November 13, 2022
Dear Benjamin,

Thank you for telephoning. I very much enjoyed talking with you.  I think I got the gist of what you said, although I admit, I didn't understand every word you said. I'm very much aware that I am inclined to talk too much. I apologize.

The significance of illness and death in Bach's music has been of interest to me. I list in numerical order the vocal compositions
which immediately come to mind: 

Liebster Gott wann werd ich sterben BWV 8
Wer weiß wie nahe mir mein Ende BWV 27
Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen BWV 56
Ich habe genug BWV 82
Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit BWV 106
Komm du süsse Todesstunde BWV 161
St. Matthew Passion BWV 244; 64 [74] Recitativo [Bass] Am Abend da es kühle war
St. Matthew Passion BWV 244; 65 [75] Aria [Bass] Mache dich mein Herze rein

You can find many good performances on Youtube.  I was wrong when I told you that these performances would have English captions. In fact I could find none, but there are translations on the Internet at
https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/IndexTextsSources.htm
Musical scores are available from
https://imslp.org/wiki/Matth%C3%A4uspassion,_BWV_244_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian)

As one might expect the topic of death in Bach's music has been much written about:
https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Death.htm
https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/Death-Libretti[Braatz].htm
https://www.jsbachcantatas.com/documents/chapter-79-bwv-106-s/

One of the historically most important books about Bach is available without charge in pdf format at:
https://archive.org/details/jsbachvolume1002520mbp/page/n3/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/jsbach00widogoog/page/n1/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater

My own commentary is at http://ernstjmeyer.ddns.net/div00/2022/d221113_03_Chapter_Seven

Although the issues of music, poetry and theology entailed in this topic are of interest to me, you should feel no obligation to devote to it any of the precious spare time that remains to you. Please feel no need to reply to this letter.

Stay safe, happy and well. As always, my best wishes to Carrie and to yourself.
Jochen