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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Cantata CXL.: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme 2 . Twenty-seventh Sunday after Trinity 3 (1731 4 ) - Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach’s Chorals, vol. 2 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Cantatas and Motetts [1917]

Edition used:

Bach’s Chorals. Part I: 2 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Cantatas and Motetts, by Charles Sanford Terry (Cambridge University Press, 1915-1921). 3 vols. Vol. 2.

Part of: Bach’s Chorals, 3 vols.

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Cantata CXL.

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme2 . Twenty-seventh Sunday after Trinity3 (17314 )

lf1393-02_figure_185

Melody: “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”

? Philipp Nicolai 1599

lf1393-02_figure_186

A Choral Cantata1 , on Philipp Nicolai’s Hymn, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” first published in his Frewden Spiegel dess ewigen Lebens (Frankfort a. Main, 1599), with the melody. The Hymn is a reversed acrostic, the initial letters of its three stanzas, W. Z. G., standing for “Graf zu Waldeck,” Nicolai’s former pupil, who died in 1598, aged fifteen. The Hymn probably was written in 1597, during the pestilence at Unna in Westphalia, where Nicolai then was pastor.

The melody was published with the Hymn in 1599. Whether Nicolai composed it cannot be determined positively. As in the case of his “Wie schon leuchtet der Morgenstern” (see Cantata 1), it is probable that he adapted old material to his purpose. It may be observed that the opening line of “Wachet auf” is identical with the opening line of “O Lamm Gottes2 ,” and that the Hymn ends with the words, “in dulci jubilo,” a Hymn the beginning of whose melody is practically identical with “Wachet auf,” except in metre.

The melody does not occur elsewhere in the Cantatas, Oratorios, or Motetts. Organ Works, N. xvi. 1. Bach’s variation of the second line of the tune is not revealed by Zahn as having earlier sanction.

(a)

The words of the opening movement are the first stanza of Nicolai’s Hymn:

  • Wachet auf! ruft uns die Stimme
  • Der Wachter sehr hoch auf der Zinne:
  • Wach auf, du Stadt Jerusalem!
  • Mitternacht heisst diese Stunde;
  • Sie rufen uns mit hellem Munde:
  • Wo seid ihr klugen Jungfrauen?
  • Wohl auf! der Brautigam kommt!
  • Steht auf! die Lampen nehmt!
  • Alleluja!
  • Macht euch bereit zu der Hochzeit,
  • Ihr müsset ihm entgegen gehn.

  • B.G. xxviii. 251.

Translations of the Hymn into English are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, pp. 806, 1613, 1722.

Form. Choral Fantasia (Corno, 2 Ob., Taille1 , Strings (including Violino piccolo), Continuo).

(b)

The words of the fourth movement are the second stanza of Nicolai’s Hymn:

  • Zion hört die Wachter singen;
  • Das Herz thut ihr vor1 Freuden springen:
  • Sie wachet, und steht eilend auf.
  • Ihr Freund kommt vom Himmel prachtig,
  • Von Gnaden stark, von Wahrheit machtig:
  • Ihr Licht wird hell, ihr Stern geht auf.
  • Nun komm, du werthe Kron ,
  • Herr Jesu, Gottes Sohn!
  • Hosianna!
  • Wir folgen All’ zum Freudensaal,
  • Und halten mit das Abendmahl.

  • B.G. xxviii. 274.

Form. Unison Choral for Tenor (Vn. I and II and Viola in unison, Continuo)2 .

(c)

The words of the concluding Choral are the third stanza of Nicolai’s Hymn:

  • Gloria sei dir gesungen
  • Mit Menschen und englischen Zungen,
  • Mit Harfen und mit Cymbeln schon.
  • Von zwölf Perlen sind die Pforten
  • An deiner Stadt; wir sind Consorten
  • Der Engel hoch um deinen Thron.
  • Kein Aug’ hat je gespurt,
  • Kein Ohr hat je1 gehört
  • Solche Freude.
  • Dess sind wir froh, Io! Io!
  • Ewig in dulci jubilo.

  • B.G. xxviii. 284.

Form. Simple (Corno, 2 Ob., Taille, Strings (including Violino piccolo), Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 329.

[2 ] English versions of the Cantata are published by Novello & Co., “Sleepers, wake! for night is flying,” and Breitkopf & Haertel, “Sleepers wake, loud sounds the warning.”

[3 ] The Sunday, only occurring when Easter falls early, becomes the Sunday before Advent.

[4 ] Rust dates it 1742.

[1 ] See supra, p. 32.

[2 ] See infra, p. 495.

[1 ] The Taille was a Tenor Bassoon.

[1 ] 1599 von.

[2 ] The movement is No. 1 of the Schübler Chorals (N. xvi. 1).

[1 ] 1599 mehr.