Friday, June 26, 2020
Thursday, June 25, 2020
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
"The Myth of Irish Slavery"
Very interesting essay from the SPLC, concerning racist memes that have become common lately.
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/04/19/how-myth-irish-slaves-became-favorite-meme-racists-online?fbclid=IwAR2IxUKTRJRncP1CcWUfKK-duC8DRu5Le2upMYO-rCeJlOe0Kt7Auxi4cdY
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/04/19/how-myth-irish-slaves-became-favorite-meme-racists-online?fbclid=IwAR2IxUKTRJRncP1CcWUfKK-duC8DRu5Le2upMYO-rCeJlOe0Kt7Auxi4cdY
Deporting Children amid the Pandemic
I looked around the internet for updated news about the situation at the border. Here is a recent op-ed piece in the NYT.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/opinion/coronavirus-children-border-deportation.html?auth=login-email&login=email
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/opinion/coronavirus-children-border-deportation.html?auth=login-email&login=email
Monday, June 22, 2020
"Destroying Confederate Monuments"
"During the Jim Crow era, as African Americans asserted their political authority and demanded an expansion of citizenship rights, white supremacists responded with acts of violence and intimidation. The creation of Confederate statues, the reappearance of Confederate flags and the Confederate naming of Army installations worked in tandem with the growth of the Ku Klux Klan to send a clear message that black people would never be accepted as full citizens of the United States." We need to understand this. The arguments that the Irish were enslaved, that Jews didn't tear down Auschwitz, etc., that no one today is to blame for American slavery, and other things I've seen online lately: all these miss the point.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/19/destroying-confederate-monuments-isnt-erasing-history-its-learning-it/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/19/destroying-confederate-monuments-isnt-erasing-history-its-learning-it/
Friday, June 19, 2020
Favorite Music: Preludes on Welsh Tunes
Ralph Vaughan Williams, "Rhosymedre" Prelude
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kymJPJTUftY
Ralph Vaughan Williams, "Hydrydol"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VX2OfSF_-E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kymJPJTUftY
Ralph Vaughan Williams, "Hydrydol"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VX2OfSF_-E
Thursday, June 11, 2020
Beethoven 250: Chamber Works
As I explained in the January 24, 2020 post, I purchased the Naxos collection of Beethoven'scomplete works, which I plan to listen to this year, leading up to Beethoven's 250th birthday on December 16.
These past few weeks, which of course have been spent inside, I’ve been listening to more music! I listened to discs 35-41, listed here as they appear on the set (and in order at the ArkivMusic site). "WoO" means "Werke ohne Opuszahl"---"Works without opus number"---and "Hess" refers to Willy Hess, a Swiss musicologist who compiled a catalogue of Beethoven's works in the 1950s. (All of this pieces below are copied here under fair use principles and come from the Naxos booklet, which has much more detail, and the above website.)
CD 35
Sonata for Cello and Piano no 1 in F major, Op. 5 no 1 (1796)
Sonata for Cello and Piano no 2 in G minor, Op. 5 no 2 (1796)
Sonata for Cello and Piano no 3 in A major, Op. 69 (1808-1809)
36
Sonata for Cello and Piano no 4 in C major, Op. 102 no 1 (1815)
Sonata for Cello and Piano no 5 in D major, Op. 102 no 2 (1815; Vienna, Austria
Sonata for Cello and Piano in E flat major, Op. 64 (1794)
37
Twelve Variations for Cello and Piano in G major on a theme by Handel, WoO 45 (1796)
Seven Variations for Cello and Piano on Mozart's "Bei Männern", WoO 46 (1801)
Twelve Variations for Cello and Piano in F major on "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen", Op. 66 (1796)
Sonatina for Mandolin and Piano in C minor, WoO 43a (1796)
Adagio for Piano and Mandolin in E flat major, WoO 43b (1796)
Sonatina for Mandolin and Piano in C major, WoO 44a (1796)
Andante and Variations for Mandolin and Piano in D major, WoO 44b (1796)
Twelve Variations for Violin and Piano on "Se vuol ballare", WoO 40 (1792-1793)
Rondo for Violin and Piano in G major, WoO 41 (1793-1794)
Sonata for Horn and Piano in F major, Op. 17 (1810)
38
Trio for Piano and Strings no 1 in E flat major, Op. 1 no 1 (1792)
Trio for Piano and Strings no 2 in G major, Op. 1 no 2 (1794-1795)
39
Trio for Piano and Strings no 3 in C minor, Op. 1 no 3 (1794-1795)
Trio for Piano, Clarinet/Violin and Cello no 4 in B flat major, Op. 11 (1797)
Trio for Piano and Strings no 5 in D major, Op. 70 no 1 "Ghost" (1808)
40
Trio for Piano and Strings no 6 in E flat major, Op. 70 no 2 (1808)
Trio for Piano and Strings no 7 in B flat major, Op. 97 "Archduke" (1810)
41
Allegretto for Piano and Strings in B flat major, WoO 39 (1815)
Trio for Piano and Strings no 10 in E flat major, Op. 44 "Variations on an Original Theme" (1792)
Trio for Piano and Strings no 11 in G major, Op. 121a "Kakadu Variations" (1803)
Trio for Piano and Strings no 12 in E flat major, Hess 48 (c. 1803)
Symphony no 2 in D major, Op. 36 (1801-1802)
*
Listening to all these Beethoven CDs since January, my happiest discovery so far has been the Diabelli Variations (last post) and also the Cello and Piano sonatas above. So lovely!
The variations on a Handel tune from "Judas Maccabeas" is also beautiful (disc 37), the Mozart variations on the same disc, and also the Second Symphony scored for piano (disc 41).
I did not realize that Beethoven wrote so much chamber music: 31 discs on this set of 90 discs. I think I'll order this book to learn more about this aspect of his oeuvre: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781574672039/Beethoven%27s-Chamber-Music-A-Listener%27s-Guide
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Favorite Music: Florence and the Machine's "Heartlines"
Backing vocalist Sam White is exceptional, harmonizing with the celestial Florence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1wTUJIVyd8
It's always fun to discover accidentally a song that becomes a favorite. I over heard this as daughter Emily shopped at our local JoAnn's Fabric shop. I recognized the singer but had never heard the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1wTUJIVyd8
It's always fun to discover accidentally a song that becomes a favorite. I over heard this as daughter Emily shopped at our local JoAnn's Fabric shop. I recognized the singer but had never heard the song.
Finding Our Focus
A devotion that I wrote for our church for Sunday, June 6th. Hebrews 11:1-13
Over on the Eden Seminary campus, above the door of Schultz Hall, there are Greek words that, translated, mean, “that which cannot be seen are eternal.” The whole verse is 2 Corinthians 4:18: “We don’t focus on the things that can be seen but on the things that can’t be seen. The things that can be seen don’t last, but the things that can’t be seen are eternal” (CEB). When we have faith, we focus on the eternal—by definition, what is lasting and true.
I thought of that inscription when I read our scripture lesson for this week, especially verse 1: “Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see.”
The author of Hebrews begins with creation. The world that we see “the visible came into existence from the invisible.” (verse 3). The miracle of the world is that there is something instead of nothing. We can focus upon the Lord by seeing the wonders of the universe.
Next, the Hebrews author gives us examples of faith on which to focus.
First up is Abel, son of Adam and Eve. What is important here is not what most people remember, which is his murder. What is important is that the Lord regarded Abel’s offering as more acceptable than Cain’s. Why? Abel’s offering was a lamb, the first and best that he had. We read that Cain only brought “an offering,” fruit from the ground but not necessarily his best crop. Abel, by giving a costly sacrifice, demonstrated true faith.
Abel’s faith is so legendary that his faith still speaks. The legacy of faith and service that one leaves behind has an impact on generations of people to come.
Next on the writer’s list of faith heroes is Enoch, who appears in Genesis 5:21-24. He was a man of faith who “walked with God” for 300 years, after which God took him up. Enoch had a lifelong, faithful relationship to God. The basic orientation of his life was toward God.
The Hebrews author looks at Noah and Abraham and Sarah. God warned Noah about what was coming, “events he hadn’t seen yet” (verse 7). Noah could not see God, nor see into the future. But through faith, he trusted God, and his faith and obedience was exemplary amid the wickedness of his world.
Abraham took action when he, like Noah, demonstrated the conviction of faith. Abraham “went out without knowing where he was going” when God called him. He followed God to a new land—but also toward “to a city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (verse 10). Even with their faith struggles and failures, Abraham and Sarah both trusted that they would have many descendants, even though they were quite old.
Because God is eternal and we’re not, we’ll never know all the outcomes of our faith. “All these people died in faith without receiving the promises, but they saw the promises from a distance and welcomed them. They confessed that they were strangers and immigrants on earth” (verse 13). But this, too, is comforting, because we’re freed to follow God and trust that the Spirit will multiply the value of our faith and our efforts.
Prayer: Dear Lord, may we focus you, so that when we are gone, we may leave a legacy of faith to inspire others to love and serve you. Amen.
Over on the Eden Seminary campus, above the door of Schultz Hall, there are Greek words that, translated, mean, “that which cannot be seen are eternal.” The whole verse is 2 Corinthians 4:18: “We don’t focus on the things that can be seen but on the things that can’t be seen. The things that can be seen don’t last, but the things that can’t be seen are eternal” (CEB). When we have faith, we focus on the eternal—by definition, what is lasting and true.
I thought of that inscription when I read our scripture lesson for this week, especially verse 1: “Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see.”
The author of Hebrews begins with creation. The world that we see “the visible came into existence from the invisible.” (verse 3). The miracle of the world is that there is something instead of nothing. We can focus upon the Lord by seeing the wonders of the universe.
Next, the Hebrews author gives us examples of faith on which to focus.
First up is Abel, son of Adam and Eve. What is important here is not what most people remember, which is his murder. What is important is that the Lord regarded Abel’s offering as more acceptable than Cain’s. Why? Abel’s offering was a lamb, the first and best that he had. We read that Cain only brought “an offering,” fruit from the ground but not necessarily his best crop. Abel, by giving a costly sacrifice, demonstrated true faith.
Abel’s faith is so legendary that his faith still speaks. The legacy of faith and service that one leaves behind has an impact on generations of people to come.
Next on the writer’s list of faith heroes is Enoch, who appears in Genesis 5:21-24. He was a man of faith who “walked with God” for 300 years, after which God took him up. Enoch had a lifelong, faithful relationship to God. The basic orientation of his life was toward God.
The Hebrews author looks at Noah and Abraham and Sarah. God warned Noah about what was coming, “events he hadn’t seen yet” (verse 7). Noah could not see God, nor see into the future. But through faith, he trusted God, and his faith and obedience was exemplary amid the wickedness of his world.
Abraham took action when he, like Noah, demonstrated the conviction of faith. Abraham “went out without knowing where he was going” when God called him. He followed God to a new land—but also toward “to a city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (verse 10). Even with their faith struggles and failures, Abraham and Sarah both trusted that they would have many descendants, even though they were quite old.
Because God is eternal and we’re not, we’ll never know all the outcomes of our faith. “All these people died in faith without receiving the promises, but they saw the promises from a distance and welcomed them. They confessed that they were strangers and immigrants on earth” (verse 13). But this, too, is comforting, because we’re freed to follow God and trust that the Spirit will multiply the value of our faith and our efforts.
Prayer: Dear Lord, may we focus you, so that when we are gone, we may leave a legacy of faith to inspire others to love and serve you. Amen.
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
"American Christianity Bowing to Power"
A very thought-provocing piece, "Trump's stunt at St. John's is the result of American churches bowing to power," by William H. Lamar IV, pastor, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-stunt-st-john-s-result-american-churches-bowing-ncna1223746?fbclid=IwAR28KD-OQ8V8GSqis2X4JRtC1eWw05PB52dW-Wl2iakddpK3PZnwOOXD_NE
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-stunt-st-john-s-result-american-churches-bowing-ncna1223746?fbclid=IwAR28KD-OQ8V8GSqis2X4JRtC1eWw05PB52dW-Wl2iakddpK3PZnwOOXD_NE
Mendelssohn Appreciation
The April 2020 issue of BBC Music had a good article about the composer: Stephen Johnson, “Felix Mendelssohn, Composer of the Month" (112-116). Here are just a couple paragraphs.
"Mendelssohn had an extraordinary gift for tone painting. It isn’t just a matter of arresting details such as a somber changing religious processional in the Italian Symphony or the cavorting of Shakespeare’s Bottom rendered by the ophecleide in Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s also the rich and powerful creation of broader mood pictures: the ominously still, deep ocean in Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, and the turbulent, moody sea in the magnificent Hebrides Overture. And it’s the mysterious, enticing gloom of Holyrood Palace in the Scottish Symphony and the Mediterranean sunlight bursting on a cold-chastened Northern European soul at the Italian Symphony’s opening….
"In an age that often confuses true innovation with attention-grabbing novelty there’s still a residual tendency to play down Mendelssohn’s achievement… How much less adventurous he seems—at first sight—than his radically lateral contemporary Robert Schumann. But some of Schumann’s later works show how much of a model Mendelssohn was in this respect: fire can burn fiercely and till be contained. The same is true for Schumann’s protégé Brahms, whose superb sequence of chamber works would have been unthinkable without Mendelssohn’s example—and it has to be admitted that Brahms’ marriage of form and feeling isn’t always quite as close to infallible as Mendelssohn’s...."
Landscape: Caspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich, “Sunburst in the Riesengebirge” 1835. This is today's "SLAM Object of the Day" from the St Louis Art Museum, which has sent out art objects to members each day of this quarantine.
The email today has this: "This painting captures a burst of sunlight over distant hills as blue sky dispels gathered storm clouds. The hut at top left indicates human presence within this vast landscape. Caspar David Friedrich based this scene on the Riesengebirge, a mountain range on the present-day border of the Czech Republic and Poland where Friedrich had taken a walking tour 25 years earlier. Distinct elements of this landscape held strong symbolism for Friedrich and his audience: the fir tree represented life and vitality; the dead tree, mortality; and the illuminated hills, an aspiration toward the promise of eternity."
Here is an article from the museum, when the painting was first acquired: https://www.slam.org/press/press-release-saint-louis-art-museum-acquires-sunburst-in-the-riesengebirge-by-caspar-david-friedrich/
When we were dating in the early '80s, Beth and I purchased a poster for a Nashville art gallery. It was a detail of Friedrich's "Die Lebensstufen" ("The Stages of Life"), 1835. We have had the poster framed on our wall for nearly forty years, and we were pleased to see a memorial to Friedrich when we visited Dresden several years ago when our daughter's choir performed in that city.
Copied under fair use principles.
The email today has this: "This painting captures a burst of sunlight over distant hills as blue sky dispels gathered storm clouds. The hut at top left indicates human presence within this vast landscape. Caspar David Friedrich based this scene on the Riesengebirge, a mountain range on the present-day border of the Czech Republic and Poland where Friedrich had taken a walking tour 25 years earlier. Distinct elements of this landscape held strong symbolism for Friedrich and his audience: the fir tree represented life and vitality; the dead tree, mortality; and the illuminated hills, an aspiration toward the promise of eternity."
Here is an article from the museum, when the painting was first acquired: https://www.slam.org/press/press-release-saint-louis-art-museum-acquires-sunburst-in-the-riesengebirge-by-caspar-david-friedrich/
When we were dating in the early '80s, Beth and I purchased a poster for a Nashville art gallery. It was a detail of Friedrich's "Die Lebensstufen" ("The Stages of Life"), 1835. We have had the poster framed on our wall for nearly forty years, and we were pleased to see a memorial to Friedrich when we visited Dresden several years ago when our daughter's choir performed in that city.
Copied under fair use principles.
Saturday, June 6, 2020
Links for Several Current Topics
I finally sat down to look at last weekend’s New York Times. Here are some articles about current topics that I want to reread.
Roxanne Gay’s piece, “Remember, No One Is Coming to Save Us”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/opinion/sunday/trump-george-floyd-coronavirus.html
Vincent Bevin’s “The ‘Liberal World Order’ Was Built with Blood”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/29/opinion/sunday/united-states-cold-war.html
Thomas L. Friedman, “How We Broke the World”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-globalization.html
Ross Douthat, “The Case Against Riots.” “What non-violent protest gains, violent protests unravels.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/opinion/sunday/riots-george-floyd.html
Meredith Talusan, “On Being a Trans Woman, and Giving Up Makeup”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/opinion/sunday/trans-femininity.html
Matthew Desmond, “Can America’s Middle Class Be Saved from a New Depression?”
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/26/magazine/coronavirus-milwaukee-unemployment-jobs.html
Roxanne Gay’s piece, “Remember, No One Is Coming to Save Us”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/opinion/sunday/trump-george-floyd-coronavirus.html
Vincent Bevin’s “The ‘Liberal World Order’ Was Built with Blood”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/29/opinion/sunday/united-states-cold-war.html
Thomas L. Friedman, “How We Broke the World”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-globalization.html
Ross Douthat, “The Case Against Riots.” “What non-violent protest gains, violent protests unravels.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/opinion/sunday/riots-george-floyd.html
Meredith Talusan, “On Being a Trans Woman, and Giving Up Makeup”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/opinion/sunday/trans-femininity.html
Matthew Desmond, “Can America’s Middle Class Be Saved from a New Depression?”
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/26/magazine/coronavirus-milwaukee-unemployment-jobs.html
Monday, June 1, 2020
Beethoven 250: Piano Works
complete works, which I plan to listen to this year, leading up to Beethoven's 250th birthday on December 16.
Since my last post on April 22, I’ve been listening to more music! I listened to discs 20-34, the remainder of Beethoven’s piano music in this collection---and the most important.
There is so much music on those discs! I listened to #89-214 on this list:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=2292995
Here is a good article about Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas.
https://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/guides/beethovens-music-piano-sonatas/
I really need to listen to these sonatas again---such a landscape, as they say. I had not heard most of them, and so it was fun to listen along to unfamiliar music, and then hear the familiar notes of "Moonlight Sonata" or the "Appassionata" or Opus. 111.
My biggest surprise from all these pieces was the Diabelli Variations, which I’d read about but never heard. What a variety of emotion and innovation, developed from a simple little waltz that even I could’ve written.
https://www.theavidlistener.com/2017/11/where-theres-a-waltz-theres-a-way-exploring-the-secrets-of-beethovens-diabelli-variations.html
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