Ernst Christoph Homburg (Hymn-Writer)

Born: 1605 - Mihla (near Eisenach), Thuringia, Germany
Died: June 2, 1681 - Naumburg, Saxony, Germany

Ernst Christoph Homburg was clerk of the Assizes and Counsellor in Naumburg. In 1648, he was admitted to the Fruitbearing Society, and afterward became a member of the Elbe Swan Order formed by Johann Rist in 1660.

By his contemporaries Ernst Christoph Homburg was regarded as a poet of the first rank. His earlier poems, 1638-1653, were secular, including many love and drinking songs. Domestic troubles arising from the illnesses of himself and of his wife, and other afflictions, led him to seek the Lord, and the deliverances he experienced from pestilence and from violence led him to place all his confidence on God. The collected edition of his hymns appeared in two parts at Jena and Naumburg, 1659, pt. i. as his Geistlicher Lieder, Erster Theil, with 100 hymns [engraved title, Naumburg, 1658]; and pt. ii as the Ander Theil with 50 hymns. In the preface he speaks of them as his “Sunday labours,” and says, “I was specially induced and compelled” to their composition “by the anxious and sore domestic afflictions by which God…has for some time laid me aside.” They are distinguished for simplicity, firm faith, and liveliness, but often lack poetic vigor and are too sombre.

Source: Cyber Hymnal Website
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (May 2003)

Texts of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

BWV 85, BWV 475

Chorale Texts used in Bach’s Vocal Works

Title

Year

EKG

Zahn

Jesus, unser Trost und Leben

1659

4918

Links to other Sites

Ernst Christoph Homburg (Cyber Hymnal)

Bibliography