Name: KOMM SUSSER TOD, BWV 478
Duration: 4 min 30 s
Channel: Johann Sebastian Bach
Description: "KOMM SUSSER TOD, BWV 478" is a song by Symphonic Band Performances. GERMAN FOR "COME SWEET DEATH". THIS IS ONE OF THE 69 SACRED SONGS AND ARIAS WRITTEN BY JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH AROUND 1724. THIS IS PERFORMED DURING MY SOPHOMORE YEAR AT THE INTERLOCHEN ARTS ACADEMY NATIONAL MUSIC CAMP BY HIGH SCHOOL SYMPHONIC BAND #2.

KOMM SUSSER TOD, BWV 478

Symphonic Band Performances

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GERMAN FOR "COME SWEET DEATH". THIS IS ONE OF THE 69 SACRED SONGS AND ARIAS WRITTEN BY JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH AROUND 1724. THIS IS PERFORMED DURING MY SOPHOMORE YEAR AT THE INTERLOCHEN ARTS ACADEMY NATIONAL MUSIC CAMP BY HIGH SCHOOL SYMPHONIC BAND #2.

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Symphonic Band Performances

Contemporary band compositions, classical music arrangements, marches, jazz, symphonies, overtures. A collection from bands that I have played in throughout hi

Hello and welcome! "Symphonic Band Performances" is a compilation of recordings from several high school and college bands that I played in including the TMEA (Texas) All State Band, the TMEA Region X All Region Band, the Interlochen Arts Academy National Music Camp, the Cal Poly Tech Band, San Luis Obispo, the USAF Golden West Band, and recordings from my h.s. band, Beaumont H.S. and a few band recordings that were passed down to me. Also included are various All State groups and college and university bands. I participated and played in the large majority of these recordings. There are no professional recordings here and every recording is Public Domain. Most are available for free download. Each song has been converted from the original analog or digital source and edited with Audacity or Dak software. In the majority of these recordings, I play the tenor sax or alto sax, b flat or e flat clarinet, or directing. I was drum major for 2 years in high school, I have a BA from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where I studied music ed, composition and theory. I had about 500 more recordings I was planning to digitize and upload, but this past Nov. 20th, my home was completely destroyed by fire, and all the contents, including all my music and instruments. So, this is it. Please feel free to post a comment here or on my member page. If you like, please become a fan by clicking "I'm a fan" below.

Song Info

Genre

Classical • Baroque

Charts

Peak #140

Peak in subgenre #2

Author

Johann Sebastian Bach

Rights

public domain

Uploaded

February 13, 2009

Track Files

MP3

MP3 6.2 MB • 192 kbps • 4:30

Story behind the song

This is performed at the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan by High School Symphonic Band #1, my second summer at the camp.

Komm Susser Tod, German for "Come Sweet Death". J.S. Bach's Komm, suesser Tod, BWV 478, is one of the 60 or so sacred songs that Bach, then chapel master and director of choral music in Leipzig, provided for inclusion in the 1736 Musicalisches Gesang-Buch von Georg Schmelli, a practical volume of songs published in Leipzig (by Bernhard Christian Breitkopf, founder of the famous and still-extant publishing house that bears his name) for use in the city. For most of these sacred songs, Bach had only to devise bass lines and figured bass indicationsa??the melodies selected were old and famous Lutheran tunes. 

Komm, suesser Tod, however, is an exception. Its melody is known in no other source than the Schmelli Gesang-Buch, and it is generally believed that Bach wrote the piece from scratch. (There are two or three other entries in the Gesang-Buch that seem also to have been newly composed.) Those familiar with ordinary German chorales will find themselves on familiar ground with Komm, suesser Tod, but its solo vocal line seems especially to exemplify Bach's supremely confident devotional side.

Schmelli's Gesang-Buch is partitioned by topic, so that the devout Lutheran might have a song for any and every occasion. There are songs for morning, evening, Advent and Good Friday (and also for all other times in the liturgical year), and there are songs for Death, of which Komm, suesser Tod is one. The song has five verses, written around 1724 by some unknown poet, each of which begins which the text "Komm, suesser Tod, komm selige Ruh" (Come, sweet death; come, blessed rest), and each of which is set to the same eight short phrases of triple-meter music. A beautiful orchestral version of this piece was made by Leopold Stokowski in 1946; it opens with all the strings muted except for a solo cello that "sings" the melody.