Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! BWV 70
| Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! | |
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BWV
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| Church cantata by J. S. Bach | |
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| Performed | |
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| Cantata text | Salomon Franck |
| Chorale | |
| Vocal | SATB choir and solo |
| Instrumental |
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Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! (Watch! Pray! Pray! Watch!) is the title of two church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed a first version, BWV 70a, in Weimar for the second Sunday in Advent of 1716 and expanded it in 1723 in Leipzig to BWV 70, a cantata in two parts for the 26th Sunday after Trinity.
On 2 March 1714 Bach was appointed concertmaster of the Weimar court capelle of the co-reigning dukes Wilhelm Ernst and Ernst August of Saxe-Weimar. As concertmaster, he assumed the principal responsibility for composing new works, specifically cantatas for the Schlosskirche (palace church), on a monthly schedule. Bach originally wrote this cantata in his last year there, for the Second Sunday of Advent.
The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Romans, call of the Gentiles (), and from the Gospel of Luke, the Second Coming of Christ, also called Second Advent (). The cantata text was provided by the court poet Salomon Franck, published in Evangelische Sonn- und Fest-Tages-Andachten in 1717. Bach wrote five movements, a chorus and four arias, and concluded with the fifth verse of the chorale "Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht" by Christian Keymann.
Bach first performed the cantata on 6 December 1716.
In Leipzig, Advent was a quiet time (tempus clausum), thus no cantata music was performed in services from Advent II to Advent IV. In order to use the music again, Bach had to dedicate it to a different liturgical event and chose the 26th Sunday after Trinity with a similar theme. The prescribed readings for this Sunday were from The Second Epistle of Peter, "look for new heavens and a new earth" (), and from the Gospel of Matthew, the Second Coming of Christ, also called Second Advent (). An unknown poet kept the existing movements and added recitatives and a chorale to end part 1 of the new cantata, the final verse of "Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele" by Christoph Demantius.
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