| dbo:abstract |
"Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben" ("Dearest God, when will I die") is a Lutheran hymn which Caspar Neumann, an evangelical theologian from Breslau, wrote around 1690. The topic of the hymn, which has five stanzas of eight lines, is a reflection on death. An elaborate analysis of the hymn's content was published in 1749. A few text variants of the hymn originated in the 18th century. Neumann's text is usually sung to the hymn tune of "Freu dich sehr o meine Seele". Daniel Vetter, a native of Breslau, set the hymn in the first half of the 1690s, and published this setting in a version for SATB singers in 1713. This setting was picked up by Johann Sebastian Bach, who based some of his compositions on it. His chorale cantata based on Neumann's hymn, Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben, BWV 8, was first performed in Leipzig in 1724, Vetter's hymn tune, Zahn No. 6634, appearing in its outer movements. The closing chorale of BWV 8 is a reworked version of Vetter's four-part setting. The appreciation of the similarity (or: difference) between this cantata movement, BWV 8/6, and Vetter's original ranges from "somewhat altered" to "with radical alterations", the 1998 edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis listing the 1724 version as a composition by Vetter. Another setting of Neumann's hymn was published in 1747. (en) |
| rdfs:comment |
"Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben" ("Dearest God, when will I die") is a Lutheran hymn which Caspar Neumann, an evangelical theologian from Breslau, wrote around 1690. The topic of the hymn, which has five stanzas of eight lines, is a reflection on death. An elaborate analysis of the hymn's content was published in 1749. A few text variants of the hymn originated in the 18th century. Neumann's text is usually sung to the hymn tune of "Freu dich sehr o meine Seele". (en) |
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