Saint Francis of Assisi took no created thing for granted, finding them all reflections of God and reasons to praise Him. For Francis, even the birds themselves praised God by their singing—an action we perform consciously with the assent of our reason and will. Some of the earliest literature in the Italian language owes its [...]
Since the deaths of the modern musical giants, a great many composers have exerted themselves writing ephemera that is forgotten as soon as it’s heard and means nothing to the vast majority of people. But there are modern choral composers that have produced music that means a good deal to a great many people. One [...]
As we think about the problems of modernity, let us recognize what the great mid-20th-century artists and thinkers achieved and immerse ourselves in their works. While it is a good thing to react against modern times with the conscience of a conservative, let us do so fully aware of our roots in this most modern [...]
The mature music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven—the Viennese Classical composers—reflects the best ideals of the Enlightenment in that it embodies rational clarity and order and makes a direct appeal to the listener without undue obscurity. What they produced forms the backbone of a repertoire of music that is recognized and celebrated as some of [...]
Peter Kwasniewski's "Good Music, Sacred Music, and Silence" is one of the most substantive books on the topic of music and the sacred I have read. He leads us on a sort of spiritual ascent from good music (music for enjoyment) to sacred music (music for worship) to the beauty of silent contemplation, arguing that [...]
Francis Poulenc’s “Dialogues of the Carmelites” is based on the true story of the Martyrs of Compiègne, a community of sixteen Carmelite nuns who were guillotined during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. Many hold it in high esteem as one of the twentieth century’s greatest operas. The Metropolitan Opera’s series of High Definition (HD) [...]
It’s usually only the rationalists and skeptics who find their way into the great surveys of thought. But religion always rises from the ashes. This is thanks in no small part to the imaginative thinkers who revealed Christianity as what it always was, although not always ideally expressed by us: a thing of mystery, romance, [...]
We do have moral obligations and duties, and we should perform them conscientiously. But they serve a larger purpose; they are to build us up and make us fit for heaven—to make us happy. Angelic Virtues and Demonic Vices: Aquinas’s Practical Principles for Reaching Heaven and Avoiding Hell, by Fr. Basil Cole, OP (275 pages, [...]
At a time when intellectual Europeans scoffed at the very possibility of America producing art or beauty, the Hudson School created an outpouring of beauty worthy of any country. It was an aesthetic uniquely American, based on hope in a bountiful land blessed by Providence but also aware that our world below is dark without [...]
Of all the music of the world, Western classical music is distinctive by virtue of its complexity, both technical and emotional, and for projecting a compelling sense of drama and narrative. In it we hear nothing less than the human soul reflected through the medium of sound. When thinking or writing about Western classical music, [...]
If American philosopher William James offers no systematic defense of religion as Aquinas did, that was never his intent; what he does is show that faith is in tune with man’s nature, experience, and aspirations. That, it seems to me, is nothing to disparage and indeed something to celebrate. Preparing a study guide recently for [...]
The spiritual life (including the prayer and rites of religion) and the cultural life (including the artistic and intellectual cultivation of the human person in its countless forms) together ensure that life is more than a blind cycle, a march leading nowhere. They reveal the sense of our pilgrimage and light a path to our [...]
The psalms offer themselves as a constant companion through life, anticipating and giving voice to every spiritual concern we may have. They contain a world of thought and feeling, imagery and lyricism. And they supply the profoundest substance to all those of us who need material for our prayer or who don’t always pray as [...]
While there have been countless classical pieces about a single season—spring music alone is almost a cliché—complete seasonal cycles are a rarity in the classical canon. If we dig into the repertoire a bit, we find a handful of seasons cycles apart from Vivaldi’s perennial favorite. Here I have settled on cycles by Haydn, Roussel, [...]