Religion and border security

2014-07-28:

I see some American religious leaders are asserting that their view of religion
asserts that letting an evidently unlimited number of children into America
is a religious obligation.

I, needless to say, have a rather different view,
one expressed by J.S. Bach's librettist in BWV 71, number 5,
whose text reads (in the original German and English translation):

Durch mächtige Kraft Erhältst du unsre Grenzen, Hier muss der Friede glänzen, Wenn Mord und Kriegessturm Sich allerort erhebt. Wenn Kron und Zepter bebt, Hast du das Heil geschafft Durch mächtige Kraft!

With mighty power Preservest thou our borders, Here peace must shine, Though murder and storm of war arise everywhere else. If crown and scepter shake, then hast thou salvation provided through mighty power!

Hear how Bach set those words to music here, or in this embed:


A wise religious thought, from 1708 Thuringia.
I think Bach and his librettist had the right idea.

(For the complete text to the cantata, click here
(this is part of a complex web page, so it takes about 10 seconds to load).
For a YouTube playlist of various performances of BWV 71 complete, click here.)



Bach was all of 23 years old when he composed this.
1708, like all of the early eighteenth century, was a good year for music.
In Rome Bach's fellow Saxon and 1685 birth Georg Friedrich Händel
(later anglicized to George Frideric Handel)
was composing La resurrezione.
For more on BWV 71, see http://www.jsbchorales.net/71.shtml,
Wikipedia, or bach-cantatas.com.

The principal performers in the Rilling performance of BWV 71 are:
Arleen Augér, Sopran
Gabriele Schreckenback, Alt
Adalbert Kraus, Tenor
Philippe Huttenlocker, Baß
Gächinger Kantoei Stuttgart
Bach Collegium Stuttgart
Helmuth Rilling, dirigierte.

In the scrolling score, they are
Wilhelm Wiedl, Solist des Tölzer Knabenchores, Sopran
Paul Esswood, Alt
Kurt Equiluz, Tenor
Lieuwe Visser, Baß
Tölzer Knabenchor
Concentur musicus Wien
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gesamtleitung