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Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140

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Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme
BWV 140
chorale cantata by J. S. Bach
Philipp Nicolai, author of the chorale
EnglishSleepers Wake
RelatedBWV 645, first of the Schübler Chorales
Occasion27th Sunday after Trinity
Cantata textanonymous
ChoraleWachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme
Performed25 November 1731 (1731-11-25): Leipzig
Movements7
Scoring

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, also known as Sleepers Wake, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale cantata in Leipzig for the 27th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 25 November 1731. It is based on the hymn Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (1599) by Philipp Nicolai. Movement 4 of the cantata (in English, "Zion hears the watchmen's voices") corresponds to the organ piece BWV 645, the first of the Schübler Chorales.

History and text

The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, be prepared for the day of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:1–11), and from the Gospel of Matthew, the parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1–13).[1] The chorale cantata is based on the Lutheran chorale, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme of Philipp Nicolai, which is based on the Gospel.[2] This Lutheran hymn remains popular today both in its original German and in a variety of English translations.

Because this Sunday only occurred when Easter was very early, the cantata was rarely performed. According to Wolff, the cantata was only performed once on 25 November 1731) during Bach's tenure in Leipzig, though the 27th Sunday after Trinity occurred again 1742.[2]

In the modern three-year Revised Common Lectionary, however, the reading is scheduled for Proper 27, or the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, in the first year of the three-year cycle of lessons.[3] Thus, the hymn and the cantata are commonly performed in churches on that Sunday. The text and its eschatological themes are also commonly associated with the early Sundays of the season of Advent, and so the cantata is also commonly performed during that season.

Scoring and structure

The cantata is scored for three soloists—soprano, tenor and bass—, a four-part choir, horn, 2 oboes, taille (an instrument similar to the oboe da caccia, today often replaced by an English horn), violino piccolo, two violins, viola, and basso continuo.[1]

  1. Coro: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Wake up, the voice calls to us)
  2. Recitativo (tenor): Er kommt (He comes)
  3. Aria (soprano, bass): Wenn kömmst du, mein Heil? (When will you come, my salvation?)
  4. Chorale (tenor): Zion hört die Wächter singen (Zion hears the watchmen singing)
  5. Recitativo: So geh herein zu mir (So come in with me)
  6. Aria (soprano, bass): Mein Freund ist mein! (My friend is mine!)
  7. Chorale: Gloria sei dir gesungen (May Gloria be sung to you)

Music

The first movement is a chorale fantasia based on the first verse of the chorale, which is a common feature of Bach's chorale cantatas. The second movement is a recitative for tenor that precedes the third movement, a duet for soprano and bass with obbligato violin. In the duet, the soprano represents the soul and the bass represents Jesus as the Vox Christi (voice of Jesus). The fourth movement, based on the second verse of the chorale, is written in the style of a chorale prelude, with the phrases of the chorale, sung as a cantus firmus by the tenors (or by the tenor soloist), entering intermittently against a famously lyrical melody played in unison by the violins (without the violino piccolo) and the viola, accompanied by the basso continuo. Bach later transcribed this movement for organ (BWV 645), and it was subsequently published along with five other transcriptions Bach made of his cantata movements as the Schübler Chorales. The fifth movement is a recitative for bass, preceding the sixth movement, which is another duet for soprano and bass with obbligato oboe. This duet, like the third movement, is a love duet between the soprano soul and the bass Jesus.[4] The final movement is a four-part setting of the final verse of the chorale.

Recordings

Media

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References

  1. ^ a b Dürr, Alfred (1971). Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach (in German). Vol. 1. Bärenreiter-Verlag. OCLC 523584.
  2. ^ a b Wolff, Christoph (2000). Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 280. ISBN 0-393-04825-X.
  3. ^ Lutheran Service Book, xv.
  4. ^ Grout, Donald; Palisca, Claude (200). Norton Anthology of Western Music: Volume 1 – Ancient to Baroque. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 547. ISBN 0-393-97690-4.
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