Johann Friedrich Helbig (Librettist)

Born: April 19, 1680 - probably Neustadt, Thuringia, Germany
Died: April 18, 1722 - ?

The writer of church cantata texts, Johann Friedrich Helbig, was active as secretary at the ducal court of Saxe-Eisenach from 1709 onwards. In 1718 he was also appointed court poet. In this position he wrote an annual cycle of church cantata texts, Aufmunterung der Andacht ('Encouragement of Devotion'), published in 1720. Georg Philipp Telemann (who perhaps had been his fellow student at Leipzig University) set 168 of Helbig's cantata texts. The only text J.S. Bach chose from that collection for his Leipzig cantatas is Wer sich selbst erhöhet BWV 47, written in autumn 1726 shortly after his compositions to texts from the Meiningen collection.

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 47, BWV 141

Links to other Sites

Bibliography