The Tone Poems of Sibelius
In an increasingly ugly world the sources of beauty constantly increase in value but at the same time they become increasingly difficult for ordinary people to discover…
The Visionary Music of Sir Arnold Trevor Bax
The name of Sir Arnold Trevor Bax (1883 – 1953) hardly qualifies as a household reference even among people with serious musical interests. Yet Bax claimed a…
Murder Most Foul and America’s Soul (Part III)
In previous essays we have looked at Bob Dylan’s place within the great musical and literary canons of Judeo-Christian civilization. In this third piece, we will now…
Murder Most Foul and America’s Soul (Part II)
In our previous essay, we looked at Bob Dylan with an emphasis on his qualities as a timeless moral leader and musician. Now, we shall consider his…
If Music Be Food For Citizenship
Aristotle and America As Aristotle observed in Book 8 of his Politics, the education of children is the preeminent concern of the state, for the cultivation of…
Musical Harmony: A Missing Dimension of Democratic Citizenship?
Polyphonic Minds: Music of the Hemispheres. Peter Pesic. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2017. If you’ve watched a Super Bowl halftime show lately, you may have noticed…
Show Me Your Laces: The Identical Aesthetic and Ideological Clash Exemplified by Anarchist and Neo-Fascist Punk
On the twelfth of September, 1992, the Waterloo station of the English National Rail system erupted into a riot, with two groups of men viciously attacking each…
The Musical Structure of Plato’s Dialogues
The Musical Structure of Plato’s Dialogues. J.B. Kennedy. Acumen Press, 2011. J.B. Kennedy’s The Musical Structure of Plato’s Dialogues seeks to establish that Plato divided some, if…
Soul Music in Plato’s Republic
I In the Republic, Socrates names the musical modes and he correlates them with the different constitutions of state and soul (399a–c).[1] Since Socrates ranks the different…
Dusty Old Phonograph Records
Any largish institution, any home in fact, will find itself with odd accumulations of . . . stuff: old shipping documents, tax reports, Christmas decorations from the…
Music as Metaphor
Understanding Music, Philosophy and Interpretation. Roger Scruton. New York: Continuum Press, 2009. Scruton’s Understanding Music is a collection of previously published essays, with the first part…