Johann Balthasar König (1691-1758) was a choirboy in 1703 at the city gymnasium in Frankfurt am Main. Under the direction of Georg Philipp Telemann, who took over the directorship of the town music ensemble in 1711, König was accepted into the orchestra.



In 1717 he married Anna Maria Pfaff, daughter of a tailor. Telemann was the godfather of their son Georg Philipp. In 1718 König became the kapellmeister of the St. Catherine Church.



König remained in Frankfurt when Telemann left for Hamburg in 1721. In 1727 he became the successor of Johann Christoph Brodinius as the town's kapellmeister. At the same time he received the rights of a citizen of Frankfurt.



König composed numerous hymns as well as cantatas and operas. Part of his duties included the composition of cantatas for the birthdays of the emperor and empress. Karl VII, who died in 1745, spent a long time in Frankfurt. 23 of his cantatas, including wedding cantatas for Frankfurt citizens, are preserve in the collection of the city and university library.



Congregational singing was particularly important to him, as shows his 1724 exposé „Unmaßgeblicher Vorschlag wie dem übel-Singen in den Frankfurther Kirchen abzuhelfen sei“ ("Lightweight Suggestion to Avoid Sour Singing in the Churches of Frankfurt").



His most significant work is the „Harmonische Liederschatz“ of 1738, the most comprehensive choral collection of the 18th century. Of the 1913 melodies it contains 358 had not been published before. Many must be his own compositions. Two may still be found in the Protestant hymnal:
„O daß ich tausend Zungen hätte“ (EG 330) and
„Ich will dich lieben, meine Stärke“ (EG 400).