Biography
Johann Balthasar König (1691–1758) was a German Lutheran church musician whose name is inseparable from the everyday soundworld of 18th-century congregational devotion. Active chiefly in Frankfurt am Main as Kapellmeister and music director at the Katharinenkirche, he devoted his compositional energy to sacred song rather than to court or operatic genres.
His lasting contribution is the Harmonischer Lieder-Schatz (1738–1740), a large Frankfurt-printed collection of sacred songs with figured bass that documents how Lutheran hymnody and devotional music were sung, taught, and accompanied in the mid-18th century. Preserved in multiple copies and still performed today, the collection places König among the most important practical church composers of his generation, shaping a repertory designed for worship, instruction, and domestic piety rather than for virtuoso display.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.