The “Czech Bach”: Who Was Jan Dismas Zelenka?
Suppose you were Bach, and no one noticed? Welcome to the early eighteenth-century world of Jan Dismas Zelenka, a Catholic composer at the court of Dresden, who…
The Exoticism & Euphoria of Debussy’s “Afternoon of a Faun”
When I listen to Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” often referred to as simply “Afternoon of a Faun,” I’m reminded of the vertiginous feeling of…
What Does Music Express?
Music is a constant part of our lives, yet its nature remains elusive. We tend to take music for granted, like any product or commodity, not realizing…
Haydn’s Music of Gratitude and Goodness
I love Haydn. If I had to be left with only one composer in my life, it would be he — not because he is the greatest,…
The War of The Rings: Richard Wagner and J.R.R. Tolkien
Richard Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung is a masterpiece of modern art and is perhaps the greatest triumph of the artistic spirit since 1800. J.R.R. Tolkien’s…
The Wagnerian Imagination: A Review of Paul Heise’s “The Wound That Will Never Heal”
Paul Heise. The Wound That Will Never Heal: An Allegorical Interpretation of Richard Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung. Washington DC: Academica Press, 2021. Richard Wagner…
“The Ring of the Nibelung”: Romantic Nonsense?
The Ring of the Nibelung, Wagner’s great cycle of operas exploring the origin of consciousness and the birth of the human world begins in the depths of the river…
Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen
One of the privileges of writing this column is that I occasionally get to meet the composers of the music I review. I had a meeting this…
The Assault on Opera
The disappearance of the bourgeoisie has led to a crisis in the arts. How can we track down the defeated remnants of the philistine class, in order to…
Is Rachmaninoff’s Music Too Schmaltzy?
Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Op 18 is the kind of music that grips you by the collar and draws you into its world instantly, with…
Elgar, Enigma, and Easter
While my first choice for classical music on Easter will always be Handel’s Messiah, there are a few other wondrous, utterly memorable pieces that conjure up the same rush of…
Vincent D’Indy’s “Summer’s Day in the Mountains”
Had I to choose a musical summer idyll, my choice would be Jour d’été à la montagne (Summer’s Day in the Mountains), a tone poem by the…
The Power of Song in Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion”
“For the singer, words acquire a very special plenitude and depth of meaning. Something that remains silent in words merely spoken begins to flow, to vibrate; the…
How Bad Philosophy Destroyed Good Music
In the past, our musical culture had secure foundations in the church, in the concert hall, and in the home. The common practice of tonal harmony united…
Gustav Mahler and the Curse of the Ninth Symphony
Back in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, a superstition developed in the classical music world that prophesied the Ninth would be a composer’s last symphony. Arnold Schoenberg…