[Publius]

Back in 1980, Joshua Rifkin wrote a scholarly paper in one of the journals arguing that the choruses in the Bach cantatas were actually performed by the four soloists and not by a genuine chorus. It was a schola, not a massed chorus.

A few months later, Gerard Schwarz programmed a concert with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in Pasadena programming two different Bach cantatas based on Rifkin's theory. It was a brave move on Schwarz's part, and it worked quite well. You could hear the vocal lines much more clearly.

[ConorMacNessa]

Good evening, Maestro! Had not heard that before, but it makes perfect sense to me. Along the same lines, some of the best performances of Messiah I have heard are sung by a choir of 16 rather than a large choir.

"Dia shábháil ar fad anseo!"

This is the Arabic character "nun" – the first letter of the word "Nazarene." I post it as my avatar in solidarity with people of all faiths suffering persecution at the hands of Islam. Many of them are members of the oldest of our Christian Communities, dating from the days of the Apostles. They endure cruel, merciless and unrelenting persecution. They are Orthodox and Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical, Coptic, Pentecostal, and Baptist. To the persecutors they, and we, are all "Nazarenes."