Wär Gott nicht mit uns, dieser Zeit (BuxWV 222)

"Wär Gott nicht mit uns dieser Zeit" is a Lutheran hymn. Martin Luther based the words for this hymn on psalm 124 and evoces in this hymn vividly that men's life depends on God's help and is lost without it. Buxtehude creates a beautiful, slow moving pieces on the melody of this choral. Each phrase is introduced with short fore shadowings in the accompanying voices. A nice detail is that the last phrase is echod in the bass voice, after the solo voice has started it.

I uploaded a performance on the Nijkerk sample set two weeks ago (http://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/33955). For easy comparison: that redording is used in the youtube video.

Score available here: http://partitura.org/index.php/dietrich-buxtehude-war-gott-nicht-mit-uns-dieser-zeit-buxwv-222