By my reckoning, Frank Martin and Arthur Honegger were among the greats of 20th-century classical music. Fusing tradition with the new, they created works rich in humanity that leave a deep impression on the listener. Instead of throwing tonality out the window, they enriched it with fascinating new sounds, and they never forgot music’s human [...]
Edvard Grieg composed his "Ave Maris Stella" ("Hail Star of the Sea"), for mixed choir, in 1898. Its lyrics, in Latin and English, are below the embedded video. Ave, maris stella, Dei mater alma, atque semper virgo, felix cœli porta. Sumens illud "Ave" Gabrielis ore, funda nos in pace, mutans Evæ nomen Solve vincla reis, [...]
No piece of classical music grips my ballet-dancer’s imagination like Aram Khachaturian’s “Waltz” from his Masquerade suite. Like his Piano Concerto that I wrote about HERE in 2017, it doesn’t start so much as drop the listener smack into a musical extravaganza, where the lines between listener and music have been erased and, oh Lord, I’m inside it and [...]
Scored for a cappella choir, John Tavener's "Hymn for the Dormition of the Mother of God" was composed in 1985 as the second part of a pair of Marian devotions. Its text is taken from the Feast of the Dormition (or slumber) of the Mother of God, celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church on August [...]
Most “Christian” music is taken from the secular world. People might have nice feelings about Jesus by listening to it, but the secular music was designed to produce certain types of feelings, and why should those warm sentimental feelings or hard emotional feelings be linked with worship? A friend of mine used to quip, “When [...]
In a normal world, Peteris Vasks would be the most famous composer alive. He writes music for an apocalyptic age, in which culture is coming full circle, providing exactly what the world needs: spirituality, depth, presence, beauty. “I want to nourish the soul, that is what I preach in my works.” —Pēteris Vasks Pēteris [...]
Based on the Biblical tale of the young Israelite woman who cuts off the head of the barbarian invader Holofernes, Antonio Vivaldi’s sole surviving oratorio, "Juditha Triumphans," was written to celebrate the 1716 victory of the Republic of Venice over the Turks. "Juditha triumphans devicta Holofernis barbarie" (Judith triumphant over the barbarians of Holofernes), RV 644, is an oratorio by Antonio Vivaldi, the only [...]
In 1900, Jean Sibelius revised his patriotic tone-poem, “Finlandia,” and its popularity grew in leaps and bounds. Suddenly the world knew about Sibelius, “Finlandia,” and Finnish national pride. Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius’ tone-poem, Finlandia, wasn’t supposed to be the program headliner that Saturday night at the San Francisco Symphony. The main draw was the Sibelius Violin [...]
Though Handel continues to loom large in the world of classical music, he is valued for a small portion of his tremendous body of work—mainly "Messiah" and a handful of other pieces. But I continue to find fresh gems from this composer who, for all his fame, is not really all that well known. I [...]
Today in America, people of faith are binding up the unraveled fabric of civil society in tangible ways. We hold the threads individually, but when they are bound together, we can reweave a picture of order and beauty in human souls, woven in the vibrant colors of love. People of faith have given our culture [...]
In “Shop Class as Soulcraft,” Matthew B. Crawford tells a story of diminishment, outlining how we went from a nation of independent tradesmen, farmers, and shop keepers to cubicle dwellers. I am not a fan of Ask This Old House, the spin-off of the PBS home improvement program, This Old House. Formerly the companion series to [...]
In essence, The Imaginative Conservative is a community of philosophers, dedicated to examining, understanding, and enjoying God’s creation. What better anthem for this journal than Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn’s remarkable Symphony No. 22 in E flat major, known as the “Philosopher” Symphony? Though the nickname was probably not Haydn’s, it was given to the work [...]
On May 7, 1945, the German High Command surrendered to the Allies, bringing the war in Europe to an end. The following day was celebrated as Victory in Europe, or V-E, Day. On May 8, General Dwight D. Eisenhower issued a Victory Order of the Day, which read in part: “The crusade on which we [...]
"Too wild and terrible" is what Ludwig van Beethoven is reported to have said about Mozart's famous Requiem. And despite the popularity of this great, unfinished work, the "wild and terrible" side of Mozart has generally been obscured in the public mind, in favor of his seemingly "lighter" works: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, the overture to [...]