Christoph Helm (Librettist)

Born: ? - probably Beichlingen, near Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany
Died: 1748

The theologian, churchman, and poet, Christoph Helm, was a son of a pastor in Erfurt. He studied theology at Jena from 1692 to 1695.

Christoph Helm worked as Kantor at the Rudolstadt court and, from 1704, as a priest at Berga-Kelbra, near Nordhausen. In 1977 Walther Blankenburg suggested Helm as the author of texts for cantatas by Johann Ludwig Bach and for seven by J. S. Bach (listed below). Konrad Küster has shown Blankenburg's conjecture to be mistaken, and has suggested Duke Ernst Ludwig of Saxe-Meiningen as a more likely author.

Source: Oxford Composer Companion - J.S. Bach, edited by Malcolm Boyd (1999)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (May 2003)

Texts of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

BWV 15, BWV 17, BWV 39, BWV 43, BWV 45, BWV 88, BWV 102, BWV 187 [all suggested by Walther Blankenburg]

Links to other Sites

Bibliography