Alle Menschen mussen sterben, BWV 643, J S Bach

This week our Music Director Gordon Mansell has selected a chorale prelude he performed and recorded on our OLS Casavant organ. In this month of honouring those who have gone before us, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) wrote a beautiful setting of the 1652 Lutheran hymn, "Alle Menschen müssen sterben" (All Mankind must die).
Bach gives it the simple treatment, presenting the chorale (hymn melody) in the top voice over an ever-present rhythmic "joy" motive. Death was certainly a life event Bach was well aware and experienced within his own family. The Lutheran creed (which offers a mirror to our own Catholic creed) provides a welcome perspective that would yield to joy and a welcome relief from the burdens of life on earth, and presumably the gate to eternal life. In this chorale prelude, one doesn't hear the joy that is in a Handel's Messiah (Hallelujah Chorus) but we do hear a joy that is more intimate and contemplative. As mentioned, Bach was no stranger to death and much of his music reflected this intimacy with it. This short prelude captures all of this and more. May it, in the hearing, provide both peace and joy during this month of reflection.