Johann Balthasar König

Johann Balthasar König, baptized on January 28, 1691, in Waltershausen and buried on April 2, 1758, in Frankfurt am Main, was a German Baroque church musician, composer, and compiler. After moving to Frankfurt as a youth, he sang in the municipal-school choir and later joined the city ensemble directed by Georg Philipp Telemann, performing as a bass and cellist. König became music director at St. Catherine's Church in 1721 and municipal Kapellmeister in 1727, remaining in office until his death.

His principal hymnological achievement was Harmonischer Liederschatz, published at Frankfurt in 1738. The unusually extensive chorale book assembled nearly two thousand melodies with basso continuo and preserved both older tunes and hundreds not previously printed. König's concern for orderly congregational singing also appeared in his proposals for improving musical practice in Frankfurt's churches.

The melody represented in this record first appeared in that 1738 collection with a different text, Angelus Silesius's Ach, sagt mir nichts von Gold und Schätzen. It later became associated with Johann Mentzer's hymn O dass ich tausend Zungen hätte and is known as O DASS ICH TAUSEND ZUNGEN HÄTTE (KÖNIG) or MENTZER. It must not be confused with Cornelius Heinrich Dretzel's distinct 1731 tune of the same name.