1691–1758 · Germany · Baroque
Johann Balthasar König (1691–1758) was a German Baroque composer and church musician. He led music in Frankfurt am Main, served as the city's Kapellmeister and was close to Telemann. He is best known for his 1738 collection of chorale melodies, and some of his tunes are still in the Protestant hymnal today.
König was baptised on 28 January 1691 in Waltershausen. His father, Johann Jakob König, was a citizen of the town. In 1704 the boy came to Frankfurt am Main and became a chorister at the municipal gymnasium.
In 1711 Georg Philipp Telemann took over the city's musical chapel, and under him König joined it as a musician. In 1717 he married Anna Maria Pfaff, a tailor's daughter. Their son, also named Georg Philipp, was born in 1718, and Telemann became his godfather. König was also made director of the chapel at the Katharinenkirche.
In 1721 Telemann left for Hamburg, but König stayed in Frankfurt. He kept performing Telemann's works both in church and at the city's concerts. In 1727 König became city Kapellmeister, succeeding Johann Christoph Bodinus (1690–1727), and was granted Frankfurt citizenship at the same time.
The duties of Frankfurt's city Kapellmeister included writing cantatas for the birthdays of the emperor and empress. Charles VII, who died in 1745, spent a fair amount of time in the city. König himself composed many church songs as well as cantatas and operas. Twenty-three of his cantatas survive, along with two wedding cantatas for Frankfurt citizens.
What mattered most to König was the singing of the congregation. In 1724 he published a memorandum, Unmaßgeblicher Vorschlag wie dem übel-Singen in den Frankfurter Kirchen abzuhelfen sei, on how to fix poor singing in Frankfurt's churches. A record of the Lutheran consistory from 1744 shows that the organist had to play the melody of each hymn first, so that the leading singer and the congregation could find their way.
König's main work was the Harmonischer Liederschatz, published in 1738. It holds 1913 melodies, and 358 of them had never been printed before. It is the largest collection of chorales of the 18th century. Many of the new tunes were probably König's own.
König remained in office until his death in 1758. In his later years his fellow musicians in Frankfurt criticised him as proud and arrogant. This may have come from his position of power, since he combined the posts of Kapellmeister and cantor. König was buried on 2 April 1758.
König wrote church songs, cantatas and operas. His most important work is a collection of chorale melodies. Three of his tunes appear in today's Protestant hymnal, the Evangelisches Gesangbuch, as EG 330, EG 354 and EG 400; the text of EG 354 is by Johann Andreas Rothe.
For players, the site has König's Franconia (hymntune), at the elementary+ level.