Bist du bei mir (en: "If you are with me") (BWV 508) is an aria in the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. It was therefore attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach, but the melody is part of the Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel opera Diomedes, oder die triumphierende Unschuld that was performed in Bayreuth on November 16, 1718. The opera score is lost. The aria had been part of the Berlin Singakademie music library and was considered lost in the Second World War, until it was rediscovered in 2000 in the Kiev Conservatory. The continuo part of BWV 508 is more agitated and continuous in its voice leading than the Stölzel aria; it is uncertain who provided it, as the entry in the Notebook is by Anna Magdalena Bach herself. In an essay in the Bach-Jahrbuch 2002, Andreas Glöckner speculates that either she obtained the song from the inventory of the Leipzig Opera that had gone bankrupt in 1720, or that it simply was a favourite known to nearly everybody in Leipzig that was particularly suitable for Hausmusik.[1]
The sheet music of the Stölzel aria is made available as a microfiche.[2]
The piece has become a very popular choice for wedding ceremonies and other such occasions. It was featured in the 2005 French film Joyeux Noël, accompanied by piano, violins, and cello.
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Bist du bei mir, geh ich mit Freuden
zum Sterben und zu meiner Ruh.
A translation to English is difficult, because the original German is poetry speech and can't be translated literally. "Bist du bei mir" is short for the conditional "Wenn Du bei mir bist", the event of a future rendered in the present tense in the first two lines.
English translation:
If you are with me, then I will go gladly
unto [my] death and to my rest.
Alternative English translation:
When thou art near, I go with joy
To death and to my rest.
The French soprano Natalie Dessay and the Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon recorded it in an arrangement by Philippe Rombi for "Joyeux Noël" in 2005. Hayley Westenra recorded the song on her third international album Treasure, released in 2007.