NUN DANKET ALL (Crüger 16512)

Composer: Johann Crüger

Johann Crüger (b. Grossbriesen, near Guben, Prussia, Germany, 1598; d. Berlin, Germany, 1662) Crüger attended the Jesuit College at Olmutz and the Poets' School in Regensburg, and later studied theology at the University of Wittenberg. He moved to Berlin in 1615, where he published music for the rest of his life. In 1622 he became the Lutheran cantor at the St. Nicholas Church and a teacher for the Gray Cloister. He wrote music instruction manuals, the best known of which is Synopsis musica (1630), and tirelessly promoted congregational singing. With his tunes he often included elaborate accom­paniment for various instruments. Crüger's hymn collection, Neues vollkomliches Gesangbuch (1640), was one of the first hymnals to include figure… Go to person page >

Composed by Johann Crüger (PHH 42) as a setting for Paul Gerhardt's "Nun danket all’ und bringet Ehr," GRÄFENBERG was first published in the 1647 edition of Crüger's Praxis Pietatis Melica. The tune is arbitrarily named after a water-cure spa in Silesia, Austria, which became famous in the 1820s.

The rhythmic structure of Crüger's tune has been altered in most hymnals by the adoption of "gathering" notes (longer beginning notes to every phrase) in the style of British psalm tunes. Originally the second and fourth phrases began with a quarter rest and quarter note. Sing in harmony or in unison with light accompaniment suited to this prayer hymn.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook