Part of a project for Emmanuel Music's 50th anniversary season that included commissioning four local composers: John Harbison, Kati Agocs, Jonathan Bailey Holland, and Yehudi Wyner, to create a cappella motets directly inspired by four cantatas (BWV 1, 4, 14, and 140). The project was delayed by COVID.

Sleepers Wake is a three-minute six-voice motet designed as a prelude to Bach’s Cantata 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Awake, the Voice Calls Us). Compression of the text and the use of English were needed for concision and comprehension. Two median tonalities suspend between wakefulness and sleep until resolving to the cantata’s home key.