Structure and scoring Bach structured the cantata in seven movements. The text and tune of the hymn are kept in the outer choral movements and the central movement, set as two
chorale fantasias and a four-part closing chorale, which frame two sequences of
recitative and
aria. Bach scored the work for three vocal soloists (
soprano (S),
tenor (T),
bass (B)), a
four-part choir, (
SATB) and a
Baroque instrumental ensemble of
horn (Co), two
oboes (Ob),
taille (Ot),
violino piccolo (Vp), two
violins (Vl),
viola (Va), and
basso continuo including
bassoon. The heading of the original parts reads: "Dominica 27. post Trinit. / Wachet auf, rufft uns die Stime / â / 4. Voc. / 1. Violino picolo. / 2. Hautbois. / Taille. / Basson. / 2 Violini. / Viola. / e / Continuo. / di Signore / J.S.Bach." The duration is given as 31 minutes. In the following table of the movements, the scoring follows the
Neue Bach-Ausgabe. The
keys and
time signatures are taken from the book on all cantatas by the Bach scholar
Alfred Dürr, using the symbol for common time (4/4). The continuo, playing throughout, is not shown.
Movements 1 The first movement, "" ("Awake", we are called by the voice [of the watchmen]), is a
chorale fantasia based on the first verse of the hymn, a common feature of Bach's earlier chorale cantatas. The
cantus firmus is sung by the soprano. The orchestra plays independent material mainly based on two
motifs: a dotted rhythm and an ascending scale "with syncopated accent shifts". The lower voices add in unusually free
polyphonic music images such as the frequent calls "wach auf!" (wake up!) and "wo, wo?" (where, where?), and long
melismas in a
fugato on "Halleluja".
John Eliot Gardiner, who conducted the
Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000, notes two instrumental choirs, the strings and the double-reeds (two oboes, taille and bassoon), playing in the style of a
French overture double-dotted
motifs in triple rhythm. He writes:
2 "" (He comes), is a
recitative for tenor as a narrator who calls the "Töchter Zions" (daughters of Zion).
3 , who conducted the
Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, in 2007 In the following duet, "" (When are You coming, my Salvation?), with
obbligato violino piccolo, the soprano represents the Soul and the bass is the
vox Christi (voice of Jesus). In a slow
siciliano, the violino piccolo illustrates "the flickering of lamps 'lit with burning oil in arabesques. Gardiner comments: "A rich tradition of similarly sensual musical allegories, including fine examples by Bach's own cousin,
Johann Christoph, stands behind this ravishing number."
4 The fourth movement, "" (Zion hears the watchmen singing), is based on the second verse of the hymn. It 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.
5 The fifth movement, "" (Then come in to me), is a recitative for bass, accompanied by the strings. It pictures the unity of the bridegroom and the "chosen bride".
6 The sixth movement, "" (My Friend is mine!), 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. Gardiner notes that Bach uses the means of "contemporary operatic love-duets in his use of chains of suspensions and parallel thirds and sixths". Dürr describes it as giving "expression to the joy of the united pair", showing a "relaxed mood" in "artistic intensity".
7 The closing chorale, "" (Let Gloria be sung to You), is a four-part setting of the third verse of the hymn. The high pitch of the melody is doubled by a violino piccolo an octave higher, representing the bliss of the "heavenly Jerusalem".
Evaluation The Bach scholar
Klaus Hofmann sees the cantata as one of the composer's "most beautiful, most mature and, at the same time, most popular sacred cantatas". Dürr notes that the cantata, especially the duets in a unity of "earthly happiness in love and heavenly bliss", are an expression of
Christian mysticism in art.
William G. Whittaker wrote: "It is a cantata without weaknesses, without a dull bar, technically, emotionally and spiritually of the highest order, its sheer perfection and its boundless imagination rouse one's wonder time and time again." == Recordings ==