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Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde (Haste to strike, oh, longed-for hour), BWV 53, is an aria for alto, bells, strings and continuo by an unknown composer. The aria likely originated in the early 18th century. From the last quarter of the 18th century to the first half of the 20th century the aria was generally attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach. In the Bach-Jahrbuch of 1955 it was suggested that the aria's composer was more likely to be found in the circle around Melchior Hoffmann, a musician active in Leipzig until his death in 1715. From then on, the composition has often been attributed to Hoffmann, with the caveat that such attribution is only based on indirect evidence. It is one of three works to have been attributed to Bach before being attributed to Hoffmann, the others being the German Magnificats BWV 189 and BWV Anh. 21.

It is the oldest known orchestral composition in which bells are used as a musical instrument. Qualified as mourning aria in its earliest extant sources, the composition was likely extracted from an otherwise lost larger vocal work. Consisting of a single movement, it was, from the early 19th century, described as a church cantata, and was published as such by the Bach Gesellschaft in 1863. By the early 20th century, no cantata was performed more often than Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde. The aria lost some of its popularity once its attribution to Bach was put in doubt. It did however keep repertoire throughout the second half of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century, with, on average, a new recording of the work being released at least every two years.

History
The composer of Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde is unknown. The oldest extant document mentioning the aria, a catalogue printed in 1761, lists it as an anonymous composition. The oldest extant copy of the aria, the only 18th-century source for its music, names Johann Sebastian Bach as its composer. In the 19th century, Bach biographers such as Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Karl Hermann Bitter and Philipp Spitta, and the editors of the Bach Gesellschaft, were among those who took that attribution for granted. Woldemar Voigt, writing in the Bach-Jahrbuch of 1906, supposed that the aria might have been composed by someone else than Bach. Albert Schweitzer and W. Gillies Whittaker, both writing in the first half of the 20th century, continued to attribute the composition to Bach. According to Whittaker, who acknowledged that the authorship of the aria had been placed in doubt, its principal musical theme "is so lovely and the charm of the whole so great that one questions whether any other composer of the day could have written it."

Karl Anton (theologian) suggested, in an article in the Bach-Jahrbuch of 1955 (published in 1956), that the aria likely originated in the circle around Melchior Hoffmann. In the next volume of the Bach-Jahrbuch, published in 1957, Alfred Dürr confirmed that BWV 53 was likely composed by Hoffmann. In his 1971 book on Bach's cantatas, Dürr listed Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde as spuriously attributed to Bach. When Andreas Glöckner reattributed the Little Magnificat, BWV Anh. 21, to Hoffman in the early 1980s, he mentioned BWV 53 and the German Magnificat BWV 189 as works by Hoffmann. In the 1998 revision of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV), by Dürr and Yoshitake Kobayashi, Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde was moved to the second Anhang, that is the Anhang of works doubtfully attributed to Bach, naming Hoffmann as its possible composer. In Richard D. P. Jones's 2006 translation of Dürr's book on Bach's cantatas the aria is listed as spurious, mentioning Hoffmann as possible composer. According to Bach Digital the composer of the aria is unknown, the alternative attributions to Bach and to Hoffmann being mentioned on the website.

As for estimates when the aria was composed: in the period when it was generally attributed to Bach those estimates ranged from the first decades of the 18th century (Forkel) to the 1720s or 1730s (e.g. Spitta, Terry, Schmieder). If composed by Hoffmann, the aria would have originated before the composer's death in Leipzig on 6 October 1715. In the Bach-Jahrbuch of 1994, Peter Wollny offered a possibility to narrow the aria's time of origin down: after the death of King Frederick I of Prussia on 25 February 1713, Hoffmann was commissioned to compose mourning music for a commemorative service which was held in Halle on 1 May, in honor of the deceased king. Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde may, together with a Trauersinfonie (Mourning Symhony) in F minor which was also tentatively attributed to Hoffmann, be a remnant of the otherwise lost mourning music composed for that occasion.

Forkel listed Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde as a church cantata. According to Anton's 1955 article, the aria was likely extracted from a larger vocal work. Spitta, drawing a comparison with other solo cantatas, including Ich habe genug, BWV 82, an aria of which can be found in the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach (indicating that it was performed at home), thought that Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde was not intended for performance in church, but for private performance. An exceptional feature of the aria's music is its usage of bells: as far as known, it is the earliest composition specifying bells as musical instruments in an orchestral setting. Bach was among the composers of the first half of the 18th century who adopted bells as musical instruments: he had specified a bells register to be added to the pedalboard of the organ of the Blasius church in Mühlhausen when the works to renovate it were started in 1708.

The text author of Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde is unknown. Spitta believed that Salomon Franck's style is recognisable in the text. Hence, the lyrics of the aria are sometimes attributed to Franck. The opening line of the aria is similar to "So schlage doch, du letzter Stundenschlag!" ("Then strike, you stroke of the last hour!") from Franck's text for BWV 161, a cantata Bach composed in 1716. The theme of longing for death, as expressed in such text, may come across as strange to a modern audience, but was no exception in sacred music of the first half of the 18th century. In such approach, an early death was seen as precipitating the resurrection promised by Christ. If Wollny's conjectures about a possible origin of the aria in the spring of 1713 are correct, then Johann Michael Heineccius would have been the author of its text.

Text and music
Extant 18th-century sources qualify Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde as Trauer Arie (lit. 'mourning aria'). As a cantata, it is described as a sacred cantata for a funeral. The text of the aria, with Lucy Broadwood's singable translation, reads:

The lyrics of the aria have also been translated as: The aria is scored for alto, two bells, first and second violins, viola, and continuo. The time signature is. In Breitkopf & Härtel's vocal score edition, the performance time of the aria is indicated as approximately ten minutes. After the 1970s, a performance time exceeding nine minutes has however become exceptional, Gloria Banditelli's 1990 recording being such an exception. Breitkopf's website gives seven minutes as duration of the work. After the 1980s, performance times of less than six minutes, for example Carlos Mena's 2000 recording, are no longer exceptional.
 * Strike, Thou Hour so Long Expected
 * Strike, O Bell
 * Strike, oh strike, awaited hour
 * Strike then thou, O blessed hour
 * Strike then, desired hour

Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde is a da capo aria starting with a section played by strings and continuo, followed by a ternary form (A–B–A structure). The introductory section has pauses which slow the music down. A motive in rocking motion, played by the violins, may symbolise the tolling of bells. In the aria, the tolling bells and continuo play in concert, echoed in the bell-like accompaniment of the crotchets in the violins. The first two lines of the text are repeated a few times in the "A" section of the aria, with shorter note values for each repetition (that is: each time faster), conveying a sense of urgency to the plea expressed by the text. The last six lines of the text are used for the "B" section of the da capo, after which text and music of the "A" section are repeated.

The composition is in E major, with the bells sounding the tonic (E) and dominant (B). In the score, the bells are indicated as "Campanella" (lit. 'little bell'). The notes for the bells are written as G2 and D3 on a stave with a bass clef and no key signature in the oldest extant manuscript of the composition. Following the conventions for transposing instruments that would indicate E2 and B2 (that is E and B in the great octave), or E3 and B3 (that is e and b in the small octave). The "Campanella" indication in the score rather suggests bells in the treble range, that is E and B above Middle C (E4 and B4, or e' and b' in the one-line octave). In a contemporary performance, such bells could have been activated by the manuals or pedals of an organ. The aria could not have been performed using conventional church bells large enough to go down to the great or small octave, because of their size and the problem of coordinating players in the church and the belfry. Modern performances mostly play the bells in the pitches of the one-line octave. Voigt advises against performing the aria with high-pitched bells.

Reception
In a catalogue, printed for the Michaelmas fair of 1761 in Leipzig, Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf offered manuscript copies of the mourning aria (Trauer-Arie) Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde. Around 1780, a scribe of the Breitkopf firm made such a copy. Via the hands of Johann Kirnberger this copy passed to the Amalienbibliothek, that is the library of Kirnberger's employer Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia. Forkel mentioned Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde in his Bach biography in the early 19th century: he found the usage of bells of doubtful taste. Wilhelm Rust's edition of Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde, as Cantata No. 53 in Vol. 12.2 of the Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe (BGA), published in 1863, was based on the Amalienbibliothek copy. The cantata was performed in the Gewandhaus in Leipzig in 1867 and 1873. In 1880, Spitta described the aria as well-known.

The Bach-Jahrbuch of 1906 lists 20 public performances of Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde, in various European cities, in the period from late 1904 to early 1907, which makes it, among the cantatas listed for that period, the most often performed one. Contemporaneous authors, such as Voigt and Schweitzer, affirmed that the aria was very well known. In 1906, Novello published a vocal score of the cantata, edited by John Pointer, with Paul England's translation of the lyrics. In the early 1920s the same translation was published in Vienna, with a score edited by Wilhelm Fischer.

Emmi Leisner recorded Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde in 1926: it was the first time a cantata was recorded. By the 1930s, Actus tragicus (BWV 106) became the most often performed cantata. Günter Raphael's vocal score edition of Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde, with Broadwood's translation of the lyrics, was published in 1933. Whittaker's edition of the aria, with Strike, O Bell as translation of the lyrics, was published in 1936. The same year, Lina Falk recorded Air de la Cloche des Agonisants, a French version of the aria. Ten years later, Mary Jarred recorded the aria with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karl Rankl: the recording was released in 1949, on two sides of a 78rpm disc.

In 1950, the cantata was listed as No. 53 in the first edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis. In 1951 it was the first cantata recorded by Archiv Produktion. Also Hilde Rössel-Majdan, Herta Glaz, Margarete Ast and Helen Watts recorded the aria in the 1950s. In the same decade Eulenburg published a miniature score of the cantata, with an English translation of the lyrics. Whittaker's book on Bach's cantatas was published posthumously in 1959: in the publication he describes the musical style of BWV 53 as "somewhat unusual", with questionable scoring for the violas. After Hoffmann had been suggested as composer of the aria in scholarship of the second half of the 1950s, also other publications started to mention him as possible composer, which affected the popularity of the work negatively.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the cantata was recorded by Claudia Hellmann, Maureen Forrester, Elena Obraztsova and Birgit Finnilä. The aria was mostly sung by contraltos (e.g. Forrester) and altos (e.g. Finnilä), occasionally also by mezzo-sopranos (e.g. Obraztsova). Two recordings with the aria sung by a countertenor (respectively Henri Ledroit and René Jacobs) and two sung by a mezzo-soprano (respectively Shirley Love and Jard van Nes) were realised in the 1980s. The Kalmus Edition of the vocal score, published in 1985, contained Broadwood's translation of the lyrics, and attributed the composition to Bach.

In 1992 the choreographer Mark Morris set the Bell Cantata, BWV 53, as a pas de deux for a female and male dancer. Titled "Beautiful Day", it was an explicit reference to Morris's previous pas de deux, dating back to seven years earlier, "One Charming Night". According to Joan Acolella, Morris's biographer, the Bell Cantata evokes not romantic love, but divine love. The dance was staged with the music performed with bells, strings and continuo, and mezzo-soprano Mary Westbrook-Geha singing the lyrics in German. According to critic Jack Anderson, the words of the Bell Cantata "express a soul's longing to be with God." Jochen Kowalski and Robin Blaze realised countertenor recordings of the aria in the 1990s.

When the composition was moved to Anh. II in the 1998 edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, its formal number became BWV 53 / Anh. II 23‑>, positioning it as first entry in that Anhang. Volume I/41 of the New Bach Edition, published in 2000, included a critical commentary about the aria, without including its score. Recordings realised around the turn of the century include those by Guillemette Laurens, Daniel Taylor, Gérard Lesne and Marianne Beate Kielland. Andreas Scholl recorded the cantata in 2011. Clifford Bartlett described BWV 53 as "one of the better-known cantatas", in which two bells sound a "memorable and powerful" knell, in his program notes for Scholl's recording. Other countertenor recordings of the 2010s include those by Christophe Dumaux, Damien Guillon and Bejun Mehta, and Blaze's second recording (with Bach Collegium Japan). In 2018, the Berlin State Library made a digital facsimile of the only extant 18th-century manuscript score of the aria available on its website.

Recordings
In the table below, dates in the first column refer to when the performance was recorded (not when the recording was issued). Voice types in the third column adopt the terminology as rendered on the issued recording, for example for Robin Blaze: "countertenor" for his 1998 recording, and "alto" for his 2015 recording.