J.S. Bach's Komm, süsser Tod, BWV 478, is one of the 60 or so sacred songs that Bach, then chapel master and director of choral music in Leipzig, provided for inclusion in the 1736 Musicalisches Gesang-Buch von Georg Schmelli, a practical volume of songs published in Leipzig (by Bernhard Christian Breitkopf, founder of the famous and still-extant publishing house that bears his name) for use in the city. For most of these sacred songs, Bach had only to devise bass lines and figured bass indications—the melodies selected were old and famous Lutheran tunes. Komm, süsser Tod, however, is an exception. Its melody is known in no other source than the Schmelli Gesang-Buch, and it is generally believed that Bach wrote the piece from scratch. (There are two or three other entries in the Gesang-Buch that seem also to have been newly composed.) Those familiar with ordinary German chorales will find themselves on familiar ground with Komm, süsser Tod, but its solo vocal line seems especially to exemplify Bach's supremely confident devotional side.

Schmelli's Gesang-Buch is partitioned by topic, so that the devout Lutheran might have a song for any and every occasion. There are songs for morning, evening, Advent and Good Friday (and also for all other times in the liturgical year), and there are songs for Death, of which Komm, süsser Tod is one. The song has five verses, written around 1724 by some unknown poet, each of which begins which the text "Komm, süsser Tod, komm selige Ruh" (Come, sweet death; come, blessed rest), and each of which is set to the same eight short phrases of triple-meter music. A beautiful orchestral version of this piece was made by Leopold Stokowski in 1946; it opens with all the strings muted except for a solo cello that "sings" the melody.

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