Nun komm der Heiden Heiland ( à la BWV 721)

Wim Verburg was a Duth organist and composer. In the Netherlands he was mostly known as the webmaster of orgelsite.nl, the site where published information and photographs of organs in the Netherlands. Since his death others continued the site, and it still exists today.

Besides information about organs, Verburg published his own music on this site as well. It consists mainly of preludes, settings and postludes for the hymns sung in Dutch churches.

One of these preludes is the prelude to "Kom tot ons, de wereld wacht" a Dutch hymn on the melody of "Nun komm der Heiden Heiland". Verburg took Bach's prelude to "Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott" (BWV 721) as a model for his own composition. The result is quite beautiful. The melody of "Nun komm der Heiden Heiland" is almost 500 years old. It is fascinating that this old melody still inspires composers in our century.

The recording was done on the sampleset, made by Augustine, of the Aeolian-Skinner Organ (Op 1132) of the Redeemer Church from New Haven (https://03.hauptwerk-augustine.info/Aeolian-Skinner-History/).

Score available here: https://www.orgelsite.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/gz122vsp.pdf

If you go to https://www.orgelsite.nl/hier-kun-je-bladmuziek-downloaden/ there is much more music of Wim Verburg available.