Today we are joined by Dr. William Heide, longtime music minister at St. John's Lutheran Church, Orange, CA -- as well as a longtime Bach expert.  He has conducted over 60 full Bach cantatas in concerts spanning the three decades of his tenure at St. John's.

The three of us chat about the lasting power of this particular work, in which the soloist sings about welcoming his own passage from life to death, about closing his weary eyes to rest, about leaving the pain of the world behind.  The middle movement is a masterwork within a masterwork -- a stirring yet peaceful exploration of what it means to encounter death, replete with musical silences throughout.

We also feature Dr. Heide's own arrangement of "Abide with Me" for organ, which intersperses the main theme from the "Schlummert ein" movement.

This is our second-to-last episode of the season!  Please ask any question or make any comment -- we'd love to read and answer everything during next week's episode. You can use our website to interact with us at https://amomentofbach.com/ or simply email us at [email protected] 

Next week: BACHTOBERFEST! The last episode of Season 1 of A Moment of Bach!

Netherlands Bach Society performance of "Ich habe genug (BWV 82)"; Lars Ulrik Mortensen, conductor; Thomas Bauer, bass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_5DG9BD-SU

Dr. Heide's arrangement of "Abide with Me" with melody from mvt. 3 of "Ich habe genug" was part of this concert of organ preludes (skip to 28:50 to see "Abide with Me"):

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=716469542277195

An article about the timelessness of "Ich habe genug" (shared with me by Carol Knox):

https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=55b23eb4-c387-4805-b3d3-a4a5bf65d15c

Huge thanks as always to the Netherlands Bach Society for allowing the use of their high-quality performances as our audio examples. https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en

Thanks again to Dr. William Heide for joining us today!

Special thanks again to our artist, Sydney LaCom, for designing our cover artwork.