher for the Gray Cloister. He wrote music instruction manuals, the best known of which is Synopsis musica (1630), and tirelessly promoted congregational singing. With his tunes he often included elaborate accompaniment for various instruments. Crüger's hymn collection, Neues vollkomliches Gesangbuch (1640), was one of the first hymnals to include figured bass accompaniment (musical shorthand) with the chorale melody rather than full harmonization written out. It included eighteen of Crüger's tunes. His next publication, Praxis Pietatis Melica (1644), is considered one of the most important collections of German hymnody in the seventeenth century. It was reprinted forty-four times in the following hundred years. Another of his publications, Geistliche Kirchen Melodien (1649), is a collection arranged for four voices, two descanting instruments, and keyboard and bass accompaniment. Crüger also published a complete psalter, Psalmodia sacra (1657), which included the Lobwasser translation set to all the Genevan tunes.
Bert Polman
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Crüger, Johann, was born April 9, 1598, at Gross-Breese, near Guben, Brandenburg. After passing through the schools at Guben, Sorau and Breslau, the Jesuit College at Olmütz, and the Poets' school at Regensburg, he made a tour in Austria, and, in 1615, settled at Berlin. There, save for a short residence at the University of Wittenberg, in 1620, he employed himself as a private tutor till 1622. In 1622 he was appointed Cantor of St. Nicholas's Church at Berlin, and also one of the masters of the Greyfriars Gymnasium. He died at Berlin Feb. 23, 1662. Crüger wrote no hymns, although in some American hymnals he appears as "Johann Krüger, 1610,” as the author of the supposed original of C. Wesley's "Hearts of stone relent, relent" (q.v.). He was one of the most distinguished musicians of his time. Of his hymn tunes, which are generally noble and simple in style, some 20 are still in use, the best known probably being that to "Nun danket alle Gott" (q.v.), which is set to No. 379 in Hymns Ancient & Modern, ed. 1875. His claim to notice in this work is as editor and contributor to several of the most important German hymnological works of the 16th century, and these are most conveniently treated of under his name. (The principal authorities on his works are Dr. J. F. Bachmann's Zur Geschichte der Berliner Gesangbücher 1857; his Vortrag on P. Gerhard, 1863; and his edition of Gerhardt's Geistliche Lieder, 1866. Besides these there are the notices in Bode, and in R. Eitner's Monatshefte für Musik-Geschichte, 1873 and 1880). These works are:—
1. Newes vollkömmliches Gesangbuch, Augspur-gischer Confession, &c, Berlin, 1640 [Library of St. Nicholas's Church, Berlin], with 248 hymns, very few being published for the first time.
2. Praxis pietatis melica. Das ist: Ubung der Gottseligkeit in Christlichen und trostreichen Gesängen. The history of this, the most important work of the century, is still obscure. The 1st edition has been variously dated 1640 and 1644, while Crüger, in the preface to No. 3, says that the 3rd edition appeared in 1648. A considerable correspondence with German collectors and librarians has failed to bring to light any of the editions which Koch, iv. 102, 103, quotes as 1644, 1647, 1649, 1650, 1651, 1652, 1653. The imperfect edition noted below as probably that of 1648 is the earliest Berlin edition we have been able to find. The imperfect edition, probably ix. of 1659, formerly in the hands of Dr. Schneider of Schleswig [see Mützell, 1858, No. 264] was inaccessible. The earliest perfect Berlin edition we have found is 1653.
The edition printed at Frankfurt in 1656 by Caspar Röteln was probably a reprint of a Berlin edition, c. 1656. The editions printed at Frankfurt-am-Main by B. C. Wust (of which the 1666 is in the preface described as the 3rd) are in considerable measure independent works.
In the forty-five Berlin and over a dozen Frankfurt editions of this work many of the hymns of P. Gerhardt, J. Franck, P. J. Spener, and others, appear for the first time, and therein also appear many of the best melodies of the period.
3. Geistliche Kirchen-Melodien, &c, Leipzig, 1649 [Library of St. Katherine's Church, Brandenburg]. This contains the first stanzas only of 161 hymns, with music in four vocal and two instrumental parts. It is the earliest source of the first stanzas of various hymns by Gerhardt, Franck, &c.
4. D. M. Luther's und anderer vornehmen geisU reichen und gelehrten Manner Geistliche Lieder und Psalmen, &c, Berlin, 1653 [Hamburg Town Library], with 375 hymns. This was edited by C. Runge, the publisher, and to it Crüger contributed some 37 melodies. It was prepared at the request of Luise Henriette (q.v.), as a book for the joint use of the Lutherans and the Re¬formed, and is the earliest source of the hymns ascribed to her, and of the complete versions of many hymns by Gerhardt and Franck.
5. Psalmodia Sacra, &c, Berlin, 1658 [Royal Library, Berlin]. The first section of this work is in an ed. of A. Lobwasser's German Psalter; the second, with a similar title to No. 4, and the date 1657, is practically a recast of No. 4,146 of those in 1653 being omitted, and the rest of the 319 hymns principally taken from the Praxis of 1656 and the hymn-books of the Bohemian Brethren. New eds. appeared in 1676, 1700, 1704, 1711, and 1736.
[Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
-- Excerpt from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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Crüger, Johann, p. 271, ii. Dr. J. Zahn, now of Neuendettelsau, in Bavaria, has recently acquired a copy of the 5th ed., Berlin, 1653, of the Praxis.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
Tunes by Johann Crüger (57) | As | Instances | Incipit |
---|---|---|---|
ACH WIE FLÜCHTIG, ACH WIE NICHTIG | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 2 | 12334 45565 43215 |
DIES EST LAETITIAE | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 1 | 11234 21226 71111 |
AUF, AUF, MEIN HERZ | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 17 | 51543 21576 17675 |
NUN LASST UNS GOTT | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 8 | 11761 21112 7517 |
BEDFORD (Wheal) | J. Crüger (Composer (melody)) | 1 | 53165 43251 76653 |
BROŃŻE, PANIE, NAS NA WIEKI | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 2 | |
[Christus ist unser Friede] | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 2 | 33321 22444 32336 |
[Come descend O Holy Spirit] | J. Cruger (Composer) | 2 | 13565 17655 56543 |
CRÜGER | Johann Crüger, 1598-1662 (Composer) | 55 | 56543 23311 25356 |
[Dank sei Gott in der Höhe] (Crüger) | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 3 | 13234 55575 67157 |
[Lobet den Herrn und dankt ihm seine Gaben] | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 6 | 13455 77654 33445 |
[Der Herr bricht ein um Mitternacht] (Crüger) | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 2 | 13456 71554 3323 |
DU, O SCHÖNES WELTGEBÄUDE | J. Crüger, 1598-1662 (Composer) | 5 | 15112 76535 43221 |
ERMUNTRE DICH | Johann Crüger (Alterer) | 1 | 11234 55453 43232 |
FRÖHLICH SOLL (Crüger 11212) | Johann Crüger, 1598-1662 (Composer) | 2 | 11212 34434 564 |
FRÖHLICH SOLL MEIN HERZE SPRINGEN | J. Crüger, 1598-1662 (Composer) | 22 | 12354 32143 23454 |
GENEVAN 42 | Johann Crüger, 1598-1662 (Harmonizer) | 9 | 12321 76512 34321 |
[Gott fähret auf gen Himmel] | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 3 | 56543 22343 23156 |
[Stille halten deinem Walten] | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 3 | 53112 34355 43221 |
HEBRON (Crüger) | Crüger (Composer) | 2 | 12321 27551 43221 |
HEILIGER GEIST | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 11 | 13234 32345 65435 |
HENLLAN (Crüger) | Cruger (Composer) | 2 | 13243 17345 65545 |
HERR, ICH HABE MISGEHANDELT (Crüger) | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 32 | 17123 42132 12345 |
HERZLIEBSTER JESU | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 156 | 11175 12334 22345 |
HOREB (Crüger) | Cruger (Composer) | 2 | 11712 32132 12354 |
JESU, MEINE FREUDE (Crüger) | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 81 | 55432 11556 7171 |
[Jesus Christus, unser Heiland] (Luther) | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 1 | 44345 43134 54346 |
LOBET DEN HERREN (Crüger) | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 26 | 51765 34554 35671 |
LOB GOTT GETROST MIT SINGEN | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 3 | 11712 75232 1655 |
LOB SEI DEM ALLMÄCHTIGEN GOTT (Crüger) | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 36 | 11235 43251 76554 |
MACHT HOCH DIE THÜR (Stobaeus) | Joh. Crüger (Composer) | 1 | 35432 34534 56455 |
MAIDSTONE | Walter B. Gilbert, Mus Doc. (Composer) | 1 | 56712 34323 54323 |
MORRISTOWN | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 1 | 54356 15354 33212 |
NEIFION | Cruger (Composer) | 2 | 11323 43223 45654 |
NUN DANKET | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 419 | 55566 53432 32155 |
NUN DANKET ALL (Crüger 16512) | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 188 | 16512 33235 43215 |
NUN DANKET ALL UND BRINGET EHR (Störl) | Johann Crüger, 1598-1662 (Composer) | 2 | 53565 42351 76655 |
O EWIGKEIT | Johann Crüger (1598-1662) (Composer) | 11 | 13455 67113 45543 |
O WIE SELIG SEID IHR DOCH | J. Crüger (Composer) | 11 | 51756 54343 57671 |
O JESU CHRIST, DEIN KRIPPLEIN IST | J. Crüger, 1598-1662 (Composer) | 12 | 31123 44356 53235 |
O JESU CHRIST, DU HÖCHSTES GUT | Johann Crüger, 1598-1662 (Composer) | 6 | 16512 34253 14321 |
RATISBON | J. Crüger (Composer) | 4 | 55671 17615 34213 |
JESUS, MEINE ZUVERSICHT (Crüger) | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 109 | 54367 11767 15434 |
REGENSBURG | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 7 | 17123 32132 12345 |
WERDE MUNTER | Johann Crüger (Adapter) | 2 | 34554 32234 54321 |
SCHMÜCKE DICH | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 119 | 32123 54353 43213 |
SCHWING DICH AUF ZU DEINEM GOTT (Crüger) | Joh. Crüger, 1598-1662 (Composer) | 5 | 55171 23234 53215 |
GOTT SEI DANK | Crüger (Composer) | 4 | 13556 71725 76655 |
ES IST DAS HEIL | Johann Crüger, 1598-1667 (Composer) | 1 | 55557 65453 13456 |
SEI LOB UND EHR DEM HÖCHSTEN GUT (Crüger) | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 13 | 16514 33253 14321 |
ST. SIMON | Johann Crüger (From) | 9 | 13455 44343 1221 |
FLEMMING | John Crüger (Composer) | 1 | 11122 31121 73333 |
SUPPLICATION (Crüger) | J. Crüger, 1598-1662 (Composer) | 3 | 13254 32345 6443 |
SWABIA (Spiess) | Johann Cruger (Composer) | 9 | 53422 12345 54556 |
WIE SOLL ICH DICH EMPFANGEN | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 26 | 13455 43431 22113 |
ZEUCH EIN | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 16 | 31543 21321 71231 |
ZION KLAGT | Johann Crüger (Composer) | 1 | 52243 21723 43221 |