Learning to See

Pieper recommended an artistic vision – visual, musical or literary – as a conduit for the contemplative life. He proposed participating in the arts as a remedy for seeing anew, to see reality as it truly is.

The Approaching Eclipse

Playing the fourth movement (Allegro Non Troppo) of Shostakovich’s 5th in high school concert band, I had no idea of the circumstances under which it had been composed – an artist threatened with suppression or persecution.

Scaffolding

For me, there was really nothing life changing about going to church and sitting in silence listening to someone standing behind a pulpit. But there was with people I spent time with.”

More Than Meets the Ear

“Music exists when rhythmic, melodic or harmonic order is deliberately created, and consciously listened to, and it is only language-using, self-conscious creatures … who are capable of organizing sounds in this way, either when uttering them or when perceiving them. We can hear music in the song of the nightingale, but it is music…

Give Birth to the Promise of Living

And all God’s people said… “All of God’s promises, you see, find their yes in Jesus; and that’s why we say the yes, the “Amen,” through Jesus when we pray to God and give him glory.” II Corinthians 1:20

What If He’s a Girl?

Musicals, and especially the lyrics and melodies of certain songs, have, since my earliest childhood days, enriched my life with the harmony of playful idealization and “swooning” romanticism. I will post more on this later. For now, here is one incredible piece sung by America’s leading baritone. From Oscar and Hammerstein’s Carousel, Act I –…

B-A-C-H and The Art of the Faith

The following quotes are sourced from J. S. Bach in Japan: ”What people need in this situation is hope in the Christian sense of the word, but hope is an alien idea here,” says the renowned organist Masaaki Suzuki, founder and conductor of the Bach Collegium Japan. He is the driving force behind the “Bach…

Nessun dorma, ‘none shall sleep’

Italian Text Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma! Tu pure, o, Principessa, nella tua fredda stanza, guardi le stelle che tremano d’amore e di speranza. Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me, il nome mio nessun saprà! No, no, sulla tua bocca lo dirò quando la luce splenderà! Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio che ti fa mia! (Il nome suo nessun saprà!… e noi dovrem, ahime, morir!) Dilegua, o notte! Tramontate, stelle!…