If Thou Be Near

As a musical universal genius, Johann Sebastian Bach still fills the world of music with devout admiration. And even today, no composer or interpreter can escape the artistic legacy of this master. No other composer has interpreted and performed the works so differently over generations and adapted them to contemporary tastes in the most diverse adaptations.

This song "Bist Du bei mir" is from the 2nd music book for Anna Magdalena Bach. In 1721 she had married Johann Sebastian Bach in Köthen, widowed one year before, where she could look forward to a successful career as a singer. She thus renounced his own artistic development, provided for his four children from his first marriage and gave birth to thirteen more children in the following twenty years, seven of whom died in childhood. Anna Magdalena survived her husband by 10 years. She died completely impoverished in Leipzig in 1760 as a so-called "almswoman".

"Bist du bei mir" is one of the most touching compositions in music history. The text was written by an unknown poet. Bach sets the simple words to music with great enthusiasm:

"When you're with me, I'll be happy to go to die and to my rest. Oh, how happy would be my end, your lovely beautiful hands pressed it Close my eyes."

Bach began with the music booklet in 1725 and collected arias and songs in it, which include numbers 508 to 518 in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV). BWV 508 "Are you with me" goes back to a sentence by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749) according to more recent sources.