WAKE,AWAKE, FOR NIGHT IS FLYING

"Wake, "Wachet Our , Awake, For Night is Flying," and its tunecalled Auf," werewritten nearly 400 yearsago. lt hasan interestinghistory and is thoughtto be oneof the greatestchorales ever written. (A choraleis a specialname given to a kind of musicvery similarto that whichwe considera hymn and its tune today.lt is pronouncedlike corral, the pen in whichhorses are sometimes kept.) This grcathymn, or ,was written by a man who wasa Lutheranpastor, a fine poetand an excel- lentmusician. Do you know any man in recentyears who combinedall of thesegifts or similargifts? | can think of onc! Did you everhear of Dr. Albert Schweitzer?He wasa greatorganist and musician,then decidedto study and becomean ordainedminister; and then,after receiving his ordination as a minister, detcrminedto pursuefurther study to becomea medicaldoctor. After graduatinghe spentmostof his lifc doing all thesethings-being a musician,a pastorand medicalmissionary in Africa,where he helped healthe sick and injured. Four hundredyears ago, Philipp Nicolai, who wrote our hymn, liveda life much like that. He wasa great Lutheranpreacher and pastor. During his pastorate in ,a small country that is now a part of the countryof ,in a little town calledUnna, a greatand terribleepidemic, or pestilence,occurred in which hundredsof peoplesickened and died. lt lastedmore than half a year. He helpednurse the sick peopleof the city. To help sustainhis congregation,and himself,he wrote severalofthese great , known aschorales, llochetALtf, the German words which beginthe originalGerman text of thisgreat hymn, is now the name "The ofthe choraletune. This tune isoften calledby churchmusicians Kingof ."Philipp Nicolai "The wrote anothergreat chorale, this is often giventhe nameof Queenof Chorales."lt is setto words "O alsowritten by Philipp Nicolai, MorningStar, How Fairand Bright."Perhaps you havealready studied this hymn.

One of the greatcstcomposers of all time, JohannSebastian Bach, wrote a greatchoral work calleda "Wake, Cantatausing both text and tune of our chorale Awake." Bachwrote many cantatasbut someof thcm were lost or destroyedby unknowingor unthinkingindividuals after his death.The cantatausing our choralehas been given the numberof 140.For an easyway of locatingand identifyingBach's many, many works,each was given a specificnumber. "Wake, Ask your choir directorto play a recordingof Cantatai 40 - Awake,For Night is Flying." Bach wrotc a very intercstingmelody that introducesone movementof thiscantata. lt is playedeither on the organor by violinsand violas.This is the melody: (seeif you can hearit whenit is played.)

The parablctold by Jesusabout thc wiseand foolish virgins on their way to a weddingis referredto in the words of our hymn. lhe Bible referenceis Matthew 25l-1-13.Other Bible referencesare found in lsaiah52: 8 and in Rcvelation29: 6-9. Look them up andsee how closelythe composerstayed with the Bible words. Did you noticein Bach'scantata when you heardit that it seemedto havea differentpulsation pattern? "rhythmic" Our hymn is written in a meter called while Bachwrote his arrangementin a way called "lso-rhythmic." Philipp Nicolai wrote his music so that it met the accentof his words, while Bach "O changedthe originalto a steadykind of pulsationwith which we are more familiartoday. Morning "iso-rhythmic" Star" the Queenof Choralesis printedin thc styleof today with the samenumber of "rhythmic" b<,,rt.sin eachmeasure. The patternhas a varyingnumber of beatsin eachmeasure according to the accentsof the words.

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