March 2019 At my age -- so goes the story -- I'm supposed to be moving more and more toward enjoying my memories. Following that strategy means, however, that you should've curated your experiences carefully throughout your earlier life so when you hit Golden Oldie status there's only gold to show for your trouble without any dross. Oops. That's not gonna fly. So I've come up with another strategy I think will work much better [...]
March 2019 The second part of this two-part post on Slavic Baroque composers focuses on the High Baroque. Both Poland and the Czech lands were active centers of musical culture in that period so the list includes some names who are decidedly Big Deals. One such composer, Jan Dismas Zelenka -- for long years a personal favorite of mine -- has undergone such a revival in the last 20 years that he now rightfully takes [...]
March 2019 The Slavic Baroque is one of those tidal pools in the repertoire of Western music that sees relatively little tourist traffic. Such neglect is certainly undeserved and contradicts history itself since the Slavic lands were busy centers of music in the Baroque period. They attracted Italian and German musicians to their courts and the fine native composers absorbed creative currents from all over Europe. In this post I want to offer an appreciation [...]
March 2019 Nobody would contest that our democracy is a messy business, particularly at this point in our colorful history. 2019 got off to a firecracker start with a government shutdown provoked by the big mouths of a few far-right media bullhorns. It sometimes seems they'd be perfectly happy to see those of us outside their audience disappear so they can have the country all to themselves to create their authoritarian utopia without interference. The [...]