SPIRITUS

Composer: David Gregor Corner

David Gregor Corner, born circa 1585 in Hirschberg, Germany (now Jelenia Góra, Poland) was a German Benedictine abbot, hymn writer and theologian best known for his influential 1631 Gross Catholisches Gesängbuch ("Great Catholic Hymnal"). He studied theology at Prague, Graz and Vienna, where he earned a doctorate. He became a pastor in Retz in 1614. In 1628 he became a novice monk at Göttweig Abbey. By 1636, Corner was the abbot of Göttweig, where he became a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation, and was made Rector of the University of Vienna in 1638. He died 9 January 1648 at Göttweig. His magnum opus, the Catholische Gesängbuch was published in 1625, and a later publication from 1631 contained 546 hymns and 276 melodies (in… Go to person page >