BWV 161 Komm, du süße Todesstunde
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity; also for the Purification. Salomo Franck, Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer ... in geistlichen Cantaten (Weimar, 1715); Facs: Neumann T, p. 283. 1. Christoph Knoll, verse 1 of the hymn, 1611 (see Fischer-Tümpel, I, p. 101); this chorale is interpolated vocally into the aria only in the later Leipzig version; 6. verse 4 of the same hymn. 6 October 1715, Weimar. BG 33; NBA I/23. 1. Aria (A) and Chorale (S) Come, O death, thou sweetest hour,
To have a blessed end, For I am here surrounded With sadness and distress. Tarry not, Final light, That I may embrace(2) my Savior.
From this most wicked world, I yearn for heaven's pleasure, O Jesus, come then soon! 2. Recit. (T) World, thy delights are weights, 3. Aria (T) My desire
I by death be ground to ruin, Will my soul with radiance pure Glory even as the angels. 4. Recit. (A) Now firm is my resolve, 5. Chorus (S, A, T, B) If it is my God's intention, 6. Chorale (S, A, T, B) The flesh in earth now lying 2. It is difficult to judge whether Salomo Franck's use of küssen is to be taken literally or more with the connotations of the French embrasser. 4. The theme of metamorphosis in Salomo Franck is more commonly ameliorative (cf. BWV 12/6; 21/10). Here the series of transformations is strikingly negative. 6. P has also sanfter Tod 'gentle death.' 7. P and BG have Himmelsweide. Translate: "Lead forth to heaven's own sweet pasture." 8. The text and composition, with the death knell represented as a ticking clock, is found in another cantata for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, BWV 95/5, and elsewhere. © Copyright Z. Philip Ambrose |