This Sunday at 3.15pm Tom Hammond Davies directs the Oxford Bach Soloists in a performance of two of Bach’s amazing Cantatas in the glorious setting of New College, Oxford.
But why did Bach compose these works?
Bach wrote Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! (Watch! Pray! Pray! Watch!) BWV 70 two years after his appointment in 1714 as concertmaster at Schloss Weimar – the court of the co-reigning dukes Wilhelm Ernst and Ernst August of Saxe-Weimar. Bach’s principal responsibility there was to compose new works, and in particular a fresh new cantata each month for the liturgical services in the Schlosskirche. This cantata was composed specifically for the for the 2nd Sunday of Advent. The music is therefore very ‘date specific’ and is not really designed to be used at any other time of the year.
The C17 Baroque palace of Schloss Weimar where several works by Johann Sebastian Bach were premiered
However, by 1723 Bach was Kapellmeister at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Understandably, not wanting to see a good cantata go to waste, Bach reworked the cantata for the 26th Sunday after Trinity. Actually, he must have had some difficulty as may of the scores from Weimar had been lost – possibly during one of the many fires which seem to have destroyed much of the palace on a regular basis! Nevertheless, the music was somehow salvaged, extended and developed. It begins with a characteristic commanding trumpet call while the choir contrasts short declamations of Wachet! and longer chords with betet!
It was here in Leipzig that Bach composed the other cantata in this concert, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Awake, calls the voice to us), BWV 140, also known as Sleepers Wake, for the 27th Sunday after Trinity in 1731.
This cantata takes the theme of Wake up in a slightly different context imploring us to be awake and alert. We are reminded of the parable of the Ten Virgins with the words ‘Wake up, calls the voice to us’.
Experience the authentic instruments and voices of the baroque when Tom Hammond Davies directs the Oxford Bach Soloists in ‘Wake up to Bach’ on Sunday 20 November at New College, Oxford. Tickets are available now – with FREE tickets for under 18s.
