Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers Awake, BWV 645); Rodney Gehrke, organ 4K HD Video

Hi everyone~! Please consider a donation and we will make more videos like this one :) The organ Chorale of J.S. Bach, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme“ (BWV 645), performed by Rodney Gehrke on the Flentrop organ from All Saints Episcopal Church in Palo Alto, California; HD 4K video from Voices of Music. Voices of Music FAQ Q. How can I support Voices of Music? A. Donate here: and we will make more videos like this one :) Q. Where can I learn more about this music? A. You can visit our website, Also, subscribe to our video channel! Just click on the logo on our videos. Q. Where can we hear you play in concert? A. We perform in the San Francisco Bay Area. For a concert schedule, visit our website or join our mailing list Q. Where can I buy CDs? Our CDs are available on iTunes, Google, Amazon, CD Baby and just about everywhere; you can also buy a CD in a jewel case from Kunaki: Q. What is Early Music performance, or historical performance? A. We play on instruments from the time of the composers, and we use the original music and playing techniques: it’s a special sound. Q. Why are there no conductors? A. Conductors weren’t invented until the 19th century; since we seek to recreate a historical performance, the music is led from the keyboard or violin, or the music is played as chamber music~or both :) Q. What are period instruments or original instruments; how are they different from modern instruments? A. As instruments became modernized in the 19th century, builders and players tended to focus on the volume of sound and the stability of tuning. Modern steel strings replaced the older materials, and instruments were often machine made. Historical instruments, built individually by hand and with overall lighter construction, have extremely complex overtones—which we find delightful. Modern instruments are of course perfectly suited to more modern music. Q. Why is the pitch lower, or higher? A. Early Music performance uses many different pitches, and these pitches create different tone colors on the instruments. See Bach’s chorale setting features music from his cantata BWV 140 which was performed in Leipzig on November 25th, 1731. Originally intended for the 27th Sunday after Trinity, the work is now heard most often in Advent. In 1747, Bach commissioned Johann Georg Johann Georg Schübler to engrave six organ chorales for publication—Bach loved to present his works in groups of six; Schübler engraved the books in Zella, in the forest of Thuringia. Bach based his work on a hymn by Philipp Nicolai. When Nicolai was pastor in Westphalia, the plague killed many of his parishioners; Nicolai wrote a collection of meditations and two hymns in their memory: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, and Wie schoen leuchtet der Morgenstern. Bach’s counterpoint provides a perfect accompaniment for the chorale melody.