Bach - Chorale Nun ruhen alle Wälder BWV 392 | Netherlands Bach Society
The melody of the chorale Nun ruhen alle Wälder, performed here by the Young Bach Fellows of the Netherlands Bach Society, is much older than Paul Gerhardt's text and was better known to the words of 'O Welt ich muss dich lassen'. Bach used this melody in various places, with a variety of texts and always in different harmonic versions. One of the places Bach used this chorale is in the St John Passion, in the chorale 'Wer hat dich so geschlagen', which may make it sound familiar to listeners. The pitch, for example, is almost identical in both settings, and Bach used the same ascending chromatic line in the bass in the transition to the second movement. This practically unknown version keeps pointing intuitively yet invitably towards that much more familiar chorale in the St John Passion.