COME, SWEET DEATH, COME BLESSED REST-A MEDITATION

Komm, süßer Tod, komm selge Ruh (Come, Sweet Death, Come Blessed Rest) is originally a song that was written for solo voice and basso continuo in the 69 Sacred Songs and Arias that the great Johann Sebastian Bach contributed to Georg Christian Schemelli's Musicalisches Gesangbuch (BWV 478), 1736.

The music, at first sombre but then ecstatically moving, expresses the longing for the joy and light of the Kingdom of Heaven in the presence of Jesus and all the angels.
Come, sweet death, come blessed rest!
I will now see Jesus
and stand among the angels.
It is henceforth completed,
so, world, good night,
my eyes are already closed.
Come, blessed rest.

Although the lyrics make obvious Bach's profound faith and desire, so indeed does the music that itself has been adapted and arranged by several eminent composers and musicians. Those heard here are first for the organ by Virgil Fox that he played on the great Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia. At the end and during the titles, one hears the orchestral arrangement by Leopold Stokowski. Very special thanks to Roland Van den Berg with the 'Hauptwerk Virtual Pipe Organ' and his recording of the Virgil Fox arrangement.

In loving memory of George and Sarah Ann West, my great-grandparents, buried in Stanmer Churchyard, who both were well-acquainted with suffering and death as well as of Christ Jesus, the light of the world.

It is important to distinguish between a desire for death simply to escape suffering and a desire to die in order to live forever in the light and presence of God. Bach's sentiments are not suicidal. Rather, they express the Christian belief that Death is not an end in itself but a portal to the reality and promise of eternal life.

The video is really a prayerful meditation through image and sound on that great mystery.

Видео COME, SWEET DEATH, COME BLESSED REST-A MEDITATION канала piddflicks