Wake, Awake!

(Cover Art: "The Parable of the Ten Virgins" by Ain Vares - www.ainvaresart.com. Used by permission.)

As the church year draws to a close, many Lutheran pastors and church musicians are preparing to sing the King of Chorales, “Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying” (LSB 516), which will serve as the focus of this month’s “Lifted Voice” column.

​The text of “Wake, Awake” comes from the Lutheran pastor and poet, Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608), who published both the King and Queen of Chorales (“O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright”) in the Appendix to his “Mirror of Joy” (Freuden-Spiegel) in 1599.  As a pastor in Unna in Westphalia, Nicolai encountered a deadly plague.  The town was so devastated that up to thirty funerals a day were conducted right outside his window.  Nicolai has this to say about the art of dying (Ars Moriendi) in the “Mirror of Joy”:
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There seemed to me nothing more sweet, delightful, and agreeable than the contemplation of the noble, sublime doctrine of Eternal Life obtained through
the blood of Christ.  This I allowed to dwell in my heart day and night and
searched the Scriptures as to what they revealed on this matter . . . . Then
day by day I wrote out my meditations, found myself, thank God, wonderfully
well, comforted in heart, joyful in spirit, and truly content . . . . (The Handbook to The Lutheran Hymnal, pp. 555-556).
​

The primary Scripture referent, especially for stanza 1, is undoubtedly the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13).  Other scriptural foundations that Nicolai appears to have employed include the marriage feast of the Lamb in Revelation 19:6-9 and 21:22, the anticipation of eschatological joy in I Corinthians 2:9, the summons of the watchman of Israel in Ezekiel 3:17 and Isaiah 52:8, and the composite picture of all these themes in Isaiah 62:5-12. 
 
In addition to being known as the “second Chrysostom” for his gift of preaching, Nicolai was also a gifted musician, who provided the tunes for both the King and Queen of Chorales.  The tune, known as Wachet auf (literally “Wake up!”), appears to be patterned on the watchmen’s songs of the Middle Ages.  The intervals are expansive, including several leaps of a perfect fourth and a few fifths, complimented by a range of an octave and a third.  The peculiar meter (898 Doubled 664 448) allows for repetition of the first three strophes, followed by shorter acclamations (“Hallelujah,” “Hail Hosanna,” etc.) toward the end of each stanza.  The result is a perfect marriage of text and tune, both of the highest possible quality, assures us that Nicolai’s intent continues to be fulfilled throughout the church:  “To leave behind me . . . as the token of my peaceful, joyful departure, or . . . to comfort other sufferers whom [the Lord] should visit with the pestilence” (Handbook, p. 556).  
 
Musical settings of Wachet auf are many and varied, from Michael Praetorius (c. 1571-1621) to Hugo Distler (1908-1942) and many more, but perhaps the most significant and compelling is J. S. Bach’s Cantata 140, where he uses all three stanzas of the original chorale as part of his sacred music for Trinity XXVII. 
 
The opening movement of the seven-movement cantata is a chorale-fantasia on the first stanza of Nicolai’s hymn:
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            1. “Wake, awake, for night is flying,” The watchmen on the heights are crying;
                        “Awake, Jerusalem, arise!”
            Midnight hears the welcome voices / And at the thrilling cry rejoices:
                        “Oh, where are ye, ye virgins wise?
            The Bridegroom comes, awake!  Your lamps with gladness take! Alleluia! 
                        With bridal care yourselves prepare
                                    ​To meet the Bridegroom, who is near.”
​

​The movement opens with urgent dotted-rhythm chords, tossed back and forth between strings and double reeds.  Upon the restless texture of the opening ritornello breaks the chorale tune, with the melody sung in augmentation (i.e., longer notes) by the sopranos.  The other voices react like a waiting crowd, relaying the watchman’s cries in imitative counterpoint as the company of preachers delivers a “a summons to the children of light to awaken to their promised reward and full felicity” (James Mearns, as quoted in Handbook, p. 435).  The “Hallelujah!” is set to a fugal texture with heightened anticipation and celebration, as the Bride rejoices to meet the Bridegroom and to usher in the eternal wedding feast.
 
The second stanza of the chorale is the centerpiece of the cantata (number 4 of 7), the most easily extracted movement, and certainly the best known one because it has been arranged for other instruments, including an arrangement for organ by Bach himself:

 
            2. Zion hears the watchmen singing, And all her heart with joy is springing;
                        She wakes, she rises from her gloom.
            For her Lord comes down all glorious, The strong in grace, in truth victorious;
                        Her star is ris’n, her light is come.
            Now come, Thou Blessed One, Lord Jesus, God’s own Son, Hail!  Hosanna!
                        We enter all / The wedding hall / To eat the Supper at Thy call.
 

Listen for the lively ritornello melody, characterized by sigh motifs, in which one eighth note quickly resolves into the next.  The spirited melody seems to depict the joyful themes in this stanza, including the joy of the preachers as they herald the Christ, the rejoicing in the New Jerusalem as she welcomes Him in penitent faith, and the rising of the star of Jacob.  Against this timeless melody once again comes the chorale, sung by the tenors, who are “the watchmen singing” (i.e. the pastors preaching).  The simple unison in the tenor section depicts the unity of their message:  Now is the day of salvation!  Now is the time to hear the Word of God, to enter the wedding hall, and “to eat the Supper [Abendmahl = evening meal = the Lord’s Supper] at Thy call.”
  
The final movement of the cantata presents the final stanza of the chorale in a “four- square” setting for chorus and orchestra:

 
            3. Now let all the heav’ns adore Thee, Let saints and angels sing before Thee
                        With harp and cymbals’ clearest tone.
            Of one pearl each shining portal, Where, joining with the choir immortal,
                        We gather round Thy radiant throne.
            No eye has seen the light, No ear has heard the might / Of Thy glory;
                        Therefore will we / Eternally / Sing hymns of praise and joy to Thee!
 

​As the faithful sing this hymn on Sundays dealing with the End Times, Nicolai’s poety, borne on the wings of his stirring tune, leave us fed and nourished with the same gifts Nicolai and his flock received in the midst of death’s dark veil:  “wonderfully well, comforted in heart, joyful in spirit, and truly content” in Christ, who is our all-in-all.