Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of J.S. Bach and Handel, shifting back and forth between these two magnificent composers. One thing that strikes me is that Bach seems to my ear the technically superior composer. His compositions are…
The English historian Christopher Dawson (1889-1970) wrote The Judgment of the Nations in 1942, when the battle between Nazi Germany and Western civilization was far from decided. While Dawson’s ideas are largely a response to the catastrophic rise of totalitarianism…
Since my immersion in classical music, I’ve been nerding out on Handel. A year ago, I would have wondered why in the world there are Handel societies. Now, I can’t imagine a world without them. So far I’ve listened at…
Every now and then you read book that blows the cobwebs out of your head, that enables you not only to see clearly, but also to never see things the same way again. For me, those books have included the…
An alarming number of people no longer seem ready, willing or able to argue their points of view. Wrestling with ideas has given way to … wrestling. This is obvious and the evidence is everywhere: So-called news programs feature talking…