Johann Michael Heineccius (Librettist)

Born: December 14, 1674 - Eisenberg (about 50 km. south-west of Leipzig), Thuringia, Germany
Died: September 11, 1722

The clergyman, Johann Michael Heineccius, was made pastor at the Liebfrauenkirche (now generally known as the Marktkirche), Halle, where he supervised the local church music and wrote cantata texts. The role he played for J.S. Bach is a matter of some controversy, and rests on the identity of the cantata performed by J.S. Bach after his application to succeed Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow (Georg Frideric Handel's teacher) at the Liebfrauenkirche in 1713, and whether or not its text was by Heineccius. There are similarities between the texts written by Heineccius and that for Bach's Christmas cantata Christen, ätzet diesen Tag BWV 63; but Bach left Halle before Christmas. It is possible that J.S. Bach's contribution was Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis BWV 21, but the text of that work shows features more typical of Salomo Franck. A third possibility is that J.S. Bach and Heineccius collaborated on another, unknown work.

Source: Oxford Composer Companion - J.S. Bach, edited by Malcolm Boyd (1999)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (May 2003)

Texts of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

BWV 63 (?)

Links to other Sites

Heineccius, Johann Gottlieb (Brother of Michael, 1911 Encyclopedia)

Bibliography