Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen (lit. 'I will gladly carry the cross-staff'), BWV 56, is a solo cantata for a bass singer by Johann Sebastian Bach. First performed in Leipzig on 27 October 1726, the 19th Sunday after Trinity, it was scored for woodwinds, strings and continuo, and features an obbligato oboe. The autograph score (pictured) is one of a few cases where Bach described one of his compositions as a cantata. In 2015 it was discovered that Bach collaborated with mathematics and theology student Christoph Birkmann, who wrote the text about a Christian willing to "carry the cross" as a follower of Jesus, in a life compared to a voyage towards a harbour. The work's five movements include arias, recitatives and the chorale "Komm, o Tod, du Schlafes Bruder" ('Come, o death, you brother of sleep'). In his Bach biography, Albert Schweitzer said it placed "unparalleled demands on the dramatic imagination of the singer". It has been recorded more than 100 times since a 1939 live broadcast. Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_will_den_Kreuzstab_gerne_tragen,_BWV_56> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1934: Jeannette Piccard piloted a hot-air balloon flight that reached 57,579 feet (17,550 m), becoming the first woman to fly in the stratosphere. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_Piccard> 1942: World War II: Japanese troops began an unsuccessful attempt to recapture Henderson Field on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands from American forces. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_for_Henderson_Field> 1972: Vietnam War: Operation Linebacker, a U.S. bombing campaign against North Vietnam in response to its Easter Offensive, ended after five months. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Linebacker> 2015: Hurricane Patricia, the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Western Hemisphere, peaked with maximum sustained winds of 215 mph (345 km/h) south of Mexico. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Patricia> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: outgo: 1. (transitive) 2. (archaic) To go further than (someone or something); to exceed, to go beyond, to surpass. 3. (obsolete) 4. To experience, go through, or undergo (something). 5. To travel faster than (someone or something); to outstrip, to overtake. 6. (intransitive) 7. (archaic except poetic and Britain, regional) To go out, to set forth, to set out. 8. (obsolete) To go too far; to overextend or overreach. 9. (countable, business, archaic except India) A cost, expenditure, or outlay. 10. (uncountable) The act or process of going out; (countable) an instance of this; an outgoing. 11. (archaic or obsolete) 12. (countable) The means by which something flows or goes out; an outlet. 13. (uncountable, rare) A (quantity of a) substance or thing that has flowed out; an outflow. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/outgo> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:   We are all assumed, these days, to reside at one extreme of the opinion spectrum, or another. We are pro-abortion or anti-abortion. We are free traders or protectionist. We are pro-private sector or pro-big government. We are feminists or chauvinists. But in the real world, few of us hold these extreme views. There is instead a spectrum of opinion. The extreme positions of the Crossfire Syndrome require extreme simplification — framing the debate in terms that ignore the real issues.   --Michael Crichton <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton>