Bruckner composed the song on a text of Heinrich von der Mattig on 19 October 1877 in memory of his friend Joseph Seiberl, who died on 10 June 1877.

[3] In 1886 Rudolf Weinwurm asked August Seuffert, editor of the Wiener Zeitung, to write another text to fit to Bruckner's Nachruf.

Du hast aus buntem Tongewühle Gar oft in freiem Orgelspiele Mit Kunst gelenkt die Melodien Zu andachtsvollen Harmonien.

You lovely creation, Full of high power and sweet mildness, We feel double deep your motion, When sorrow has split our hearts.

The clouded pressure of the waves of pain It softens by your sounds, Smoothly all the flows travel In the wide sea of harmonies.

Like the tone of the organ and the waves of the sea, The consolation draws then into the heart, And calms the wild longings of the soul And loosens the pain in mild tears.

The organ is set fortissimo (in organo pleno with pedal) on bar 31 by the text "Drum mag's im Orgelstrome brausen".