Teaching Judgement
Twenty five years ago I took up a position as University Professor at Boston University. I was asked to teach a graduate seminar on the philosophy of…
The Music of the Future
Important composers, from Schoenberg and Stravinsky to Ligeti and Stockhausen, have been premiered in this place and before this audience. Along with Darmstadt, Donaueschingen has helped to…
The Post-Modern Ear
In Gurrelieder, Verklärte Nacht, and Pelléas et Mélisande Schoenberg showed total mastery of tonality and of late romantic harmony, and these great works entered the repertoire. But…
The Virtue of Irrelevance
How many writers, educators, and opinion formers, urgently wishing to convey the thoughts and feelings that inspire them, have found themselves confronted with the cry “that’s not…
The Journey Home: Wilhelm Röpke and the Humane Economy
Two Greek words define my topic: nostos and oikos. The first—from which we have ‘nostalgia’—denotes return to the home, and it is the great theme of Homer’s…
Conservatism Means Conservation
Environmentalism has all the hallmarks of a left-wing cause: a class of victims (future generations), an enlightened vanguard who fights for them (the eco-warriors), powerful Philistines who…
Conservatism and the Conservatory
The observation is often made that political conservatives do not have anything much to say about the arts, either believing, with the libertarians, that in this matter…
Counterpoint and Why It Matters
I recently acquired a CD of music for piano duo by Jeremy Menuhin, son of Yehudi, the great violinist and cultural icon. The CD, issued by Genuin…
The Clothes Have No Emperor
De mortuis nil nisi bonum: of the dead, nothing unless good. But you can take it too far, re-inventing someone who was a power-hungry manipulator, by allowing…
Why Musicians Need Philosophy
Not as much, I grant, as philosophers need music, but nevertheless the need is real. In the past our musical culture had secure foundations in the church,…
Fighting Back: Thoughts on Robert R. Reilly
Surprised by Beauty: A Listener’s Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music. Robert R. Reilly. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press Robert R. Reilly was the music…
The Threat of Free Speech in the University
Free speech in a university is a very different thing from free speech in Congress or Parliament, freedom of the press, or free speech in the street. Each…
A Thing Called Civilization
Western civilization has come in for a lot of attack because it’s Western. The word Western has been taken to be a standard term of abuse by…
