Buxtehude: Nun bitten wir

Dieterich Buxtehude (ca. 1637–1707):
Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist, BuxWV 208 (chorale prelude)
with
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750:
Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist BWV 385 (four-part chorale setting)

Selections 25 and 26 from Music of the Baroque: An Anthology of Scores, edition 1

Selection 26 (Buxtehude) from Music of the Baroque: An Anthology of Scores, edition 2

Click here for Buxtehude score (external link: not the score that was in the previous editions)

Click here for Buxtehude audio (performed by Jean-Charles Ablitzer)

Click here for Bach score (transposed from A to G)

Click here for Bach audio (synthesized)

Text and Translation

1 Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist, Now pray we to the Holy Spirit
2 Um den rechten Glauben allermeist, For true belief above all,
3 Daß er uns behüte That we should be protected
4 An unserm Ende Until our end,
5 Wenn wir heimfahr’n aus diesen Elende. When we come home from these miseries.
6 Kyrie eleis. Lord have mercy.

—Martin Luther