A gentleman in Sought Carolina recently recalled hearing Professor Ronald Nash (Western Kentucky University) speaking at Hillsdale College. Nash had received a copy of my book The Praise of “Sons of Bitches”: On the Worship of God by Fallen Men. He quipped that on receiving the book, he immediately hastened to its index to see … Read more
This is my 77th consecutive article in this space. I didn’t know I had it in me. Yet I plow on into my eighth year. It is not as if I could ever run out of material. Time is the finite commodity. I will run out of that long before I have exhausted the treasures … Read more
A friend informed me that a decree has gone out in her local parish that henceforth the reading of missals at Mass is no longer allowed. Instead, we are to pay rapt attention to what goes on in the sanctuary. Actually, I doubt if many people have missals anymore. I have always hated the various … Read more
During Christmas of 1964, I was assigned to a parish in Stanford-le-Hope, a town along the Thames east of London. What I remember most about this stay was retiring to bed on my first night. My quarters were in the convent chaplain’s room across a snowy garden from the church. Not knowing where any light … Read more
Since the time of the Second Vatican Council, an almost obsessive focus on the Catholic Church as institution has preoccupied many Catholics in North America and western Europe. That obsession with the institutional dimension of the Church helps to explain why so much of the contemporary Catholic debate is framed in terms borrowed from politics: … Read more
Before he died, a great music-loving friend of mine, Phil Nicolaides, said that he would regret departing this life because of the wonderful melodies he would never hear. He was wrong. The best melodies are in heaven. This is especially so in the case of the music of Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt (1908-1981). Tveitt lived … Read more
A certain gentleman I know recently told me that his young son is attending a private Catholic school that is run independently of the diocesan or religious order systems. He and his wife were evidently happy with the school: “It is a much more loving place, no Baltimore Catechism sort of thing.” Aside from the … Read more
Many people see America as the new Rome. Americans are builders and organizers, practical people who, when in need of culture, borrow from Europe just as Rome borrowed from Greece. Of course, there is truth in this comparison, but it has its limits. It is precisely the practical nature of the American people that insulated … Read more
In an old “peanuts” cartoon, Charlie is sitting in a big comfortable chair, quietly reading a book, when his little sister, Sally, walks by, also reading a book. She announces, “We have to write a short piece for school that expresses our personal philosophy….” Charlie turns around with considerable perplexity as she continues: “So far, … Read more
New Orleans. Wet bodies press close in the pit. Their faces red from the daylong parades, the tourists have come to usher in Mardi Gras with New Orleans musical royalty. Like the mosquitoes outside thirsting for a fresh taste of life, the drunk, the sober, and the merely tipsy crowd the House of Blues stage. … Read more
Despite Hollywood’s attempts to portray our lives as empty and ugly, there is such a thing as beauty in America, and those who do not know it are tone-deaf. Just listen to American music. A thread of beautiful music runs through the nation’s entire history. The Naxos label has embarked on an extensive survey of … Read more
While reporting on Pope John Paul II’s visits to Athens, Damascus, and Malta this past May, syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer wrote: “His obvious and increasing ailments seemed to strengthen the mystical pull of his spirit. His physical weakness seemed to emblemize to the faithful the biblical admonition that God uses not only churchmen but … Read more
Because this column usually focuses on a specific composer or theme, I have fallen behind in bringing to your attention a flood of excellent individual releases. Herewith is an attempt to catch up in time for your summer vacation. Summer is full of moments for music that is not meant to storm the heavens but … Read more
The Feast of St. Augustine of Hippo falls on August 28. In his Sermon 34, Augustine observes: “There is not one who does not love something, but the question is, what to love?” Augustine did not examine whether people loved but what they chose to love. He added, “The Psalms do not tell us not … Read more
I was in L.A. I should have known better. I went to Sunday morning Mass in a beautiful Spanish Baroque-style church that lulled me into expecting a liturgy that comported with its appearance. That didn’t happen. The experience reminded me afresh of the pod-people feeling I have as a pre-Vatican II Catholic every time I … Read more
In Book Four of his Ethics, Aristotle discusses the virtue of “liberality,” or “generosity”—what we do with our wealth, or better, our material goods. Aristotle held that from the point of view of virtue, it doesn’t make much difference if we have much or little wealth. Rich or poor, we have essentially the same problem: … Read more
In January, Crisis music critic Robert R. Reilly spoke with Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti (b. 1911) when he was at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., to direct the 50th- anniversary production of his opera, The Consul, for the Washington Opera Society. Menotti has written some of the … Read more
Still shaken over the passing of the millennium, I have retreated to my favorite musical refuge, the 18th century. Thanks to the Naxos, Chandos, CPO, and Hyperion labels, my refuge is secure. The composers of the last half of the 18th century produced some 20,000 symphonies, along with similar quantities of compositions in other genres. … Read more
One of our favorite buzzwords these days is “globalization.” Globalization is when someone sitting on the Metro in Washington, D.C., talks on a cellphone to a colleague in a skyscraper in Tokyo about opening a branch office in Hamburg. Many people can hardly wait to take it a step further and set up a global … Read more
Growing up in pre-revolutionary Russia, Alexander Tcherepnin (pronounced cher-up-neen) imbibed music from his composer father, Nicolai, and his mother, an accomplished pianist and singer. “There was plenty of music paper around our home,” he recalled in his autobiography. “I observed how my father was writing his scores and tried to do the same while alone.” … Read more