Erbarm dich mein, O Herre Gott

Perhaps more appropriate to Lent, which is of course now ended, but this is a Bach organ chorale (BWV 721) which I mentioned in an earlier post on Bach.  Lovely, and perhaps simpler to the ear (although not to play, I am sure) than many of his others. It has come to my attention again - the organist at a service I led on Palm Sunday played it, and I think YouTube suggested it too.  The words (set by others in Latin as " Miserere mei " ), are from Psalm 51.  The performance I mentioned in that earlier post is the one by Leo van Doeselaar, recorded for the All of Bach project.  You can watch him talking about it, and read some information about the piece (which some in the past, anyway, have though was not by Bach, as it only appears in someone else ' s manuscript with a note).  The written information is in English,and in Dutch.  (The video, in Dutch, with English subtitles, is linked from both).It is such a lovely piece that I went looking for other performances on YouTube and I was struck by how different they are.  Here are some and I will let you find out the different techniques, and speeds.  Those of you with more musical knowledge than me will be able to go much further in your interpretation!Gert van HoefMarie-Claire Alain (audio only)Olivier Latry (audio only)Ton Koopman (audio only)There is also a cantata, BWV 305, morehere, with words in German and an English translation by Myles Co...
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