Wachet Auf (Sleepers, Awake) (string quartet)

Title: Wachet auf, ruft uns die stimme

Composer: J. S. Bach, arr. David Gable

Instrumentation: Violin 1; Violin 2; Viola; Cello

Printout: 10 pages

Note: This is an essential item for both weddings and the Christmas season (it was written for the first Sunday in Advent). There is no doubling of parts in this arrangement, but rather the viola carries the chorale theme (thereby keeping it in the original register) and the violins switch off between the famous obligato part and inner harmonies. The text for this chorale is actually “Zion hört die wächter singen,” but it is generally referred to by the cantata’s title, Wachet auf, ruft uns die stimme.   

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Other Bach Christmas items for string quartet:

Chorale: In Dulci Jubilo
Four Chorales from The Christmas Oratorio
Gloria in Excelsis Deo, from Cantata 191
Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, from Cantata 147
Three Bach Chorales