| Johann Balthasar König | |
| Baptised: | 1691 1, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Cannstatt, Duchy of Württemberg, Holy Roman Empire |
| Death Place: | Free Imperial City of Frankfurt, Holy Roman Empire |
| Occupation: |
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| Organizations: | Katharinenkirche, Frankfurt |
Johann Balthasar König (baptised 28 January 1691 – buried 2 April 1758) was a German Baroque composer, especially of hymn melodies, having published a hymnal with 1,913 melodies. He was the church musician at Frankfurt's main Protestant church, the Katharinenkirche, and the town's Kapellmeister. He was also closely associated with Georg Philipp Telemann.
Born in Waltershausen, König was a son of Johann Jakob König. He was in Frankfurt a chorister of the municipal gymnasium. He joined the municipal chapel when Georg Philipp Telemann was its director.
König was appointed director of the chapel at the Katharinenkirche. He was promoted to municipal Kapellmeister (director of music) in 1727, succeeding Johann Christoph Bodinus (1690–1727).
König composed several hymns, cantatas and operas. His most important work is the 1738 collection Harmonischer Liederschatz, with 1,913 melodies, of which 358 were not published before. The full title reads:
Three of his hymns are part of the current Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch, "O daß ich tausend Zungen hätte" (EG 330), "" to lyrics by (EG 354), and "Ich will dich lieben, meine Stärke" (EG 400). Martin Rößler, who analyzed the melody for Liederkunde zum Evangelischen Gesangbuch which supplies scholarly background information of songs in the EG, summarized that it follows the "emotional elements" of the text well by a focus on expansion at the beginning, and on concentration at the beginning of the abgesang, is well structured and offers some word painting.
König married Anna Maria Pfaff, the daughter of a tailor, in 1717. Telemann became the godfather of their son Georg Philipp, born in 1718.
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