Johannes Christoph Andreas Zahn (1 August 1817 in Eschenbach/ Pegnitz – 17 February 1895 in Neuendettelsau) was a German

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

and

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

best known for his opus '' Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder'', a critical anthology of almost 9,000 hymn melodies developed and used in German

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

churches.

Biography

Johannes C. A. Zahn was the son of the Eschenbach teacher and cantor Johannes Zahn. Between 1832 and 1837 he attended the

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

high school, and studied afterwards in Berlin to obtain his degree in theology in 1841. After attending the Predigerseminar in

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, he became a house teacher for the residence of Gustav Schulze, a prominent merchant. In 1847 he was named teacher and prefect of the Royal Schullehrer Seminar in Altdorf bei Nürnberg, and became its head in 1854. Johannes Zahn dedicated himself particularly to the recovery and critical revision of melodies and hymns developed during and after the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

, which he started publishing in 1889, in Gütersloh. The classification system he developed is still used by hymnologists worldwide, in the form ''Zahn ###'', where the number represents the location of the melody or hymn in Zahn's anthology.James Lyon. ''Johann Sebastian Bach, chorals: Sources hymnologiques des mélodies, des textes et des théologies''. Editions Beauchesne, (2005) Zahn also contributed articles to journals like ''Siona'', ''Hymnologie'', and ''Euterpe''. Zahn also composed hymns, and is known for writing the original melody ''Dein König kommt in niedern Hüllen'', which appears today as number 14 in the German Protestant hymnal.

Works

*''Handbüchlein für angehende Cantoren und Organisten'', Nürnberg (1871) *'' Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder, aus den Quellen geschöpft und mitgeteilt von Johannes Zahn'' (6 volumes), Verlag Bertelsmann, Gütersloh (1889–93). urther edited by the Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Edition des deutschen Kirchenlieds. Hildesheim, New York: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1998. 6 volumes. *''Die Melodien des Deutschen Evangelischen Gesangbuches in vierstimmigem Satze für Orgel und für Chorgesang aus Auftrag der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenkonferenz zu Eisenach'' (with G. Freiherr von Tucher and Immanuel Faißt),

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(1854) *''Vierstimmiges Melodienbuch zum Gesangbuch der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche in Bayern'', Erlangen (1855)

References

Sources

* *James Lyon. ''Johann Sebastian Bach, chorals: Sources hymnologiques des mélodies, des textes et des théologies''. Editions Beauchesne, (2005) , 336 pages.
Correlation between Zahn numbers and HTI tune numbers
1817 births 1895 deaths German Lutherans 19th-century Lutherans 19th-century German musicologists {{Germany-musicologist-stub