Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, also known as Sleepers, Wake, is a cantata written in 1731 by Johann Sebastian Bach. [Christoph Wolff, "Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician" (W. W. Norton & Company, 2000), 280. ISBN 0-393-04825-X] It is scored for horn, 2 oboes, taille (an instrument similar to the oboe da caccia, today often substituted with an English horn), violino piccolo, violin, viola, basso continuo, and choir with soprano, tenor, and bass soloists.

BWV 140 is based on the chorale of the same name by Philipp Nicolai. This Lutheran hymn remains popular today both in its original German and in a variety of English translations. The text on which it is based is the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1–13, a reading that was scheduled in the Lutheran lectionary of the time for the 27th Sunday after Trinity. [The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, "Lutheran Service Book" (Concordia Publishing House, 2006), xxi. ISBN 0-7586-1217-6] Because this Sunday only occurred in the church year when Easter was very early, the cantata was rarely performed. [According to Wolff (p. 280), the cantata was only performed once (November 25, 1731) during Bach's tenure at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, though the 27th Sunday after Trinity occurred again 1742.] The infrequency of the occasion for which it was composed makes it one of the few cantatas whose date of composition is definitively known.

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. ["Lutheran Service Book", xv.] Thus, the hymn or 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.

Movements

*I. Chorus: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Wake up, the voice calls to us)
*II. Recitative: Er kommt (He comes)
*III. Aria (duet): Wann kommst du, mein Heil? (When will you come, my salvation?)
*IV. Chorale: Zion hört die Wächter singen (Zion hears the watchmen singing)
*V. Recitative: So geh herein zu mir (So come in with me)
*VI. Aria (duet): Mein Freund ist mein! (My friend is mine!)
*VII. Chorale: Gloria sei dir gesungen (May "Gloria" be sung to you)

tructure

BWV 140 is a chorale cantata; its primary melody and text are drawn from a Lutheran chorale, "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme". The first movement is a chorale fantasia based on the first verse of the chorale, which is a common feature of Bach's cantatas. [See also BWV 1, BWV 61, BWV 65, and BWV 80, among many others.] 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. The fourth movement, based on the second verse of the chorale, is written in a trio sonata-like texture for the tenors of the chorus, oboe da caccia, and 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. [Donald Grout and Claude Palisca, "Norton Anthology of Western Music: Volume 1—Ancient to Baroque", 4th ed. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001), 547. ISBN 0-393-97690-4] The final movement, as with many of Bach's cantatas, is based on the final verse of the chorale and is a four-part harmonization of the chorale melody.

Media

External links

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* [http://www.bach.org/bach101/cantatas/cantata140.html Bach Choir of Bethlehem - notes]
* [http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/NonEnglish/wachet_auf_ruft_uns_die_stimme.htm Text of the cantata]
* [http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Cantata_BWV_140_-_Wachet_auf%2C_ruft_uns_die_Stimme_%28Johann_Sebastian_Bach%29 ChoralWiki scores]

References