Crüger, Johann, 1598-1662

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 H. A. & M. , 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 cent., 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. As these Berlin and Frankfurt editions are constantly referred to throughout this work, in the notes on German hymns, we subjoin a list of all the editions we have found (not noting duplicates), at present (1887) existing, as follows :—

Edition Date	Hymns	Edition Date	Hymns
iii.    1648    387     xxviii. 1698    1163
x.      1661    550     xxix.   1702    786
xi.	1664	617	xxx.	1703	1194
xii.	1666	641	xxxii.	1709	1202
xiii.	1667	710	xxxiv.	1711	1202
xv.	1671	761	xxxv.	1712	1202
xvi.	1672	761	xxxvi.	1714	1222
xvii.	1674	764	xxxvii	1716	1222
xviii.	1675	803	xxxviii.1718	1300
xix.	1678	769	xxxix.	1721	1300
xx.	1679	1001	xl.	1724	1316
xxii.	1684	1001	xli.	1729	1316
xxiii.	1688	1114	xlii.	1732	1316
xxiv.	1690	1220	xliii.	1733	1316
xxv.	1690	769	xliv.	1736	1316
xxvii.	1693	1124	xlv.	1736?	1316
	ii.	Frankfurt Editions.	
	Date.	Hymns.		Date.	Hymns
1	1656	503	7	1676	1100
2	1662	606	8	1678	1169
3	1666	731	9	1680	787
4	1668	888	10	1683	254
5	1674	787	11	1693	1246
6	1674	208	12	1700	1246

Of the above the Royal Library, Berlin, possesses eds. xii., xvi., xix., xxiv., xxv., xxvii., xxix., xxxvi., xl, xliii., xlv., and Nos. 3, 4, 7, 9, 11; while the Hamburg Town Library has eds. xi., xviii., xx., xxiii., and Nos. 1, 5, 8, 10. In addition there are in public libraries in Germany the following, viz., eds. xiii., xvii., and Nos. 2, 6, in the Ducal Library, Wolfenbüttel; xv. in Ducal Library, Gotha; iii., xxxv., xxxvii. in Ducal Library, Wernigerode; ed. xliv. in the Royal Library, Munich ; and No. 12 in the Leipzig Town Library. Ed. xxx. is in the Library of the Consistory, Berlin, and xxxiv. in possession of the Church at Börnicke near Nauen. The British Museum has eds. xxiii., xxv., and Nos. 1, 2.
In private hands I find in addition that eds. x., xxviii., xxxix., xli., xlii., are with Professor J. Bachmann, D.D., of Rostock; xxii., xxxviii., Dr. Zahn of Altdorf; xxxii. in my own possession.
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.]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology