Bist du bei mir

The loveliest of all Baroque adagio melodies . . . little Brenda sang this in church yesterday on Good Friday. Keep in mind, friends, I'd like this sung at my funeral someday, so somebody, please learn the music! Text:

Bist du bei mir, geh' ich mit Freuden
zum Sterben und zu meiner Ruh'.
Ach, wie vergnügt wär' so mein Ende,
es drückten deine lieber Hände
mir die getreuen Augen zu!

English translation:

Be Thou with me, then I will go gladly
unto [my] death and to my rest.
Ah, what a pleasant end for me,
if your dear hands be the last I see,
closing shut my faithful eyes to rest!

Enjoy this fine performance (posted above).

5 Browns at Pabst Theatre April 17, 2010

“THE PASSION” – by George Herbert

Since blood is fittest, Lord, to write
Thy sorrows in, and bloody fight;
My heart hath store; write there, where in
One box doth lie both ink and sin:

That when sin spies so many foes,
Thy whips, thy nails, thy wounds, thy woes,
All come to lodge there, sin may say,
No room for me, and fly away.

Sin being gone, oh fill the place,
And keep possession with thy grace;
Lest sin take courage and return,
And all the writings blot or burn.