Komm, süßer Tod

In this Reger year a contribution with one of his lesser-known works, appropriate for the end of the church year.
He wrote this chorale prelude while he was still studying at the conservatory in Wiesbaden and it was published in a London music publisher's magazine. It is a paraphrased arrangement of Bach's song of the same title for voice and basso continuo BWV 478, the melody is strongly ornamented (possibly after the example of O Mensch, bewein dein sünde Groß BWV 622), the bass part figured by means of a three-tone motif and inserted passing and parallel chords, the middle parts filled in with two melodic lines.
The absolute independence of the four parts and the chromaticism regularly create exciting dissonant harmonies. The twenty-year-old student appears to have an excellent command of the subject matter and has found his musical language. Bach is the starting point, but from there Reger makes his own decisions.