The cave image deals with the actual habitation of human nature, that is, of the embodied soul, and with the painful steps and stations of its slow ascent. 1. Book VII begins with this invitation to Glaucon: “Now, after this, liken our nature, as far as education and the lack of education is concerned, to [...]
J.R.R. Tolkien considered music to be an essential part of life. Not only did he have his characters sing songs throughout the stories of both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but in The Silmarillion, he also imagined creation itself as the making of music: And it came to pass that Ilúvatar called together all [...]
Johann Sebastian Bach was a faithful Lutheran, which makes it all the more surprising that perhaps his greatest work was a musical setting of the Roman Catholic Mass in Latin. J. S. Bach is widely considered to be one of the history’s greatest musical composers. You’ve certainly heard his music before, and if you’ve taken [...]
In the last century, the concept of “progress” was often projected upon the arts as a measurement of quality: “good art” was “progressive art.” If an artist did not commit some “groundbreaking” artistic deed, his work was considered worthless. While progress in science is a fundamental notion, in the arts it is meaningless because the [...]
At the age of eleven I began to spend most of my pocket money on records, buying a new hit single every week. Glam rock was all the rage and David Bowie became one of my idols. Bowie would get himself into trouble in the seventies for his brief flirtation with fascism. In an interview [...]
Mozart wrote everything with a facility and rapidity, which perhaps at first sight could appear as carelessness or haste; and while writing he never came to the klavier. His imagination presented the whole work, when it came to him, clearly and vividly…. In the quiet repose of the night, when no obstacle hindered his soul, [...]
It has been said that the Germanic soul and the forest are one and the same thing. A sense of “Being” is what the Forest is all about to the Faustian: the Mystery that inspires imagination—the most intense Reality that there is. “Deep roots are untouched by frost.” —J.R.R Tolkien It has been said that [...]
It is said that Oscar Wilde was once asked whether it was true that he had walked down the Strand with a lily in his hand. “To have done it was nothing,” he replied, “but to have made people believe one had done it was everything.” Wilde’s point was that the truth was less important [...]
“Oh Susan!” said Jill. “She’s interested in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up.” “Grown-up, indeed,” said the Lady Polly. “I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she’ll waste [...]
Can we say that all is well in the world of higher music education on this side of the pond? For now, we continue to produce an ample supply of musicians that rank among the world’s best, with the technical proficiency, confidence, and maturity to faithfully perform the great works that were handed down to [...]
How exactly do music schools intend to train their students to “spark positive change.” Are they putting the string section through classes in the theory and tactics of social and political activism? In the first part of this series, I acknowledged the growing consensus that there is something wrong with higher music education today, and [...]
The world of higher music education reform is abuzz with the excitement and promise of entrepreneurship. But entrepreneurship does not describe the process by which a tradition such as musicianship is handed down from one generation to another. Since at least the 1920s, America has done a fine job of nurturing its budding classical musicians within [...]
Across the centuries, composers have been inspired by the twin dramas of human conflict and the subsequent making of peace. Here are ten great pieces of classical music that dramatize war, celebrate its resolution, and recall its sacrifices. 10. Franz Liszt: The Battle of the Huns One of the composer's many tone poems, Franz Liszt's Hunnenschlacht—written in [...]
Neil Peart, Far and Near: On Days Like These (Toronto: ECW Press, 2014) One of our greatest living essayists in the English language, Canadian Neil Peart moves relentlessly through his life, breathing the rarefied air of excellence well- chased, and across varied cultural and natural landscapes, anywhere and everywhere to be discovered or rediscovered. An [...]