Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten!, BWV 172, is a 1714
church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, composed in Weimar for
Pentecost Sunday. The title translates as "Ring out, you songs; sound,
you strings!" It is an early work in a genre to which Bach later
contributed complete cantata cycles for all occasions of the liturgical
year. Appointed Konzertmeister in the spring of 1714, he composed
monthly church cantatas, most to texts by court poet Salomon Franck. The
librettist reflects different aspects of the Holy Spirit, including a
quotation from the prescribed Gospel reading and a stanza from Philipp
Nicolai's 1599 hymn "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" as the closing
chorale. The work is in six movements, and scored for four vocal parts,
three trumpets, timpani, oboe d'amore and a string orchestra. Bach
specified an unusual repeat of the opening chorus after the sixth
movement. He led the first performance in the court chapel (pictured in
1660) of the Weimar palace. Bach performed the cantata again several
times during his tenure as Thomaskantor – director of church
music – in Leipzig, indicating that he particularly valued this
cantata.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erschallet,_ihr_Lieder,_erklinget,_ihr_Saiten!_BWV_172>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1776:
American Revolutionary War: British forces defeated the
Continental Army at the Battle of Trois-Rivières, the last major battle
fought on Quebec soil that was part of the American colonists' invasion
of Quebec.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trois-Rivi%C3%A8res>
1887:
German-American statistician Herman Hollerith received a patent
for his punch card calculator.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card>
1950:
Thomas Blamey became the only Australian to attain the rank of
Field Marshal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Blamey>
1972:
Vietnam War: Associated Press photographer Nick Ut took his
Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a naked nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc
running down a road after being burned by napalm.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Thi_Kim_Phuc>
2008:
A Japanese man drove a truck into a crowd of pedestrians in the
Akihabara district of Tokyo, then proceeded to stab at least 12 people
before being apprehended.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihabara_massacre>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
oneironaut:
A person who explores dream worlds, usually associated with lucid
dreaming.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oneironaut>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The best way to solve a problem is to identify the core belief
that causes the problem; then mock that belief until the people who hold
it insist that you heard them wrong.
--Scott Adams
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Scott_Adams>