Tag: classical music

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Nigel Kennedy. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

He had distinctly seen, while I was playing my variations, the devil at my elbow, directing my arm and guiding my bow. My resemblance to the devil was a proof of my origin.
From the autobiography of Niccolò Paganini

The Devil bowed his head because he knew that he’d been beat,
And he laid that golden fiddle on the ground at Johnny’s feet.
Johnny said, “Devil, just come on back if you ever wanna try again.
I done told you once, you son of a bitch, I’m the best there’s ever been.”
Charlie Daniels, The Devil Went Down to Georgia (more…)

Ondrej Mann

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I came to racialism in a curious way. There is a well-known singer in our country, Daniel Landa, who sang in the skinhead band Orlik and then went on to a solo music career, where he recorded many albums and composed several musicals. Landa is a role model for a lot of white guys in the Czech Republic: He’s a tough guy, a wrestler, a spiritual guru, a car racer, and a music composer. (more…)

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Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig in the Kingdom of Saxony. He died on February 13, 1883 in Venice. As an artist, intellectual, author, and cultural force, Wagner has left an immense metapolitical legacy, which is being evaluated and appropriated in the North American New Right. I wish to draw your attention to the following writings which have been published at Counter-Currents. (more…)

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Bradley Cooper is a superb actor and director. I loved his A Star Is Born with Lady Gaga. So when I heard that Cooper was starring in and directing Maestro, a biopic about composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein, I had to see it.

Maestro is a masterful work of acting and directing. Bradley Cooper really brings Leonard Bernstein to life. Carey Mulligan is also superb as Bernstein’s wife Felicia. Indeed, there are no weak performances. The sets and costumes are meticulous. (more…)

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Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)

Frank is now 46 years old and has been politically active for more than 30 years. He was once more active in politics, but since 2016 he has been exclusively engaged in metapolitics. Frank is a musician in two bands, Stahlgewitter and Halgadom. (more…)

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Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig in the Kingdom of Saxony. He died on February 13, 1883 in Venice. As an artist, intellectual, author, and cultural force, Wagner has left an immense metapolitical legacy, which is being evaluated and appropriated in the North American New Right. I wish to draw your attention to the following writings which have been published at Counter-Currents.

Also of note is Collin Cleary’s book Wagner’s Ring and the Germanic Tradition, published by Wagnerphile Books. (more…)

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South Korea has taken the classical music world by storm over the past few decades. Koreans are increasingly overrepresented among high-level classical musicians. Hundreds of Koreans have been finalists and prizewinners in prestigious international music competitions. The Korean Musical Mystery (2012) is a documentary by Belgian filmmaker Thierry Loreau that seeks to understand this fascinating phenomenon. (more…)

Le Poème Harmonique

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Le Poème Harmonique is an early music ensemble founded by French lutenist and conductor Vincent Dumestre. The group is known for its recordings of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French and Italian music, which have received several accolades. In Aux marches du palais and Plaisir d’amour, the group turns to traditional French songs, some of which are still widely known and sung today. (more…)

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Todd Field’s Tár is the story of the rise — or perhaps I should say “social climb” — and fall of Lydia Tár, a pioneering ethnomusicologist, conductor, and the first female Music Director of the Berlin Philharmonic, who is brilliantly played by Cate Blanchett. Shot on location in New York and Berlin, Tár very effectively conjures up the world of contemporary classical music, from the concert halls and conservatories to the journalistic latrine flies. (more…)

Ralph Vaughan Williams

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Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams, one of England’s greatest composers. Breaking with the German tradition, which nineteenth-century English composers sought to emulate, Vaughan Williams forged a distinctly English style that drew upon England’s musical heritage. He is also remembered as one of the twentieth century’s great symphonists.

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You can buy Collin Cleary’s Wagner’s Ring & the Germanic Tradition here.

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Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig in the Kingdom of Saxony. He died on February 13, 1883 in Venice. As an artist, intellectual, author, and cultural force, Wagner has left an immense metapolitical legacy, which is being evaluated and appropriated in the North American New Right. I wish to draw your attention to the following writings which have been published at Counter-Currents. (more…)

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Alexander Jacob
Richard Wagner on Tragedy, Christianity, and the State: Three Essays, Second Edition
Melbourne: Manticore, 2020

“I am the most German being. I am the German spirit.” — Richard Wagner[1]

Counter-Currents readers will welcome another contribution from Alexander Jacob.[2] These essays make a useful companion, or counterpoint (sit venia verbo!), to Collin Cleary’s Wagner’s Ring & the Germanic Tradition. (more…)

You can buy Collin Cleary’s Wagner’s Ring & the Germanic Tradition here.

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Collin Cleary
Wagner’s Ring and the Germanic Tradition
Wagnerphile Books, 2021

Richard Wagner is a cornerstone of Western culture. He is one of the few composers that still receive mainstream attention in the 21st century, but usually for negative reasons. Hacks can’t resist the temptation to bash him for his alleged proto-Nazism and anti-Semitism. Even if critics see him as a predecessor to Hitler, many of them still enjoy his music. Few doubt he was a great musician. (more…)