Christian Friedrich Henry – Wikipedia

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Memorial plaque for Christian Friedrich Henrici on Leipziger Burgplatz, set up in the year of his 300th birthday 2000

Christian Friedrich Henry (Pseudonym Picander ; * January 14, 1700 in Stolpen near Dresden; † May 10, 1764 in Leipzig) was a productive casual poet by the late Baroque and the most important textproof Johann Sebastian Bach.

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Christian Friedrich Henrici studied Jura at the University of Wittenberg from 1719 and continued his studies in 1720 at the University of Leipzig. Since he then had little income as a tutor, he started his career as a poet in Leipzig in 1721 and initially wrote erotic poems and dramas. The first contacts to Bach were probably rather random nature.

In 1725 Picander wrote, according to his pseudonym, the texts on Bach’s secular cantatas Escaped, disappears, escaped, your worries (BWV 249a), model for the Easter Oratorio (BWV 249), and and Tears, torn, smashes the crypt (BWV 205).
Already in 1723 he had the text template for Bach’s spiritual cantata with his stanza poem “Wegen her earthly business” Bring the Honor of his name (BWV 148). The Bach cantata There was a dispute (BWV 19) from 1726 was based on a similar work in Henrici.

Both poems appeared in the “Collection of Building Gemcken”, published in 1724-1725, which was dedicated to Count Franz Anton von Sporck. This was also known with Bach and could have stimulated the contact between the composer and poet.

This contact soon grew to friendship, in the course of which Bach and Henrici also deepened their artistic cooperation. All five volumes of Picanders contain Ernst-shelf-helped and satyrical poems (Leipzig, 1727–51) Texts that were set to music by Bach. These include the Matthew Passion (BWV 244) and the Markus Passion (BWV 247), the mourning fashion Complains, children, complain of all over the world (BWV 244a), the cantata See! We go up to Jerusalem (BWV 159), but also the popular coffee cantata (BWV 211) and a dramma per musica for the name day of August of the strong on August 3, 1727, Your homes of heaven, your shining lights (BWV 193a). He probably also wrote the Ascension Oratorio Praise God in his rich (BWV 11) and the cantata Sing the lord a new song (BWV 190). 1742 Schrieb of ER DIEs farmerskattes We had a Neue Obery (BWV 212).

Henrici’s poetic talent also became the starting point of an civil servant career. So a petition poem brought him the position of an actuar at the Oberpostamt in Leipzig in 1727. Shortly afterwards he became secretary, 1734 senior post commissioner and in 1740 he became the district tax and city drink taxiner of the wine inspection.

His wife Johanna Elisabeth was a godmother of Johanna Carolina Bach (1737–1781), the second youngest daughter Johann Sebastian Bach.

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  • Collection of constructive thoughts about and on the ordinary Sundays and festivals, designed in a bound type of writing. Leipzig 1725
  • Teutsche Schau games, consisting of the academic Schlendrian, the Ertzt pruning and the women’s rehearsal. Designed for the construction and delight of the mind. 3 vols., Berlin, Frankfurt and Hamburg 1726
  • Ernst-shrewd and satyrical poems.
I, Leipzig 1727; 1748 4 ( Digitized of the copy of the Bavarian State Library)
II, ebd. 1729; 1749 2 ( Digitized of the copy of the Bavarian State Library)
III, ebd. 1732; 1750 2 GDZ
IV, ebd. 1737; 1751 2
V, ebd. 1751 ( Digitized )
  • Collection of mixed poems. Frankfurt and Leipzig 1768
  • Jakob Franck: Henry, Friedrich . In: General German biography (ADB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, p. 784 f.
  • Horst Steinmetz:  Henry, Christian Friedrich. In: New German biography (Ndb). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3, p. 549 f. ( Digitized ).
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz: Henry, Friedrich (Pseudonym: Picander). In: Biographical-bibliographical church lexicon (Bbkl). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8, col. 723.
  • Paul Flossmann: Picander (Christian Friedrich Henry). Dissertation Leipzig 1899
  • Walter Hinck: The German comedy of the 17th and 18th centuries and the Italian comedy. 1965. S. 142–167
  • Horst Steinmetz: The comedy of the Enlightenment. 1966, S. 15
  • Christian Geltinger: “… Henry other Picander said.” Gesellschaftsdichtung bei Christian Friedrich Henry. 2000 (master’s thesis at the University of Regensburg)
  • Geda riedl: Picander, Manlius Ulpian, Eigentl.: Christian Friedrich Henry. In: Walther Killy (Hg.): Literature lexicon. Authors and works of German language (15 volumes). Gütersloh, Munich: Bertelsmann-Lexikon-Verl., 1988–1991 (CD-ROM: Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932544-13-7), Vol. 9, p. 156
  • Reiner Marquard: The lamb in tiger claws. Christian Friedrich Henrici alias Picander and the libretto of the Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach. Rombach Verlag, Freiburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-7930-9896-6.

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