VLVL2 (15): Wachet Auf

[Dave Monroe]

"Not only had the entire population actually slept the
night before, but tehy were now also wakening, in
reply to a piping, chiming music, synchronized, coming
out of wristwatches, timers, and personal computers,
engraved long ago, as if for this moment, on sound
chips dumped once in an obscure skirmish of the
silicon market wars, expedited in fact by Takeshi
Fumimota, as part of a settlement with the
ever-questionable trading company of Tokkata & Fuji,
all playing together now, and in four-part harmony,
the opening of J.S. Bach's 'Wachet Auf.'" (VL, Ch. 15,
pp. 324-5)

"Wachet Auf"

J.S. Bach, "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme," BWV 140

http://www.jsbach.org/bwv140.html

Cf. ...

http://www.jsbach.org/bwv645.html

Wake, arise, the voices call us 
Of watchmen from the lofty tower; 
Arise, thou town Jerusalem! 
Midnight's hour doth give its summons; 
They call to us with ringing voices; 
Where are ye prudent virgins now? 
Make haste, the bridegroom comes; 
Rise up and take your lamps! 
Alleluia! 
Prepare to join 
The wedding feast, 
Go forth to meet him as he comes!

http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV140.html

"one of the best tunes ever to come out of Europe"
(VL, Ch. 15, p. 325)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0404&msg=90329

Procol Harum's renowned 1967 hit A Whiter Shade of
Pale (henceforth AWSOP) is widely known for its
baroque-styled organ solo, composed by the group's
organist, Matthew Fisher (Gary Brooker is responsible
for the rest of the music, and Keith Reid the lyric).
Fisher, an admirer of Bach, has cited in interviews
two very well-known Bach works as inspiration, the
Aria from Bach's Orchestral Suite in D, BWV 1068, more
popularly known as the Air for the G String, and the
chorale prelude BWV 645, Wachet auf, ruft uns die
Stimme, known auf Englisch as Sleepers, wake....

http://web.archive.org/web/20010818125047/www.bachfaq.org/awsopafg.html

Back on Pynchon, Spike Jones 'n' Lotion a.s.a.p. ...


		
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