Albert, Heinrich (1604, 1651)

Heinrich Albert (1604-1651, actually Alberti, was born in Lobenstein in Reuß, Thuringia, Germany, and died in Königsberg, Silesia (modern-day Poland).
His poems which he set to music himself, are mostly hymns, of which some (e.g. "Gott des Himmels und der Erden", "Zum Sterben ich bereitet bin", "Einen guten Kampf hab' ich") are still in use. His few secular songs are distinguished by ardency and grace (e.g. „Ännchen von Tharau“). These appeared (with some written by his friends Dach and Roberthin) in his famous "Poetisch-musikalischen Lustwäldlein" ("Poetic-musical pleasure garden")(1642-1648), and a selection thereof in "Neudrucken deutscher Litteraturwerke" (pub. Eitner, Halle 1883-1884).


To his influence may be attributed the lyric freshness and folklike ease of the poems of the Königsberg group of poets of the seventeenth century.