The appellation “the Great” tends to be awarded to prominent figures who exhibit an extraordinary degree of military prowess or achieve outstanding success in political or intellectual endeavors. Indeed, two legendary eighteenth-century monarchs, Frederick II of Prussia and Catherine II of Russia, earned this appellation precisely for such reasons. But over time, the “greatness” of […]
Category Archives: Music
When discussing the fine arts, we explore structure through the concept of “form.” Sometimes it’s best to envision form as a physical design. Other times, we perceive an artistic form as a multi-part narrative shaping a creative work. And while someone might forge a completely new form, generally an artist works with forms that have […]
They all went after the farmer’s wife, Who cut off their tails with a carving knife … Not any more, it seems. Apparently, in today’s politically correct world, toddlers aren’t supposed to hear about tails being cut off with carving knives. (At least so it appears, based on a doctored rendition of “Three Blind Mice” […]
We all do it, don’t we? We carefully defend the bold choice we’ve made to educate our children seriously and rigorously. Friends or relatives may assert that we are choosing outdated traditions, irrelevant in our techno-saturated world. Latin in elementary school? Whatever for? The Great Books? Aren’t they terribly boring? Handwriting and memory work? We […]
At church they don’t bother to pick up a hymnbook. They don’t even mumble or pretend to sing. Of the people who come to my booth at conferences to talk about music, many claim they can’t sing. Nonsense. I’m giving it a name: cantiphobia. And I’m here to cure it. The ability to sing is […]
Those of you in the early stages of discovering classical music may become frustrated when much of what you hear is so unfamiliar. You may be tempted to retreat back into familiar territory and decide you don’t “really like” these kinds of pieces. Or, depending on the music you encounter, you may find yourself puzzled, […]
Seemingly simple, the question of what makes a song good is actually a complicated one. What does the word “song” actually mean? One reliable definition would be “a composition of relatively short duration characterized by a melody, to which words are placed.” But people use “song” to refer to all sorts of music, including purely […]
Classical educators know that the quadrivium includes music as one of four core subjects along with arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. This list can strike our modern minds as puzzling. If we are to approach music as a classical subject, we need to rethink our terminology and what it really means to study music. Today, […]
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