People are often ashamed or confused about the idea of wrestling with eternal longing because it means first acknowledging a very specific kind of emptiness, one that can’t be filled by cake or any other earthly pleasure. C.S. Lewis gives his listeners heart by echoing St. Augustine, who said “God gives where he finds empty [...]
Given that progressive rock tends to be literary and intelligent, it should not be shocking that there are also many great books coming out about the genre. Here are several recent books that every prog rock music lover should own. Amazingly enough, I’m one of the conservatives who also loves progressive rock music. To be [...]
Author Neil Butterworth alerts us to a classical side of Americana which is too often ignored, certainly compared to the attention given our accomplishments in literature. Our achievements in serious music are in no way inferior, and they deserve to be passionately sung. The American Symphony, by Neil Butterworth (366 pages, Routledge, 2020) The contribution [...]
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was a phenomenal composer, and his gifts for fully fleshed-out musical ideas that created cinematic moods were extraordinary. The second movement (“Romance”) of his Violin Concerto makes me think of a darkening summer evening. You know, the kind where the sun set earlier but still lends a glow to the western sky [...]
As we know, the question of what progress is, and whether it exists at all, is a vexed one. This goes also for the arts, and specifically music. Music, particularly our Western classical tradition of music, certainly develops through time. The music of Wagner sounds very different from the music of Palestrina, and in turn [...]
Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy i slava, i volia" ('Glory and Freedom of Ukraine has not yet Perished'), also known by its official title of "State Anthem of Ukraine" or by its shortened form "Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy," is the national anthem of Ukraine. It is one of the state symbols of the country. The lyrics [...]
Léo Delibes’ “Flower Duet” is utterly transporting. It’s so pure, the only thing you can compare it to is the finest of champagnes, the way the first sip makes you feel. What is so irresistible about Delibes’ music is his ability to apply colorful orchestration, harmonic dexterity, delicious rhythms, in a fully fleshed-out symphonic sound [...]
Music’s purity and detachment from other fields of activity means that it is has a purifying effect on the soul. It frees us from captivity to the world of things and from history, ideology, and politics, and raises us to an experience of pure emotional and spiritual states. Music is often claimed to be—and valued [...]
The movie "Amadeus" is a wondrous meditation, through the reminiscences of Antonio Salieri, on the ways of genius, the value of contrition, and the arbitrariness of metaphysical justice. "Amadeus" opened the door to a fantastic world of whose existence I had not been aware. The movie changed my life. " —Anonymous viewer of the film [...]
Could anything as tender and touching as "L’Enfance du Christ" have been written by a man who did not believe? One hopes that professed atheist Hector Berlioz was able to find the Christmas that he portrayed so beautifully. The poet Wallace Stevens once wrote that “The major poetic idea in the world is and always [...]
Who completed Mozart's unfinished Requiem? The masterpiece that we know today was the work of many hands. But who wrote which parts? And how much did Mozart actually write? "The last movement of his lips was an endeavor to indicate where the kettledrums should be used in his Requiem. I think I still hear the [...]
We know where, when, and how the famous song "America" ("My Country, 'Tis of Thee") came to be written. But what led Samuel Francis Smith, a young Baptist divinity student, to choose the words he did to go with the tune in front of him? Why was a person in training for Baptist ministry writing [...]
Valkyrie is a 2008 thriller film directed and co-produced by Bryan Singer and written by Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander. The film is set in Nazi Germany during World War II and depicts the 20 July plot in 1944 by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to use the Operation Valkyrie national emergency [...]
Michael Haydn's Requiem—like the composer himself—has receded into the historical mists. But this astounding work heavily influenced Mozart's own Requiem and is worthy of comparison with every other setting of the Mass for the Dead ever composed. Michael Haydn The 1984 film Amadeus brought to the general public's attention that many minor composers [...]