Make songs of joy to Christ, our head

Translator: Jaroslav J. Vajda

Jaroslav Vajda (April 28, 1919 – May 10, 2008) was an American hymnist. Vajda was born to a Lutheran pastor of Slovak descent. His father, Rev. John Vajda, was a pastor in East Chicago, Ind. at Holy Trinity Slovak Lutheran Church. This is where Jaroslav had his beginning learning from his father and his mother, Maria. Jaroslav had two brothers, Ludovit and Edward, both pastors, now deceased. Vajda received musical training in childhood and began translating classical Slovak poetry at age eighteen. Vajda did not write his first hymn until age 49. From that time until his death in 2008 at age 89, he wrote over 200 original and translated hymns that appear worldwide in more than 65 hymnals. He also published two collections of hymn tex… Go to person page >

Author: Jiří Tranovský

Jiří Třanovský (Polish: Jerzy Trzanowski, Slovak: Juraj Tranovský, Latin: Georgius Tranoscius) (9 April 1592, Teschen, Silesia – 29 May 1637, Liptovský Sv. Mikuláš, Upper Hungary), was a hymnwriter from the Cieszyn Silesia. He was sometimes called the father of Slovak hymnody and the "Luther of the Slavs." His name is sometimes anglicized to George. Třanovský was born in Teschen, and studied at Guben and Kolberg. In 1607, he was admitted to the University of Wittenberg where Martin Luther had taught less than a century earlier. He traveled in Bohemia and Silesia in 1612 and became a teacher at St. Nicholas Gymnasium in Prague. Later, he became rector of a school in Holešov, Moravia. In 1616 he was ordained a priest in Meziř… Go to person page >