The five part motet
Komm, Jesu, komm (‘Come, Jesus, come’) was written for the funeral of the Leipzig University professor and headmaster of the Thomasschule Jakob Thomasius; it was performed in the Paulinerkirche ‘at the highly respectfully maintained corps-ceremonies on 14 September 1684’. The Leipzig poet Paul Thymich, who can be found several times as Schelle’s librettist, wrote the text. The simple stanzaic verse was set to music in the form of a simple, touching choir aria, which must have impressed Johann Sebastian Bach around 1730 so much that he used the text for his motet of the same name, BWV229, and borrowed some of Schelle’s melodic expressions.
from notes by Peter Wollny © 2001
English: Viola Scheffel
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