#wachet auf

[thefrankshow]

Wachet Auf!

[mikrokosmos]

Bach - Choral Prelude on “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”, BWV 645 (c. 1748)

“Awake, calls the voice to us...” Only Bach can write a piece of music where his original accompaniment is better than the traditional melody it is based off of. At least that’s my opinion. All of Bach’s choral preludes are wonderful elevations of traditional hymns where the counterpoint orbits around the hymnal melody. I often like to compare it to the planets orbiting around the sun at different paces. This prelude comes after the choral rendition of “Wachet auf...” that Bach wrote for his cantata of the same name, BWV 140. That cantata is probably his most beloved and popular, especially the chorus, and what I find funny is that most people whistle or hum the melody he wrote that’s supposed to be “under” the song’s melody. “Wachet auf...” is used as an advent hymn, and today in church I saw that the pamphlet said we would sing it. To my disappointment, it was a traditional rendition that, while sharing Bach’s harmonies, did not have the gorgeous planetary melodic lines that I know and love. And so I listened to this after church, walking through town and looking at all of the trees covered in snow and the people going for coffee and such, and overall it made my Sunday brighter.

[larryneilson37]

What I'm listening to right now

Wachet Auf by Christian Music Experts, on the album: Instrumental Songs of Worship for Quiet Moments

[larryneilson37]

What I'm listening to right now

Wachet Auf by Christian Music Experts, on the album: Instrumental Songs of Worship for Quiet Moments

[larryneilson37]

What I'm listening to right now

Wachet Auf by Christian Music Experts, on the album: Instrumental Songs of Worship for Quiet Moments

[larryneilson37]

What I'm listening to right now

Wachet Auf by Christian Music Experts, on the album: Instrumental Songs of Worship for Quiet Moments

[lawrenceop]

Awake!

Advent Sunday always begins for me with this great cantata no. 140 by Johann Sebastian Bach. I first sang it in my first year of University as a member of the chamber choir and the text is perfect for the first Sunday, although that wasn’t when Bach originally had it performed. The text is based on the parable of the wise virgins who await the Bridegroom with their lamps lit, and of the Song of Songs, in which the Bridegroom calls out to the Bride, an image of Christ speaking tenderly to the human Soul.  

This article by Sandro Magister explains well the cantata, its history and its meaning. And this cantata is especially dear to me because of its special place in the thought and theology of Pope Benedict XVI. Concerning this cantata, he has said: 

“The encounter with the beautiful can become the wound of the arrow that strikes the heart and in this way opens our eyes, so that later, from this experience, we take the criteria for judgement and can correctly evaluate the arguments. For me an unforgettable experience was the Bach concert that Leonard Bernstein conducted in Munich after the sudden death of Karl Richter. I was sitting next to the Lutheran Bishop Hanselmann. When the last note of one of the great Thomas-Kantor-Cantatas triumphantly faded away, we looked at each other spontaneously and right then we said: "Anyone who has heard this, knows that the faith is true". The music had such an extraordinary force of reality that we realized, no longer by deduction, but by the impact on our hearts, that it could not have originated from nothingness, but could only have come to be through the power of the Truth that became real in the composer's inspiration”

The text of the first movement of the cantata can be translated thus:

“Awake, calls the voice to us of the watchmen high up in the tower; awake, you city of Jerusalem. Midnight the hour is named; they call to us with bright voices; where are you, wise virgins? Indeed, the Bridegroom comes; rise up and take your lamps, Alleluia! Make yourselves ready for the wedding, you must go to meet Him.”

So, as Advent begins, we are reminded once again of the dialogue between God and Man; he is our Bridegroom and we his Bride. This cantata sings the central love song of creation, and of the Christian story, and of the Church’s preaching, which is that God longs for communion with mankind, and so man has a restless desire for God, distracted by a myriad apparent goods, but the thirst of the soul can only be sated by resting in God himself. 

Therefore, awake! We must rise from our slumbers, from the narcotics of fleeting pleasures and from the gloom of pressing worldly concerns. Awake! We must rise from the darkness of false philosophies and the comfortable bed of sin. Awake! The voice of the Bridegroom calls us and opens the eyes to see his beauty, to bask in the light of his face.

Christ comes to us at midnight, meaning, in the darkest hour. When all seems desperate and lost and terror is upon us, Christ comes. Keep lit those lamps of hope and of faith and of love for God. For then we shall be ready to meet him, to be embraced by him, to rejoice in our wedding feast. Alleluia!

[lyres-harps-and-cymbals]

This morning I listened to Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140.  From the title, I expected that Philipp Nicolai’s “Wachet auf” would be used as a tune, and it is, in movements four and seven.

About halfway through, I started following along in the notation, and I noticed something about the sixth movement.  It’s a duet between soprano and bass.  At one point, the soprano sings, “Mein Freund ist mein” (”My friend is mine”) while the bass is singing, “und ich bin dein” (”and I am yours”):

(notation found here)

The way Bach arranged this, sometimes the “mein” (”mine”) overlaps with “ich” (”I”), and the “Freund” (”friend”) with “dein” (”yours”), which further describes what the two voices are singing.  It’s sort of an opposing appositive.