Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland BWV 659

Johann Sebastian Bach’s ‘Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes’ were assembled during his final decade in Leipzig, although they originate from an earlier period of his career in Weimar. Bach composed three settings of the great Lutheran advent hymn ‘Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland’ for this collection, the first of which (BWV 659) must be one of his best-loved works.

Bach sets the chorale prelude for four voices, the melody set in the soprano voice, against a walking bass consisting almost entirely of quavers. The two inner parts are set canonically working together to support the highly ornamented melody, which perfectly evokes the mystery of the incarnation.

Having tried this piece on many sample sets, I opted to record it on the mighty Mathis organ in the church of St Peter & St Paul, Görlitz. The piece seemed to fit beautifully in the spacious acoustic, the Quintadena and subtle tremulant of the Oberwerk sounding glorious in this most beautiful example of Bach’s musical genius.