Merry Christmas!

Seasons greetings to all my readers all over the world and best wishes to you all. I've mentioned before how impressed I am that this blog is read in so many different countries--and so many of them non-English-speaking. Music may not be a language, exactly, but it is pretty universal. Thanks to you all for reading the blog and especially for commenting. There will be lots of things to explore and discuss in the new year. For today, here is some appropriate music. The first performance of Bach's Christmas Oratorio (put together with new text from a number of previous compositions) was Christmas 1734. The second performance was not until Christmas 1857, one hundred and twenty-three years later! Wikipedia has quite a good article on the piece here.