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Wachet auf (Sleepers, Wake!), BWV 645

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) · sheet music

  • Key E-flat major
  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 5–10
  • Passages 9

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Johann Sebastian Bach, German baroque (1685–1750). The reading release has 9 passages from this piece at levels 5–10; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–4 for both hands together.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 13–16 at level 10.

Your practice path

Learn it the way teachers do: each hand on its own, then together, then the hard bars. Each step is a real graded passage of Wachet auf (Sleepers, Wake!), BWV 645.

  1. Hands together · bars 1–4 level 5
  2. The hardest bars · bars 13–16 level 10

How to play Wachet auf (Sleepers, Wake!), BWV 645

  1. Tempo:Keep a calm, walking tempo that lets the bass line sound like steps; if it speeds up, the hymn tune loses its dignity.
  2. Right hand:Play the top melody in one long, connected line and treat its sixteenth notes as ornament to the line, not as separate notes.
  3. Left hand:Let the bass walk evenly in the lower register and keep it a shade quieter than the melody it supports.
  4. Hands together:Practice the hymn voice alone first, then add the top melody, and only then bring in the bass, listening to each voice as a separate singer.
  5. Fingering:Choose fingerings that let you hold the hymn notes while the other voice moves, and write them in so they stay the same each time.
  6. Reading:Read in three flats and look for accidentals that mark the hymn's phrase endings; read each line as a voice rather than as a block of notes.
  7. Dynamics:Bring the hymn tune forward gently with a firmer touch and let the others support, since the hymn is the point of the piece.
  8. Practice:Slow the piece down and play two voices at a time, switching which pair you practice so that every combination is secure.

Common mistakes

  • Letting the hymn tune disappear under the busier melody. Fix: Practice the hymn voice with a firmer touch and play the other lines more lightly.
  • Cutting notes short when a line has to be passed between fingers. Fix: Practice each voice alone and hold the finger down until the next note sounds.
  • Pushing the tempo in the instrumental passages between hymn phrases. Fix: Count steady quarter notes against a metronome through the whole piece.

Structure: chorale prelude with ritornello

A chorale prelude surrounds a hymn tune with its own independent music. Here a lyrical upper melody and a walking bass run throughout, and the hymn tune enters phrase by phrase in the middle voice, the part the tenor sang in the cantata, with the instrumental music continuing between its phrases.

Intro · Opening ritornello (E-flat major)
The flowing upper melody and the steady bass, before the hymn enters; this is the music most listeners recognize.
A · Hymn lines in the tenor
The chorale melody arrives in longer notes in the middle voice while the upper line keeps moving; the reading task is tracking three strands at once.
B · Closing lines and last ritornello
The last hymn phrases lead back to the instrumental music, which rounds the piece off in the home key.

About Wachet auf (Sleepers, Wake!), BWV 645

Bach wrote the cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, for the 27th Sunday after Trinity and performed it in Leipzig on 25 November 1731. Its fourth movement has a tenor singing the hymn tune while unison violins and viola play a lyrical melody above a bass line.

Years later Bach arranged that movement for solo organ. It became the first of six chorale preludes that he published through Johann Georg Schübler in Zella St. Blasii around 1747 to 1748, now called the Schübler Chorales and numbered BWV 645 to 650.

The hymn itself was written by Philipp Nicolai and published in 1599, and it retells the parable of the ten virgins. On the piano, the piece has long been a favorite transcription target; Ferruccio Busoni included it in his 1898 set of ten Bach chorale preludes for piano.

  • The cantata was written for the 27th Sunday after Trinity, which only occurs when Easter falls early, and Bach is known to have performed it only in 1731.
  • Bach's own copy of the first printed edition survives, with handwritten corrections he made before August 1748.
  • Bach's obituary listed the Schübler Chorales among his printed works, and the early Bach biographer Forkel praised them as full of dignity and religious feeling.

Why the first passage is level 5

That passage is level 5 rather than 4 because its key signature has 3 sharps or flats, notes come faster than one per beat, a hand covers more than one position, it leaps a major seventh, it moves in sixteenth notes, it runs fast figuration.

Think of this as three voices: a flowing top melody, a walking bass, and a slow hymn tune in the middle. The page's arrangement divides them between the hands, so watch the places where a voice passes from one hand to the other.

Questions about Wachet auf (Sleepers, Wake!), BWV 645

How hard is Wachet auf (Sleepers, Wake!), BWV 645 to play?
Its passages grade from level 5 to level 10 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 13–16 at level 10.
Is there an easy part of Wachet auf (Sleepers, Wake!), BWV 645 for beginners?
Its easiest passage is level 5, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 1–4 for both hands together, the level-5 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 5 because its key signature has 3 sharps or flats and notes come faster than one per beat.
What key and time signature is Wachet auf (Sleepers, Wake!), BWV 645 in?
Wachet auf (Sleepers, Wake!), BWV 645 is in E-flat major, 3 flats. The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed Wachet auf (Sleepers, Wake!), BWV 645?
Johann Sebastian Bach, German baroque (1685–1750). Bach wrote the cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, for the 27th Sunday after Trinity and performed it in Leipzig on 25 November 1731.
Can I practice Wachet auf (Sleepers, Wake!), BWV 645 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 9 graded passages from Wachet auf (Sleepers, Wake!), BWV 645 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What is the source of Wachet auf BWV 645?
It is Bach's solo organ transcription of the fourth movement of his cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, first performed in Leipzig in 1731.
What are the Schübler Chorales?
They are six organ chorale preludes, BWV 645 to 650, that Bach had published by Johann Georg Schübler around 1747 to 1748, five of which are transcribed from his cantata movements.
Who wrote the hymn Wachet auf?
Philipp Nicolai wrote both the words and the tune, publishing them in 1599 in his Frewden Spiegel deß ewigen Lebens.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 9 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 5
bars 1–4 both hands
Level 6
bars 1–6 both hands · bars 22–25 both hands
Level 7
bars 4–7 both hands · bars 21–24 both hands · bars 33–36 both hands · bars 45–48 both hands
Level 10
bars 13–16 both hands · bars 32–35 both hands

More pieces to sight-read

Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (pdmx), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261023-identity-audit reading release.

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