Susan Treacy's "The Music of Christendom" serves as a useful introduction to whet one’s appetite, but it could have been considerably more fleshed out. Ultimately this book is a primer, something to spark interest in the rich world of classical music in a primarily religious audience. The Music of Christendom, by Susan Treacy (Ignatius Press, [...]
Beethoven's Fourth Symphony is radiantly joyful music, filled with sunlight, humor, charm, serenity, and contentment. What is Beethoven trying to say in this work? Let us not get mired in the muck of life; let us remember the Paradise we lost and the Heaven to which we are aspiring. In the canon of Ludwig van [...]
Joseph Butler—Anglican bishop, theologian, and philosopher—strikes me as a man deeply involved with the great program of Christian humanism, one who did his bit to guide the ship of Western thought back to its moorings after skepticism had blown it off course. The Analogy of Religion, by Joseph Butler, edited by David McNaughton (259 pages, [...]
Mozart’s genius consisted in absorbing, building upon, and transcending the musical influences of his day. The emotional complexity of his music raises it above the gracious, charming, but often superficial and forgettable aesthetics of the rococo era in which he was raised. In an essay in this journal titled “The Wild and Terrible Mozart,” Stephen [...]
Periods of artistic history are not monolithic, nor does the history as a whole consist of a single straight line. This is especially true of the bustling and diverse 20th century, which produced a good deal of music that continues the great humane Western tradition—a tradition that combines passion and intellect, the personal and the [...]
How do we acquire knowledge about these deepest of questions? People who accept the Judeo-Christian worldview will accept the validity of both faith and reason as sources of knowledge and paths to truth. These two factors interweave and penetrate each other constantly, and the degree of importance or validity that one assigns to one or [...]
“Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day” hearkens back to an era when theological ideas were part of everyone’s mental awareness, ripe for poetry and song. Though the idea of Christ and humanity being united as bridegroom and bride is a classic Christian motif, we are surprised to find it in a popular Christmas carol, and [...]
The ideas of Creation (God making all things through an act of his will) and Incarnation (God being present to his creation) are the reason for the West’s creativity in the arts and sciences, a creativity instigated by Christian minds building upon the classical past. If you happen to read any part of Daniel J. [...]
If culture is simply a matter of private enthusiasms and hobbies, of small details and specialties, then what of a common culture? What about the collective project and shared sense of purpose that built Western civilization? “The expert takes a little subject for his province, and remains a provincial for the rest of his life.”—Jacques [...]
Classical music should not be an arcane special interest but an art form of universal and humane concern. Classical music provides a central cultural focus as do the classics of literature and art, and like those fields, ought to have a touchstone, an enduring norm and standard, and a repertoire of works which everyone should [...]
To be sure, the Bible is a challenge to us: it presents us with a world we did not create, did not reason ourselves into. It is in some places thorny and obscure, in others lucid and consoling, and very often majestic and grand. The world of reason and research can help us make sense [...]
We spend much of our time concerning ourselves with places and people far removed from us. The things closest to us, by contrast, often become negligible and disposable. If you make an effort to reconnect with your neighborhood, town, and community, you may come to see your home in a new light—hallowed by time and [...]
The important thing to remember, if you are sorting through the rich world of classical music, is that style periods are much less real than the music they describe. The job of labels should be to give us some orientation in our listening, but ultimately the music must stand on its own. When I think [...]
Throughout his work, Samuel Adler shows himself a composer unafraid to engage with the deepest spiritual questions. His ecumenicism is based on a commitment to truth, to humanity, and to the word of God, and his music is based on perennial aesthetic values of clarity and beauty. For that reason, his music speaks to our [...]