VL-IV (15) Wachet Auf, pages 323/325

[Robin Landseadel]

Unusually dense musical references here, integrated into the story to  
a greater degree than anything else Pynchon attempted before this. The  
Becker/Traverse family reunion is in start-up mode. The second  
paragraph has the clan waking up:

	. . . clock-radio alarms began to kick on in a thickening radio 	
	fugue of rock and roll till dawn, Bible interpretation, telephone
	voices still complaining about yesterday's news.

“Clock-Radio Alarms” and “thickening radio fugue” anticipate J.S.  
Bach’s “Wachet Auf.”

	Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, also known as
	Sleepers, Wake, is a cantata written in 1731 by Johann
	Sebastian Bach. It is scored for horn, 2 oboes, taille (an
	instrument similar to the oboe da caccia, today often substituted
	with an English horn), violino piccolo, violin, viola, basso
	continuo, and choir with soprano, tenor, and bass soloists.

	BWV 140 is based on the chorale of the same name by Philipp
	Nicolai. This Lutheran hymn remains popular today both in its
	original German and in a variety of English translations. The
	text on which it is based is the parable of the ten virgins in
	Matthew 25:1–13, a reading that was scheduled in the Lutheran
	lectionary of the time for the 27th Sunday after Trinity. Because
	this Sunday only occurred in the church year when Easter was
	very early, the cantata was rarely performed.

	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BWV_140

“Wachet auf” has a dense fugal texture and rich orchestration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC35GS88OqA

. . . . making the concept of all those cheap “Tokkata & Fuji”* sound  
chips all the more absurd. More to the point, the delayed/staggered  
entrances and harmonizing in this scene are fugal tropes as well and  
the Beckers and Traverses early morning rituals anticipate [and pretty  
much describe] "Wachut Auf". We move from a radio fugue to the sounds  
emitted by silicon chips that were somehow designed to "know" when  
it’s the “right time” to the subject matter of the Cantata—Sleepers  
Awake. If this is not a full-scaled “Resurrection” than this is at  
least a resurrection of sorts for the thanatoids.

	. . . to one of the best tunes ever to come out of Europe, even
	with its timing adapted to the rigors of a disco percussion track
	able to make the bluest Thanatoid believe, however briefly, in
	resurrection, they woke, the Thanatoids woke . . .
	VL, 325

As soon as we find out about this partial resurrection, the “camera’s  
eye” moves to Prairie, DL and Takeshi down in L.A.—their scanner tuned  
into Radio Thanatoid—and the the three swinging into action. Of  
course, the language of the scene where the thanatoids wake up points  
us back to the business of Karmic Adjustment:

	“This was like a class-action lawsuit suddenly resolved after
	generations in the courts.”
	VL, 325

But just as soon as we are reacquainted with the unavenged dead— 
seemingly now getting some of that long delayed payback—we are  
transported back to the city of compromised dreams. And dissolve into  
yet another series of flashbacks/backstories as we meet up with  
Prairie’s longtime friend Che.