FESTUS

Composer: Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen

Freylinghausen, Johann Anastasius, son of Dietrich Freylinghausen, merchant and burgomaster at Gandersheim, Brunswick, was born at Gandersheim, Dec. 2, 1670. He entered the University of Jena at Easter, 1689. Attracted by the preaching of A. H. Francke and J. J. Breithaupt, he removed to Erfurt in 1691, and at Easter, 1692, followed them to Halle. About the end of 1693 he returned to Gandersheim, and employed himself as a private tutor. In 1695 he went to Glaucha as assistant to Francke; and when Francke became pastor of St. Ulrich's, in Halle,1715, Freylinghausen became his colleague, and in the same year married his only daughter. In 1723 he became also sub-director of the Paedagogium and the Orphanage; and after Francke's death in 1727,… Go to person page >

FESTUS is an abridgement of a tune published in Johann A. Freylinghausen's (PHH 34) Geistreiches Gesangbuch (1704)* as a setting for "O du Hüter Israel." The shortened tune was first published in the Bristol Tune Book (1863). The tune title presumably honors Festus, the Roman procurator of Judea (Acts 25-26). Sing FESTUS with a bright organ registration, which is helpful in negotiating the larger intervals in the second half of the tune.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

*1714