Ich dank Dir schon durch meinen Sohn
Story sent in by a reader. I think it is a terribly sad story. She found the melody on my site in BWV 349.
I have been looking for a song my ancestor wrote lyrics to in 1686! He was a Salzburg Lutheran exile named Joseph Schaitberger, and was kicked out of his homeland for his religion along with his wife and fellow believers.
The authorities held back any children under 12, and he had to leave 2 tiny daughters behind. It broke his wife’s heart and she died within a year of exile. He wrote a famous song and it was sung by the bigger group of Salzburg exiles in 1732-33 (20,000 of them). They sang it as they left their homeland. Their children sang it for decades in school.
After 3 years of searching, I found out that the melody was based on a hymn written in Leipzig in 1586 called Ich dank Dir schon durch meinen Sohn.
Linda Schaitberger, Maine
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