1621–1681 · Romantic
Georg Neumark (1621–1681) was a German poet, composer, gamba player and librarian, born in Langensalza in Thuringia and died in Weimar. His best-known hymn, Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten, appeared in 1641. The site holds two choir scores by Neumark, both rated Beginner+.
Georg Neumark came into the world on 16 March 1621 in Langensalza, a town in Thuringia, to Michael and Martha Neumark. In 1630 he started at the gymnasium of Schleusingen and later switched to the Gotha gymnasium.
In 1640 Neumark began studying law at the University of Königsberg. Wartime turmoil drove him to Kiel, where he took a post as a private tutor. He managed to get back to Königsberg in 1643, and there music took up more and more of his time. Simon Dach was a strong supporter of this.
Once his law studies were over, Neumark moved to Danzig, and in 1649 on to Thorn.
In 1651 Neumark went back to Thuringia, where he was born. His uncle, the councillor Plattner, presented him to Duke Wilhelm IV of Saxe-Weimar, who made him a chancery registrar and, in 1652, a librarian.
A year later the duke made Neumark a member of the Fruitbearing Society. He was given the name Der Sprossende (the sprouting), the motto Nützlich und ergetzlich (useful and delightful) and a dark-brown carnation as his emblem. In 1656 the members chose him as keeper of the society's shrine (Erzschreinhalter).
Neumark took a very active part in the Fruitbearing Society and in the Blumenorden of Nuremberg. The Pegnesische Blumenorden, a poets' society named for the river Pegnitz, admitted him in 1679.
He exchanged many long letters, not always easy ones, with Sigmund von Birken, head of that society, who also managed his literary dealings.
Georg Neumark died in Weimar on 8 July 1681; he had worked there as a librarian. He was buried in the Jacobsfriedhof, and the Evangelical Church keeps his memorial day on 9 July.
Neumark wrote both sacred and secular poetry. One of his sacred poems was sung in many Protestant churches for centuries after his death. He set some of his poems to music himself. His secular poetry appeared in collections: Poetisch- und Musikalisches Lustwäldchen came out in Hamburg and Fortgepflantzter Musikalisch-Poetischer Lustwald in Jena.
Contemporaries rated him among the more inventive writers of continuo songs in the German Baroque. The texts of most of these songs are secular. A few of his tunes were thought the finest of that era. Violin and gamba parts appear in many of the songs, and Neumark probably took the gamba himself when presenting them.
Neumark's most famous hymn, Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten, dates from 1641. In 1724 Johann Sebastian Bach drew on it for the chorale cantata BWV 93. Besides poems and songs, Neumark wrote a poetics (Poetische Tafeln, 1668) and a history of the Fruitbearing Society (Der Neu-Sprossende Teutsche Palmbaum, 1669).
The site has two choir scores by Neumark for mixed SATB choir, both rated Beginner+: Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten and Bremen (hymntune). The first is a convenient place to start getting to know his music.