#436: Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying
Jun. 5th, 2019 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lutheranhymnsWhat is this music famous for?
Being the "King of Chorales."
Is there a Queen?
Yes, also by Philipp Nicolai, this composer, we'll get to it.
What about the text?
So, the first words of the first three verses are "Wake," "Zion," and "Gloria." This is obviously a translation from German, but "Wake" is the cognate "Wachet," and the other two are Biblical proper names, so the initials are still W, Z, G respectively. This is relevant because it's a backwards acrostic of GwZ, the initials of a student of Nicolai's who died young. This passes for "neat" in the "it's the 1500s and everyone is dying of the plague" kind of way.
When do we sing it?
There's significant overlap between the Bible readings/music for Advent (awaiting the coming of Christ at Christmas) and End Time (awaiting the coming of Christ...later), so this will sometimes pop up in that section as well.
Being the "King of Chorales."
Is there a Queen?
Yes, also by Philipp Nicolai, this composer, we'll get to it.
What about the text?
So, the first words of the first three verses are "Wake," "Zion," and "Gloria." This is obviously a translation from German, but "Wake" is the cognate "Wachet," and the other two are Biblical proper names, so the initials are still W, Z, G respectively. This is relevant because it's a backwards acrostic of GwZ, the initials of a student of Nicolai's who died young. This passes for "neat" in the "it's the 1500s and everyone is dying of the plague" kind of way.
When do we sing it?
There's significant overlap between the Bible readings/music for Advent (awaiting the coming of Christ at Christmas) and End Time (awaiting the coming of Christ...later), so this will sometimes pop up in that section as well.
