 Musical Innovation: Devotion or Deviance?
by Joseph C. Maurone
Without falling into the post-modern trap of relativism and denying that some composers are better than others, innovation requires deviation and diversity. The rules, once known, are begging to be broken. If one wants to see innovation in music, one needs to engage in the dialectic of devotion and deviation. (Read more...)
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Thursday
November 17, 2005 |
What's Wrong with Bebop? Reflections on Ayn Rand and Jazz
by Roger E. Bissell
An objective analysis of the value of music in general, and on bebop jazz in particular, focuses primarily on the presence and quality of memorable melody. For that reason, bebop jazz, while not without redeeming virtues, is of lesser rational value than, say, Dixieland jazz. Avant-garde jazz, however, like avant-garde music in general, is beyond the pale! (Read more...)
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The Rise and Fall of Melody in 5.1 Surround Sound
by Joseph C. Maurone
Rand's depiction of a mangled Halley composition proved to be prophetic in the wake of the technological attack on melody in modern music. (Read more...)
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What Might Music Yet Become?
by Joseph C. Maurone
A summary of Robert Jourdain's theory of the role of technology in music as presented in Music, The Brain, and Ecstasy. (Read more...)
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The Myth of Orpheus and the Future of Music
by Joseph C. Maurone
What is more beneficial to the future of music, change or tradition? The tragic tale of Orpheus may provide a clue to the answer. (Read more...)
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Wagner - My First Time
by Tim Sturm
Cresswell, you were right, and Perigo was wrong. As wrong as Rand was on Beethoven. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
September 21, 2005 |
Who Needs Great Art?
by Peter Cresswell
Painting, movies, literature, sculpture, music, architecture ... all have the ability to make us cry, to make us laugh, and -- just occasionally -- to make us feel ten-feet tall. Why is great art so powerful? -- why does it have this profound ability to affect us? (Read more...)
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Bud and Lou, Art and Sue
by Fred Seddon
Literature, since it has a semantics, places rather severe limits on what one can say about the content of, say, a novel. Music is more akin to aural wallpaper than it is to a mimetic art like literature. (Read more...)
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You're Still Young, That's Your Fault
by Eric J. Tower
In this short story, a young college student named Elizabeth Kipper must tell her father, a powerful campaign manager, that she will no longer accept his financial support. After realizing that her father's income is made by keeping evil men in power, she seeks the freedom of self-reliance. (Read more...)
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The Sharp Test for Films
by Peter Cresswell
I like adult films. There, I’ve said it. And as my video store doesn't know what I mean by that, I’ve sorted out my own ten working rules for finding good adult movies. As a public service, to help you avoid wasting valuable minutes of your life watching crap, I offer them here for your guidance. Thank me later. (Read more...)
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Schulmeister's Trophy (Part Two of Two)
by Julia Brent
Part two of Shulmeister's Trophy. (Read more...)
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Schulmeister's Trophy (Part One of Two)
by Julia Brent
I've taken a challenge as I stumble from poetry to prose, choosing a time and place usually more interesting to men and those who study fighting and war.
This piece of historical fiction is the first part of an exercise given by a friend. I write a letter in character, and she responds without any direction from me, and letter by letter we write a novel.
She's a fantasy writer, and threw a tantrum when she read the manuscript. "I can't believe you picked the Battle of _______!" So real, so brutally cold and male. She may have wanted mythology, ancient air, and animal spirits in super-nova, but I can't be sure. She won't speak to me, but is tersely rising to the task, angry as any war goddess.
To those familiar with this time period, let me know how I stand on accuracy. For that, and any other thoughts, I will be very grateful. (Read more...)
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Catching Dreams: Preston Tucker’s Fight for Free Enterprise
by Jomana M. Papillo
He is excited by a system where deals are negotiated and profit is the reward of intelligent trading. And like most Americans, he is a sucker for a bargain. The most enticing bargain of all, however, is the American free enterprise system. What a deal: work hard to turn an idea into a profitable venture, and you will be duly rewarded. (Read more...)
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Our Greatest Living Tenor: Placido Domingo
by James Kilbourne
There is no tenor in history who has worked harder on his art than Placido Domingo. (Read more...)
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My Teacher, Myself
by Adam Buker
One of the reasons I study at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale is my professor of composition, Dr. Frank Stemper. I generally find his compositions to be abysmal and abhorrent and metaphysically grotesque. I've even stated my opinion of his and other avant-garde crap to him in class (though with a great deal of tact). I write music that is more akin to Ravel, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff. Why on earth would a person like me study with a Post-modern like him? (Read more...)
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Yes? No!
by James Kilbourne
The music is better than the booklet, but that would also be true of a four-year bubonic plague epidemic. (Read more...)
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Triumph Over Chaos
by Heidi C. Morris
Artistic nudity has long been a part of traditional artistic work, but can it ever be appropriate in photographic art? Does it cross the line into the grotesque, or can it be part of an artistic celebration of humanity? (Read more...)
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Robin Field, the Peter Pan of Reason
by Rodney Rawlings
Robin Field’s many-faceted background in light entertainment—vaudeville, impressions, acting, pantomime, radio, theater, cartooning, puppetry, and ventriloquism—makes him a fitting representative of that joyous, benevolent American sense of life which Objectivism defends. And the persona he portrays in Three Questions: A Philosophical Oratorio is like nothing so much as Disney’s Peter Pan: “fearless, laughing, confident, able, free, independent, victorious.” (Read more...)
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Liquidator or Liberator? - A Review of Jerry Sterner's Other People's Money
by Jomana M. Papillo
In Other People’s Money, playwright Jerry Sterner creates a cutthroat, predator-prey-style business world in which the key players fight for the principles on both sides of a corporate takeover. (Read more...)
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On a Bright Cloud of Music
by Eric Scott
Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I is both a masterpiece of the American musical theatre and a passionate portrayal of the triumph of reason. (Read more...)
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The Greatest Operatic Tenor on Record
by James Kilbourne
He can float a soft note for what seems eternity, and bring you to beautiful place of his own creation as he does it. Just as you become relaxed and appreciative of this gentle, introspective world, Jussi the hero and conqueror leaves you gasping for air and looking for your horse to join him in battle. (Read more...)
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Thursday
February 24, 2005 |
Victor Hugo's Ninety-Three
by Cameron Pritchard
Victor Hugo is best known for Les Misérables and Notre Dame de Paris, two classics of Romantic literature. But Hugo's final novel, Ninety-Three, is a work of such power, scope and passion that it ranks with the most famous of his works. (Read more...)
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Million Dollar Baby: A Moving and Memorable Morality Tale
by Bob Palin
Even though it’s been a week since I saw Million Dollar Baby, the characters and events that are portrayed therein stay with me. The emotional impact that this movie has had on me is powerful and lasting. To Clint Eastwood and everyone involved in the production of this wonderful and masterful achievement, I say thank ... (Read more...)
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Thursday
February 17, 2005 |
 Miklos Rozsa: A Singular Life
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Celebrating the Life and Music of Composer Miklos Rozsa (Read more...)
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Reading List: So You Want to Study Architecture?
by Peter Cresswell
So you want to study architecture? You want books and readings I might recommend for someone beginning architectural education? Here’s a ‘top twenty’ list to get you started. (Read more...)
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