Teschner, Melchior, 1584-1635

found: Hymnary.org, December 9, 2013(Melchior Teschner (Hymn-Writer, Composer); born April 29, 1584 in Fraustadt [now Wschowa], Silesia; died December 1, 1635 in Oberpritschen [now Przyczyna Górna], near Fraustadt; the German composer, Melchior Teschner, studied from 1602 theology, philosophy and music at Frankfurt an der Oder; Bartholomäus Gesius was one of his teachers; in 1605 Teschner became Kantor at Schmiegel (now Smigiel); after further study at the universities of Helmstedt and Wittenberg, he became Kantor of the Protestant Kirche zum Kripplein Christi at Fraustadt in 1609; from 1614 until his death he was pastor of the church at Oberpritschen; the pastor with whom he worked at Fraustadt from 1609 was Valerius Herberger, who wrote the text of the hymn "Valet will ich dir geben" in 1613 after surviving a plague; Teschner made two five-part settings of it, which were published at Leipzig in 1614 ("Valet will ich dir geben"); the second of them (in Winterfeld), which is modelled on the Geneva psalm "O Seigneur, que de gens" by Louis Bourgeois (1550), is still popular and has been reprinted in hymnals up to the present day, often with different words; with some modification it appears in English hymnbooks as the Palm Sunday hymn "All glory, laud and honour;" Teschner is otherwise known as a composer only by two wedding songs published respectively at Liegnitz in 1614 and at Leipzig in 1619)