Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4, is an Easter chorale cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. Translated to "Christ lay in death's bonds" (pictured in an 18th-century Luther Bible), it is one of his earliest church cantatas, a genre to which Bach later contributed complete cantata cycles for all occasions of the liturgical year. The composition was probably intended for a performance in 1707, supporting his application for a post at a church in Mühlhausen. Both text and music are based on Martin Luther's Easter hymn of the same name. An opening sinfonia is followed by seven chorale variations per omnes versus: Bach used in each vocal movement the unchanged words and tune of a stanza of the chorale. The variations are arranged symmetrically: chorus–duet–solo–chorus–solo–duet–chorus, with the focus on the central fourth stanza about the battle between Life and Death. For his first Easter as Thomaskantor in Leipzig in 1724, Bach used the cantata again, and also for the following year as part of his cycle of chorale cantatas. In the extant score of the Leipzig performances, the four vocal parts are sometimes reinforced by a choir of trombones.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_lag_in_Todes_Banden,_BWV_4

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1329:

Pope John XXII issued a papal bull declaring that some of the works of German theologian and mystic Meister Eckhart were heretical. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meister_Eckhart

1794:

To protect American merchant ships from Barbary pirates, the United States Congress passed the Naval Act to establish a naval force, consisting of the USS Constitution and five other frigates, which eventually became the United States Navy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_six_frigates_of_the_United_States_Navy

1941:

Encouraged by the British Special Operations Executive, a group of pro-Western Serb-nationalist Royal Yugoslav Air Force officers planned and conducted a coup d'état after Yugoslavia joined the Axis powers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

1976:

The Washington Metro, the second-busiest rapid transit system in the US, opened to commuters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Metro

2009:

The dam holding Situ Gintung, an artificial lake in Tangerang District, Indonesia, failed, resulting in floods killing at least 100 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situ_Gintung

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

paternoster: 1. (Christianity) The Lord's prayer, especially in a Roman Catholic context. 2. A slow, continuously moving lift or elevator consisting of a loop of open-fronted cabins running the height of a building, the arrangement resembling a rosary. The moving compartment is entered at one level and left when the desired level is reached. 3. (architecture) A bead-like ornament in mouldings. […] 4. (archaic) A string of beads used in counting prayers that are said; a rosary. 5. (archaic) A patent medicine, so named because salesmen would pray the Lord's prayer over it before selling it. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/paternoster

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.   --Jesus https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jesus