Note 52 — Chapter VIII · The Last of Earth

“By his deathbed stood his wife and daughters, his youngest son, Christian, his son-in-law, Altnikol, and his pupil, Müthel. He had been working with Altnikol only a few days before his death. An organ chorale, composed in a former time, was floating in his mind, ready as he was to die, and he wanted to complete and perfect it. He dictated and Altnikol wrote. ‘Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein’ (‘Lord, when we are in direst need’) was the name he had originally given it; he now adapted the sentiment to another hymn and wrote above it ‘Vor Deinen Thron tret ich hiermit’ (‘Before Thy throne with this I come’).”