Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

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	THE CAPTIVE KNIGHT.	535


	THE BATTLE PRAYER. Karl Theodore Korner was born in Dresden, September 23,1791. Schiller and other literary men were constant visitors at his father's, and Korner early showed a passion for poetry. He joined the army to fight the French, and such was the bravery of the corps in which he was a lieutenant, that in a succeeding contest Napoleon laid a special plan for cutting them off. On the morning before Korner's first battle, he composed this "Prayer." A little later, while waiting in a wood through the night, watching for a detachment of the French troops, he composed his " Sword Song." rn the morning they received the expected attack, and while repulsing and pursuing the enemy, Korner was exposed to the fire of both sides, and fell mortally wounded. His " Farewell to Life " is said to have been written just before he expired, August 16, 1S13, The music to the " Battle Prayer " is the composition of Friedrich Heinrich Himmel, who was born in Brandenburg, Germany, in 1765. He studied theology at Halle, but abandoned that to devote himself to music. He was a reputed son of Fredrick William II., whose chapel-master he became. He composed both secular and sacred music, much of which is still popular in Germany.