Performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrew Litton on 14th august 2010 at the Royal Albert Hall.
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Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, also known as Sleepers Wake, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, written in Leipzig for the 27th Sunday after Trinity and first performed on November 25, 1731.
History and text
The chorale cantata is based on the Lutheran chorale, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme of 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. Because this Sunday only occurred in the church year when Easter was very early, the cantata was rarely performed. 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. 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.
Scoring and structure
The cantata is scored for horn, 2 oboes, taille (an instrument similar to the oboe da caccia, today often replaced by an English horn), violino piccolo, violin, viola, basso continuo, and choir with soprano, tenor, and bass soloists.
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)
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