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> _______________________________ 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> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: oneironaut: A person who explores dream worlds, usually associated with lucid dreaming. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oneironaut> ___________________________ 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>