Paul Revere’s engraved frontispiece for Billings’ The New England Psalm Singer, 1770.
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The Yankee tunesmiths were a group of composers active in New England in the late 18th century. Most of them were self-taught and made a living as craftsmen or farmers. Many also fought in the Revolutionary War. Their music draws on their British heritage, namely the tradition of English psalmody, but it is also uniquely American. (more…)
Phil Eiger Newmann, Beethoven, 2020.
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Today is the 250th anniversary of the christening of Ludwig van Beethoven, a titan of classical music and one of the greatest composers of all time. Beethoven transformed every genre in which he wrote and singlehandedly changed the trajectory of classical music. Rooted in the Classical idiom of Mozart and Haydn, he paved the way for the Romantic era and influenced composers such as Brahms, Liszt, and Wagner. His works remain cornerstones of the classical repertoire. (more…)
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Fox News’ coverage of the 2020 election alienated much of their viewership. The network was the first to call Arizona for Biden, refused to call Florida for Trump even when 90% of the votes had been counted, and declared Biden the winner of the election. Fox News’ ratings have since declined, and many white Trump supporters (more…)
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Today is the 125th anniversary of the birth of Walter Gieseking, one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. Known for his extensive repertoire, nuanced playing, and powerful memory, he was a formidable musician of rare gifts. In his later years, he attracted controversy on account of his association with National Socialism (more…)
Hollósy Simon, Zrínyi’s Charge on the Turks from the Fortress of Szigetvár, 1896.
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Nikola Šubić Zrinski is an opera written in 1876 by Croatian composer Ivan Zajc that retells the Siege of Szigetvár. It is Zajc’s most accomplished work and is considered the national opera of Croatia. An excellent recording of the opera was released in late July featuring the Rijeka Symphony Orchestra (more…)
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Two days ago, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse was charged with murder in the deaths of two people shot during the Tuesday night riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Mainstream media outlets jumped on the story and denounced Rittenhouse, an upstanding young white man who clearly acted in self-defense, as a homicidal “white supremacist” (more…)
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For the past several years, fans of H. P. Lovecraft have agonized over the question of how to reconcile their love for the Cthulhu mythos with Lovecraft’s views on race. Lovecraft Country, a TV adaptation of Matt Ruff’s novel of the same name, proposes a solution to this dilemma: to apply Lovecraft’s characterization of eldritch horror to white people. The show, whose producers include J. J. Abrams and Get Out director Jordan Peele, premiered on August 16th. As one would expect, it is awful, (more…)
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Earlier this year, the Marian Consort, a vocal ensemble known for performing Renaissance music, released an album of Catholic sacred music by English composer William Byrd. The album, entitled Singing in Secret: The Clandestine Catholic Music of William Byrd, is one of the finest sacred music releases in recent memory. (more…)
Gareth Jones
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In any age, people with the capacity to truly think for themselves are rare. Rarer still are those courageous enough to defy the established order and express heretical views. Most people are too unwilling to part with the security that conformity affords. The heretic values truth and justice above all else, even his own life.
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A Vice article published on Tuesday has reignited the debate over whether racism (or “pathological bias,” to use the clinical term proposed by psychiatrists) should be considered a mental illness and included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In turn, I would like to raise the question of whether pathological xenophilia should be considered a mental illness. (more…)
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The shooting of Ahmaud Arbery on February 23, 2020, made national headlines after a video of the incident surfaced last week. Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was “jogging” near Brunswick, Georgia, when he was confronted by two white men, Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael, who were arrested on May 7. The incident has, unsurprisingly, received extensive coverage, (more…)
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Arne Nordheim was the most celebrated Norwegian composer of the 20th century. He is known for both his avant-garde electronic works and his large-scale orchestral works and music dramas. Nordheim’s Draumkvedet (“The Dream Ballad”), a music drama based on the medieval Norse poem of the same name, fuses his modernist idiom with folk influences to great effect. (more…)
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Krzysztof Penderecki, who died on March 29, 2020, was one of the most prolific and creative composers of the past century. His works include four operas, eight symphonies plus other orchestral works, about a dozen concertos, vocal and choral works, and chamber and solo instrumental works. (more…)
Wilhelm von Kaulbach, The Fifth Adventure, 1848
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A manuscript containing Hitler’s ideas for an opera entitled Wieland der Schmied, inspired by Wagner’s draft for a libretto of the same name, was recently put on display for the first time at the Museum Niederösterreich. The museum is currently running an exhibit on Hitler’s early life featuring artifacts collected by August Kubizek between 1907 and 1920. (more…)
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Richard Weaver
The Ethics of Rhetoric
Muriwai Books, 2017 (1953).
The great task that lies ahead of us is to persuade our people of the rightness of our ideas. It behooves us, then, to study the art of rhetoric, or persuasion. Richard Weaver’s The Ethics of Rhetoric is a rigorous and intelligent introduction to this vanishing art. (more…)
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Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite swept the Oscars ceremony this year, winning the awards for Best Picture (the first foreign-language film to earn the award), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film. It has been hailed as the best film of 2019 and currently enjoys a 99% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Like the similarly over-hyped Knives Out, Parasite is a technically competent but underwhelming film whose vapid social commentary has secured its popularity with liberal critics. (more…)
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Library of Congress Reading Room
Earlier this month, the Architectural Record obtained a draft copy of an executive order that, if implemented, would have a significant impact on federal architecture. Titled “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again,” the order states that “the classical architectural style shall be the preferred and default style” (more…)
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Knives Out, Rian Johnson’s much-hyped addition to the mystery genre, is a forgettable, self-indulgent film whose flashes of competence are incapable of redeeming its trite plot, pathetically unfunny script, and aggressive commitment to political correctness.
The film has all the trappings of a classic murder mystery in the style of Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers. A wealthy patriarch, Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer, in remarkably good form at 90) is found dead in his mansion after celebrating his 85th birthday (more…)
N. C. Wyeth
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Newell Convers Wyeth, or N. C. Wyeth, was one of America’s greatest artists and illustrators. Over the course of his lifetime, he created over 3,000 paintings and illustrated over 100 books, including several Scribner Classics. His son, Andrew Wyeth, and grandson, Jamie Wyeth, also became prominent artists.
Wyeth was born in 1882 and grew up on a farm in Needham, Massachusetts. His childhood was an active one, and he often went hunting and fishing with his brothers. (more…)
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Set on the battlefields of northern France during the First World War, Sam Mendes’ 1917 follows two lance corporals racing against the clock to deliver a message to a certain colonel ordering him to call off an attack that would result in British defeat. Like Peter Jackson’s 2018 documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, which features colorized footage of the war and audio interviews of former soldiers, it seeks to capture the human side of the war and the everyday realities of a soldier’s life. (more…)
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Ford v Ferrari depicts the rivalry between Ford and Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, and follows Ford’s quest to build a car that would break Ferrari’s winning streak. Ford tasks automotive designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) with the challenge of refining the Ford GT40. Shelby is joined by Ken Miles (Christian Bale), a British driver and engineer who also collaborated with him on the Daytona Coupe and the Shelby Cobra 289.
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Director Alexandre O. Philippe has followed up his 2017 documentary on the shower scene in Psycho (78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene) with Memory: The Origins of Alien, a documentary on the creation of Alien that attempts to chart the film’s wide-ranging influences and explore its mythic resonance. The result is an underwhelming muddle that lacks direction and often retreads old ground, particularly in an overlong segment on the chestburster scene. (more…)
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Today is the first day of Banned Books Week, an annual event that purports to celebrate intellectual freedom and First Amendment rights by drawing attention to books that have been banned or challenged. Its organizers claim to be staunch opponents of censorship of all kinds. (more…)
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Yukio Mishima
Life for Sale
Translated by Stephen Dodd
London: Penguin Books, 2019
This past year has seen three new English translations of novels by Yukio Mishima: The Frolic of the Beasts, Star, and now Life for Sale, a pulpy, stylish novel that offers an incisive satire of post-war Japanese society. (more…)
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H. P. Lovecraft’s novella At the Mountains of Madness, serialized in Astounding in 1936, is one of his greatest works. The tale recounts an expedition to Antarctica in 1930 in which scholars from Miskatonic University stumble upon the ruins of a lost city. (more…)
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Unlike Inglorious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012), which were both drenched in violence against whites, Tarantino’s latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is a surprisingly wholesome and pro-white film that pays homage to old Hollywood and white male movie stardom.
The main characters are washed-up actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double and driver, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). (more…)
Rembrandt, The Night Watch
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Today, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum will begin its restoration of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, or Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq (1642). It is the largest research and restoration project the Museum has undertaken and will last several years. The process will be broadcast live online.
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David McCullough
The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2019
David McCullough’s latest book tells the story of the pioneers who settled the Northwest Territory (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and most of Minnesota), mostly focusing on Ohio and spanning the signing of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 up to 1853. (more…)
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Star Trek: Discovery (henceforth referred to by the fitting abbreviation STD) is the sixth Star Trek television series, and a direct prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series. The first season premiered in 2017, and the second premiered this January. The plot centers around the exploits of the USS Discovery amid a war between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets.
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Richard Corben, Robert Ervin Howard, & John Jakes
Bloodstar
Leawood, Kan.: Morning Star Press, 1976
Bloodstar is a post-apocalyptic sword-and-sorcery graphic novel based on a short story by Robert E. Howard (“The Valley of the Worm,” from the February 1934 issue of Weird Tales) about a warrior who must defeat a giant worm-like creature that threatens to destroy his race. (more…)