ABSTRACT
Johann Christoph Olearius was born in Halle during the time when his father was doing double-duty as deacon and director of music at the Marktkirche. There is an interesting parallel between Johann Christoph Olearius and Johann Sebastian Bach. Congregational hymnody became a significant feature of the Lutheran Reformation of the sixteenth century. Thus, over a period of three months, between the end of December 1703 and the end of March 1704, the people have access to no less than eleven outlines of sermons that Olearius had preached in the Arnstadt churches, sermons that Bach must have heard. But the idea of focusing attention on Graduallieder would not have been a novel concept for Bach, since he had been in Arnstadt when Olearius was not only at work on his Evangelischer Lieder-Schatz but was also promoting Carpzov's Lieder-Predigten.
