Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Awake, calls the voice to us), BWV 140, also known as Sleepers Wake, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, regarded as one of his most mature and popular sacred cantatas. Bach used movement 4 of the cantata as the basis for the first of his Schübler Chorales, BWV 645. Bach scholar Alfred Dürr notes that the cantata is an expression of Christian mysticism in art, while William G. Whittaker calls it "a cantata without weakness, without a dull bar, technically, emotionally and spiritually of the highest order".
Johann Sebastian Bach - Sleepers Awake, BWV 645, Arr. Franz Kanefzky for 8 Horns. Dedicated to Munich Opera Horns. $23.95.
Publisher - KOBL.