{"id":14504,"date":"2021-05-04T13:41:50","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T17:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=14504"},"modified":"2024-10-11T10:05:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T14:05:04","slug":"social-injustice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/social-injustice\/","title":{"rendered":"Conductors Fight Social Injustice with ‘Awake, Arise!’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Awake,
A team of composers including Kalamazoo College Assistant Professor of Music Chris Ludwa are targeting social injustice and racial inequities with “Awake, Arise!”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Based on a tune originally written during the plague, \u201cAwake, Arise!\u201d revitalizes a 500-year-old melody with the words of Black authors, activists and artists who breathe new life into the music<\/a> of Johann Sebastian Bach. The result is a dramatic musical composition calling on audiences to acknowledge injustice and work together to change the world.<\/p>\n

Bach\u2019s cantata \u201cWachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme\u201d is a work that would be performed during Advent in preparation for the arrival of Christmas and the birth of Jesus. It premiered in 1731 in Leipzig, and is based on a hymn written by Philipp Nicolai in the wake of the plague in the 16th century. The original text encourages the preparation for Jesus\u2019 arrival, encouraging us to \u201cWake up, as the voice calls to us.\u201d<\/p>\n