Bist du bei mir (Be thou with me) by Bach / Stölzel (PDF)
Bist du bei mir (Be thou with me) by Bach / Stölzel (PDF)
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Bist du bei mir, BWV 508 (Be thou with me) by Bach & Stölzel. PDF Sheet Music arranged for classical guitar. Originally composed by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690–1749) and arranged by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Comes with both a notation edition with left hand fingering and a separate tab edition. Intermediate (Grade 5 or 6).
Originally Bist du bei mir, geh ich mit Freuden (If you are with me, I go with joy) is an aria from Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel's opera Diomedes from 1718. The aria is best known as Bist du bei mir, BWV 508, a version for voice and continuo, No.25 in the 1725 Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. Often translated "Be thou with me".
Due to the limited range between voices this arrangement contains only the continuo line and the melody of Bach's arrangement without any filling in of the chords. It has been transposed from Eb Major to G Major. The register of the continuo line is generally up an octave with a few exceptions due to overlapping voices. Otherwise, the contour of the melody and continuo line are pretty accurate to the original. Here's the YouTube Link if you want to watch it there.
Video Performance and Lesson
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I have this sheet music in key of D Major. But I have to agree with you 100% this song sounds so much closer head on in the key of G Major. Is the bpm for this song 100 bpm?
The key of G is mainly a practicality choice here. After I write out the original musical lines I start transposing it to various keys until I find the one that allows it to be both playable on guitar but also results in the least alterations to the original melody and bass lines. Lots of flexibility on the tempo!