Welt ade! Ich bin dein müde by Johann Rosenmüller
Johann Rosenmüller (1615-1684), an assistant cantor at Leipzig, set to music a text by his friend and colleague Johann Georg Albinus. The piece has the unusual title and first line of 'Welt ade! Ich bin dein müde'
('World, adieu! I am so weary of you').
Rosenmüller's five-part setting is both unusual and moving. Listen to a nice brass rendition (with scrolling score) at this link. It uses the 5-part texture to best effect, creating little antiphonal passages. And it somehow manages to create a valedictory sort of feel very appropriate to the text.
What is odd is that J.S. Bach used not only the chorale melody and first-verse text in the closing movement for his Cantata 27: Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende?: He essentially cribbed the entire setting from Rosenmüller--
check it out here.
Bach used the melody and first-verse text once again (that we know of) in his career, in a wonderful solo movement in Cantata 158: Der Friede sei mit dir. The entire score of this most unusual piece is attached. You'll note that it has a very restricted instrumentation: Except for the closing chorale, it include only soprano and bass solos; violin and oboe; and continuo.
The second movement is the one that contains the melody of 'Welt, ade!', sung by the soprano. The bass has an extended ornamented solo line, beginning with the text of 'Welt ade!', but diverging into a paraphrase. The violin accompanies and alternates with the bass and soprano on a magnificent obligato line. It's quite something, definitely worth a listen.
Johann Rosenmüller (1615-1684), an assistant cantor at Leipzig, set to music a text by his friend and colleague Johann Georg Albinus. The piece has the unusual title and first line of 'Welt ade! Ich bin dein müde'
('World, adieu! I am so weary of you').
Rosenmüller's five-part setting is both unusual and moving. Listen to a nice brass rendition (with scrolling score) at this link. It uses the 5-part texture to best effect, creating little antiphonal passages. And it somehow manages to create a valedictory sort of feel very appropriate to the text.
What is odd is that J.S. Bach used not only the chorale melody and first-verse text in the closing movement for his Cantata 27: Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende?: He essentially cribbed the entire setting from Rosenmüller--
check it out here.
Bach used the melody and first-verse text once again (that we know of) in his career, in a wonderful solo movement in Cantata 158: Der Friede sei mit dir. The entire score of this most unusual piece is attached. You'll note that it has a very restricted instrumentation: Except for the closing chorale, it include only soprano and bass solos; violin and oboe; and continuo.
The second movement is the one that contains the melody of 'Welt, ade!', sung by the soprano. The bass has an extended ornamented solo line, beginning with the text of 'Welt ade!', but diverging into a paraphrase. The violin accompanies and alternates with the bass and soprano on a magnificent obligato line. It's quite something, definitely worth a listen.