What is the one word that best describes what we are to ourselves from the hands of God? The answer is gifts. We do not come to be because God owes either Himself or us something. Neither we nor the world is necessary. This primary understanding of gifts means that everything is full, not of … Read more
One of the most distinctive voices in 20th-century music was that of Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959), a composer from a small Bohemian town in Czechoslovakia. Like his predecessor, Leos Janacek (1854-1928), Martinů was able to fashion an inimitably unique musical language that distinguishes each of his mature compositions and brings his name to mind within the … Read more
Ogden Nash has a poem that begins, “A man could be granted to live a dozen lives/And he still wouldn’t be understood by daughters and wives.” We probably wouldn’t want a world in which it were otherwise, a world in which absolutely everything could be understood by husbands and wives. I do not intend to … Read more
I recently had a chance to talk with one of America’s most sought-after conductors, John Nelson. Maestro Nelson is currently music director of the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. He also conducts regularly at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Chicago Lyric Opera. His many recordings have won such prestigious prizes as the Grammy … Read more
In Acts 10, Peter tells Cornelius that “they killed Him [Christ] by hanging Him to a tree; yet three days afterward God raised Him to life and allowed Him to be seen, not by the whole people but only by certain witnesses God had chosen beforehand.” On reading this passage, the obvious question is, how … Read more
The abundance of first-rate symphonic music produced by Scandinavians in the 20th century is a mysterious secret to most music lovers. Is there life after Jean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen? Try Herman Koppel, Niels Bentzon, Aare Merikanto, Einar Englund, Klaus Egge, Hilding Rosenberg, Gosta Nystroem, Lars-Erik Larsson, or Geirr Tveitt, to say nothing of Vagn … Read more
On November 17, 1999, three new Chinese orchestral pieces, composed respectively by Ping Hu, N.Y. Yates (pseudonym of a Chinese composer), and Xiao Hu, were played at the Kennedy Center, under the direction of William Hudson. Normally, this would be in the province of my friend, Robert Reilly, the music reviewer for Crisis. Reilly could … Read more
When the history of 20th-cenÂtury music is written in the next several hundred years, will it bear much resemblance to how we think of it now? My encounter with the works of Mieczyslaw Vainberg (1919-1996) makes me doubt that it will. So much music has been ignored or suppressed for aesthetic or political reasons during … Read more
Before anything begins, God is. That is, God stands outside of nothingness. God is all-complete, existing with an inner Trinitarian life that needs no world, no man, no angel. If anything but God exists, it is not because something is deficient or lonely in God. What is not God cannot explain itself to itself without … Read more
This article represents my fifth anniversary as Crisis music critic—55 consecutive articles in this space, not counting ravings at greater length that have been published during the past five years. I will celebrate by quickly gorging on a number of worthy releases that there is neither time nor space to treat adequately. And herein lies … Read more
At the European Synod, the bishop of Rotterdam urged us “to reduce substantially the egotistical consumption of the earth’s goods in the first world.” Such appeals are common in religious and humanitarian circles. What is at issue? The assumption behind this statement is that the consumption in the first world is the cause of the … Read more
The best prescription for millennium jitters is the liturgical year. In a sense, each liturgical year is millennial because it contains within itself a complete cycle of salvation history, which is what gives the term millennium its biblical significance. It also anchors us to the source of the temporal millennium as we celebrate the approach … Read more
Cicero, the Roman orator and philosopher, was concerned with this moral question: How can one be honorable and virtuous in a corrupt regime? He was not upset by the immorality of individuals but by the corruption of institutions designed to check and counteract these individual disorders of soul. When these institutions are corrupt and overlook … Read more
Charles De Gaulle once said that Brazil is a country of enormous potential—and always will be. The musical analog of that quip could well be the work of Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazil’s greatest 20th-century composer. Not only did his music portray Brazil as a place of exciting potential, but the music itself promised greatness. Was it … Read more
Someone sent me a column from The Washington Post (Reuters, August 15) about legislation for pet owners in San Francisco, knowing how much the confusion of human beings and animals annoys me. According to the article, a group called, no less, In Defense of Animals objects to the idea that pets are property. It believes … Read more
Ritual and ceremony are essential parts of life. We need them so that we do not take life too personally. After all, life is not about us in the way in which we would like to think it is. Ritual teaches us that we are part of something larger than ourselves. The highest form of … Read more
Early on the morning of the eleventh Sunday of the year, I said Mass. As I read the last words of the Gospel that day, Matthew 10:8, I said to myself, “that doesn’t sound right.” Unfamiliar wording unexpectedly distracted me. I was using the new 1998 American Lectionary. After years of saying Mass and reading … Read more
As the most immaterial art, music is often thought to be the most spiritual. By its nature, is music sacred? If so, what is sacred about it? These might seem strange questions to ask in a secular age, but the presumption that there is something special about music pervades even our culture. Consider the poster … Read more
Mention of Wales almost invariably calls to mind the famous line from Robert Bolt’s play, A Man for All Seasons, in which Sir Thomas More says to his perjurious betrayer, Richard Rich, “Why Richard, it profiteth a man nothing to gain the whole world and lose his soul, but for Wales?” Actually, Wales is a … Read more
The eighth commandment forbids lying. A federal judge in Arkansas formally stated that the president of the United States lied in her court in an official proceeding. Presidential lawyers sometimes quibble about intention, about legal lying and real lying. The judge maintained that because of the lie, justice was not done to a party whose … Read more