Komm, du süße Todesstunde, BWV 161
| Komm, du süße Todesstunde | |
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| BWV 161 | |
| Church cantata by J. S. Bach | |
Manuscript of BWV 161 with subheading and dynamical markings added by Bach
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| Occasion |
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| Performed | 27 September 1716: Weimar |
| Movements | 6 |
| Cantata text | Salomon Franck |
| Chorale | "Herzlich tut mich verlangen" by Christoph Knoll |
| Vocal | |
| Instrumental |
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Komm, du süße Todesstunde (Come, you sweet hour of death),BWV 161, is a church cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in Weimar for the 16th Sunday after Trinity, probably first performed on 27 September 1716.
Bach had taken up regular cantata composition two years before when he was promoted to concertmaster at the Weimar court, writing one cantata per month to be performed in the Schlosskirche, the court chapel in the ducal Schloss. The text of Komm, du süße Todesstunde, and of most other cantatas written in Weimar, was provided by court poet Salomon Franck. He based it on the prescribed gospel reading about the young man from Nain. His text reflects on longing for death, seen as a transition to a life united with Jesus. The text includes as a closing chorale the fourth stanza of the hymn "Herzlich tut mich verlangen" by Christoph Knoll.
The cantata in six movements opens with a sequence of alternating arias and recitatives leading to a chorus and a concluding chorale. The chorale tune, known as "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden", appears in the first movement, played by the organ, and musical motifs of the arias are derived from it, providing an overall formal unity to the composition. Bach scored the work for two vocal parts (alto and tenor), a four-part choir, and a Baroque chamber ensemble of recorders, strings and continuo. In the alto recitative (movement 4), accompanied by all instruments, Bach creates the images of sleep, of waking up, and of funeral bells, the latter in the recorders and pizzicato of the strings.
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