Schübler chorale 1, BWV 645
A look at a well known chorale: Wake, Awake for Night is Passing (Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme)
Bach chose a group of chorale arias from cantatas and transcribed them for organ; they were engraved and published by Johann Georg Schübler. They include BWV 645 through 650.
The first Schübler chorale, BWV 645, is based on the melody Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, by Philipp Nicolai. It is a composite melody, with elements from plainchant, a tune by Hans Sachs and the German Agnus Dei.
This organ chorale is an E-flat major trio, with the chorale in the left hand. This chorale is associated with the 27th Sunday after Trinity, which is the last Sunday before Advent.
| The music: | BWV 645 | Organ transcription of BWV 140.4, with the bass of the continuo in the pedal, no realization of the figures | |
| BWV 140.1 | A chorale fantasia with SATB, violin, viola, continuo | ||
| BWV 140.4 | A tenor aria with continuo with figured bass, and a violin obligato. | ||
| BWV 140.7 | A four part harmonization of the chorale melody. |
MP3 files of these chorales are available. If you want one, leave me a note in a comment with your email address and I will send it. Unfortunately, the files are too large to put them on my ftp server for general distribution.
Some names under which this chorale is known:
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme
Wake, awake for night is passing
Wake, awake, for night is flying
Discussion from the Bach Cantatas website
Discussion from the website of Emmanuel Music of Boston
Cantata No. 140
by Johann Sebastian Bach, Gerhard Herz (Editor), Norton Critical Scores 1972
The Organ Music of J.S. Bach, 2nd ed.
Peter Williams, Cambridge University Press 2003
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