In the funerals of the departed, accompany them with singing …
for precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
                                                                                    -- Apostolic Constitutions VI:30
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​On February 2nd, the church celebrates The Presentation of Our Lord and the Purification of Mary, which focuses largely on Simeon’s Canticle, the Nunc Dimittis (St. Luke 2:29-32), which was originally sung on the 40th day after Jesus’ birth. Musical settings of Simeon’s canticle abound, including J. S. Bach’s use of stanza 1 of Luther’s Nunc Dimittis hymn, “In Peace and Joy I Now Depart” (LSB 938) in Cantata 106, “God’s Time is the Best Time,” also known as the Actus tragicus. Although the exact origins of the cantata are uncertain, it remains “perhaps the most admired of Bach’s compositions presumed to date from before his appointment at Weimar (1708)” (David Schulenberg, Oxford Composer Companions: J. S. Bach, p. 197).

The November 2015 issue of this column focused on the King of Chorales, “Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying.”  Alongside every great king stands a stalwart queen, and “Wake, Awake” is no exception.  This kingly chorale is blessed with a regal counterpart in the Queen of Chorales, “O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright” (Lutheran Service Book 395).