Now Rest Beneath Night's Shadow (O Welt, Ich Muss Dich Lassen)

A simple but beautiful setting by Paul Manz of "Now Rest Beneath Night's Shadow" to the tune - O Welt, Ich Muss Dich Lassen. I'm not normally a fan of tremolo in pipe organs but the romantic SP Doesburg organ gives a lush delineation to the hymn tune. Played on the demo version of the organ.

Now Rest Beneath Night's Shadow is a hymn which expresses trust in in God for peace and safety during the evening. The text was written by Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676). A native of Wittenberg, Germany, he became a Lutheran minister and served first in Berlin and then in Luben, authoring a number of hymns, but is probably best remembered for his German translation of a Latin hymn which, when translated from German into English, became known as "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded."

The renaissance composer Heinrich Isaac (or Isaak), who was born in Flanders around 1450 to 1455 lived for a time in Innsbruck, Austria, where he produced a four-part polyphonic setting of the folk song, "Innsbruck, ich muss dich lasser" ("Innsbruck, I Must Leave Thee") around 1515. It was adapted for Johann Hesse’s funeral hymn "O Welt, ich muss dich lassen" ("O world, I now must leave thee"), a take-off on the folk song, in the Eisleben Gesangbuch of 1598. The modern harmonization was made by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). It was done for the "Choral gesange" of his 1729 St. Matthew Passion.