Van Gogh didn’t reject the supernatural, but naturalized it. What terror there is in his paintings is the sublime terror evoked by the uncanny beauty of what Scripture identifies as the glory of God. Continue Reading »
Around the start of the seventeenth century, a new sense of the word “harmony” emerged. To that point, harmony in music had been produced by the pleasing opposition of two melodies according to the principles of counterpoint. In the 1600s, “harmony” began to denote the non-melodic . . . . Continue Reading »
Featuring Sunil Iyengar on current trends in Americans’ engagement with the arts. Continue Reading »
Toscanini: Musician of Conscience by harvey sachs liveright, 944 pages, $39.95 When the first instruction manual for leaders of orchestras—Johann Mattheson’s Der vollkommene Capellmeister—appeared in 1739, it was a sign that the size of orchestral ensembles and the . . . . Continue Reading »
Among poets writing in English during the last forty years, Geoffrey Hill was sometimes named the greatest one alive, but he was always named the most difficult one to read. He had come to live and teach in America in the 1980s, along with a brilliant group which included Paul Muldoon at . . . . Continue Reading »
John Wilson discusses American fiction of the ’50s and ’60s. Continue Reading »
There was, and still is today, a photo of Sinyavsky on one of my bookshelves. Continue Reading »
The God who haunts R. S. Thomas’s poetry is a hidden God, known by his absence. Continue Reading »
Ossa Latinitatis Sola ad Mentem Reginaldi Rationemque: The Mere Bones of Latin According to the Thought & System of Reginaldby reginaldus thomas foster and daniel patricius mccarthycatholic university of america, 831 pages, $39.95 A recent online video shows a math teacher expounding the . . . . Continue Reading »
The search for community is best accomplished through our common pursuit of the humanistic disciplines. Continue Reading »
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