Komm, Jesu, komm, mein Leib ist müde

Although the term “motet”, as defined in a dictionary of music published in Leipzig in the early 1730s, covered a broad range of creative possibilities, it was generally accepted that the genre should carry a biblical text. Bach widened its scope in Komm, Jesu, komm, mein Leib ist müde (Come, Jesus, come, my flesh is weary) by setting two verses from a poem originally written and set to music in 1684 for the funeral of the rector of Leipzig’s St Thomas School. Each verse ends by paraphrasing the passage in St John’s Gospel where Jesus declares: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The mix of poetry and scripture inspired a deeply moving composition, the emotional gravity of which is carried by music for eight-part double choir in the first of its two movements. Bach marries each line of the opening verse to a fresh musical idea and emotional temperature, varying the vocal scoring to reflect the soul’s yearning for the peace of heaven and the “saure Weg” (bitter way) that leads to it. The work closes with a short hymn-like movement in four-part harmony in which the soul bids farewell to the world. About J.S. Bach's Motets Church musicians during Bach’s day were raised on a diet of unaccompanied Lutheran motets, simple polyphonic pieces from the early 1600s among them. Bach gave fresh life to the form throughout his career, sometimes to stretch the vocal skills of his Leipzig choristers with virtuosic test pieces for double choir, sometimes to provide funeral music for prominent citizens, sometimes to reinforce the message of a gospel reading or other biblical text. He created five motets between the early 1710s and late 1740s, while three other motet-like works have also been attributed or misattributed to him.