ALLES 1ST AN GOTTES SEGEN is a splendid tune that matches Gaunt's text well, giving it a lot of lift. Sing it in unison on stanzas 1 and 3 and in harmony on stanza 2. Use a cheerful trumpet stop, and keep the articulation crisp on repeating tones.
Johann Löhner (b. Nuremberg, Germany, 1645; d. Nuremberg, 1705) composed the first-known version of ALLES IST AN GOTTES SEGEN, published in Der Geistlichen Erquick-Stunden . . . Poetischer Andacht-Klang (1691). Löhner's parents died before he was fifteen, and he was adopted by his sister and brother-in-law, who also became his organ teacher. From 1670-1672 he traveled to Vienna, Salzburg, and Leipzig, both to study and to perform, but then returned to Nuremberg, where he remained the rest of his life. Löhner served as a singer (tenor) and organist in several churches, including the Frauenkirche (1672-1682), the Spitalkirche (1682-1694), and the Lorenzkirche (1694¬-1705). Known especially for his devotional songs for home singing, he also composed small operas, canons, and hymn tunes.
ALLES 1ST AN GOTTES SEGEN was altered in Johann B. König's (PHH 45) Harmonischer Lieder-Schatz (1738) and set to the text "Alles ist an Gottes Segen," from which the tune's name derives. Some other modern hymnals use the tune as revised in Johann A. Hiller's Allgemeines Choral-Melodienbuch (1793). The harmonization is by Johann S. Bach (PHH 7).
--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1987
Johann Sebastian Bach was born at Eisenach into a musical family and in a town steeped in Reformation history, he received early musical training from his father and older brother, and elementary education in the classical school Luther had earlier attended.
Throughout his life he made extraordinary efforts to learn from other musicians. At 15 he walked to Lüneburg to work as a chorister and study at the convent school of St. Michael. From there he walked 30 miles to Hamburg to hear Johann Reinken, and 60 miles to Celle to become familiar with French composition and performance traditions. Once he obtained a month's leave from his job to hear Buxtehude, but stayed nearly four months. He arranged compositions from Vivaldi and other Itali… Go to person page >
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