Johann Samuel Patzke › Hymnals

Patzke, Johann Samuel, was born Oct. 24, 1727, at Frankfurt a. Oder, in the house of his grandfather, his father being an excise officer at Seelow, near Frankfurt. He entered the University of Frankfurt in 1748, and in 1751 went to Halle. After completing his studies he returned to Frankfurt as a candidate of Theology. In 1755, by the recommendation of the chief court preacher, F. S. G. Sack, of Berlin, he was appointed by the Margrave Heinrich von Schwedt, as pastor at Wormsfelde and Stolzenburg, near Landsberg on the Warthe. In 1758 he had to flee before the invasion of the Russian troops under General Fermor, and on his return found everything in desolation. In the beginning of 1759 he became pastor at Lietzen, near Frankfurt. Finally, by the recommendation of the Margrave, he was appointed, in 1762, preacher at the Church of the Holy Spirit, in Magdeburg, where he became, in 1769, pastor and senior of the Altstadt clergy. He died at Magdeburg, Dec. 14, 1787 (Koch, vi. 293; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie xxv. 238, &c).

Patzke was a man of considerable talents and of a lovable nature. He was also very popular as a preacher. His poetical work began very early, his first volume of Gediche appearing at Halle in 1750. His hymns appeared mostly in his weekly paper (the first of the kind in Magdeburg) entitled Der Greis, published from 1763 to 1769, and in his Musihalische Gedichte, Magdeburg and Leipzig, 1780. The latter contains a series of cantatas which had been set to music by Johann Heinrich Rolle, music director at Magdeburg, and performed during various seasons of winter concerts there. The only one of his hymns (over 20 in all) which has passed into English is:—

Lobt den Herrn I die Morgensonne. Morning. Published in 1780, as above, p. 73, in 3 st. of 4 1., as the opening hymn of his cantata, entitled Abel's Tod. Included, as No. 1075, in the Stollberg bei Aachen Gesang-Buch, 1802.
This cantata is in 1780 dated 1769. It appeared, set to music by Rolle, as Der Tod Abels, ein musikalisches Drama, at Leipzig, 1771; the hymn above being at p. 1, entitled, "Hymn of Praise of the children of Adam (1780 ed. of Abel) in their bower." The cantata is itself founded on Der Tod Abels, by Salomon Gessner [born at Zürich, April 1, 1730; died at Zürich, March 2, 1787], which first appeared at Zürich in 1758, became exceedingly popular, and was translated into various languages, one of the English versions passing through more than 20 editions. The passage used by Patzke for his hymn is a portion of Book i., viz. a part of Abel's Song of Praise, sung when he was in his bower with his wife Thirza, and which begins, "Weiche du Schlaf von jedem Aug." The translations in common use from Patzke are:—
1. Praise the Lord, when blushing morning. This appears, without name of author, in the American Unitarian Cheshire Assoc. Collection, 1844, as No. 692; and the Book of Hymns, 1846 ; and in England in E. Courtauld's Collection, 1860. It is in 4 st., st. i., ii., being fairly close translations of st. i., ii., of the German, while st. iii., iv., are practically original English stanzas.
2. Praise the Lord! the sun of morning. This is a full but free version by Dr. J. A. Seiss, as No. 48 in the Sunday School Hymn Book, Philadelphia, 1873, of the Gen. Council of the Lutheran Church in America. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)