Review

Johann Sebastian Bach
Wachet Auf! BWV 140:

Arranged by Ohad Wand

2 B-flat trumpets, horn in F, trombone, tuba

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2020
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Brass Ensemble - 5 brass

In 1598, responding to a deadly plague that was ravaging his parish, pastor Philipp Nicolai put quill to parchment and wrote the text of his most famous hymn, Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme. This hymn, based upon Christ’s parable of the wise and foolish virgins, became the basis for one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most celebrated cantatas, BWV 140. Later Bach arranged the fourth movement, Zion hört die Wächter singen, for organ to be used as a chorale prelude. This well-known setting has become the basis for many instrumental arrangements.

Ohad Wand provides us with a straight-forward, effective brass quintet arrangement of this beloved work. The trumpet parts are the most challenging. The sixteenth motion of the familiar ritornello theme alternates between the two parts. The performers will need to match styles and ornamentation. Tessitura remains mostly within the staff. Wand places the chorale tune primarily in the horn part. At important musical moments the chorale melody is doubled elsewhere in the ensemble. The tuba supplies the active bass line, and the trombone part is sustained and provides additional harmonic color. Wand writes expertly for brass and targets an advanced intermediate quintet with this setting. I write this review from the unnerving quarantine of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Wand’s arrangement provides a comforting reflection on a four-centuries-old hymn written in a similarly perilous time.