Johann C. Arnschwanger › Texts

Arnschwanger, Johann Christoph, son of Georg Arnschwanger, merchant in Nürnberg, was born at Nürnberg Dec. 28, 1625. He entered the University of Altdorf in 1644, and that of Jena in 1647, where he graduated M.A. Aug. 9, 1647. After short periods of residence at Leipzig, Hamburg, and Helmstädt he returned to Nürnberg in 1650. There he was successively appointed Stadt-vicar in 1651, Diaconus of the St. Aegidien Church 1652, Morning Preacher in St. Walpurga's 1654, and Diaconus of the Church of St. Lorenz 1659. where he became Senior 1670, and Archidiaconus 1690. He died at Nürnberg, Dec. 10, 1696. (Koch, iii. 517-520; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, i. 597.)
A lover of music and poesy, he was the correspondent of Anton Ulrich (q. v.) and a member of the Fruitbearing Society (1675). He did not join the Nürnberg Pegnitz Shepherd Order, seeking in his poetical work simplicity and fitness for popular use rather than their somewhat affected “learnedness." The best of his hymns, some 400 in all, the most important being those published in 1659, appeared in his:—
i. Neuegeistliche Lieder, Nürnberg, 1659, in two books, each containing 20 hymns, set to music by the best organists and choir masters in Nürnberg.
ii. Heilige Palmen und Christliche Psalmen, Nürnberg, 1680, with 150 hymns in three divisions, with melodies by the musicians of Nürnberg.
Of these hymns the only one translated into English is:—
Auf, ihr Christen, lasst uns singen. [Easter.] First published in 1659 as above, Bk. i., No. 13, in 12 stanzas of 11 lines, entitled "On the Victorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, in which our future Resurrection is also set forth." Included in the Nürnberg Gesang-buch, 1676, No. 227, as No. 98 in pt. ii., 1714, of Freylinghausen's Gesang-Buch, and recently (reduced to stanzas i., ix.) as No. 213 in the Berlin Gesang-Buch, 1829. The only translation in common use is, “Up, ye Christians, join in singing," from the Berlin Gesang-Buch in N. L. Frothingham's Metrical Pieces, Boston, U.S., 1870, p. 194, and thence altered and beginning, "Rise, ye Christians," as No. 644 in the Swedenborgian Collection, Lond., 1880. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)