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In the days before photocopy machines and copyright laws, it was common practice for musicians to hand-copy music into a personal notebook - similar to the jazz "fake books" of today. In the case of a performer, the music was copied as part of their performance repertoire; in the case of a composer, it was copied as a way to study the work. Despite its inclusion in The Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, scholars believe that Bist Du Bei Mir was not composed by J. S. Bach (1685-1750), but rather by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749), another German composer, most of whose works have been lost. Bach was said to have had great respect for Stölzel who was known to be a prolific composer in nearly every genre of the Baroque era and Bach's familiarity with his music may account for the inclusion of this piece in the notebook for his second wife, transcribed as a solo aria appropriate for her voice. The text of the song is by an unknown poet and is very moving: 

If you are with me, I will gladly go to my death and to my rest.
Oh, how happy my end would be if your dear hand would close my faithful eyes.

What do you get when you download this music?

• a full score (showing both bells and string parts);
• a "clean" copy (ie. no choreography) of the solo handbell part; 
• a copy of the solo handbell part with suggested choreography written in;
• parts for each of the string instruments (violin, viola, & cello);
• a piano reduction score for performance with keyboard (or harp) rather than string trio; and
• a copy of our License Terms.