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.
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…)
You can buy Kerry Bolton’s More Artists of the Right 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…)
Laure LePrunenec performing live with Igorrr.
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Laure LePrunenec is one of the most impressive artists in any genre in the past 15 years. The classically-trained French singer is known for her work with several bands including the avant-garde metal group Öxxö Xööx, the difficult-to-classify Igorrr, and Corpo-Mente. The latter two are collaborations with fellow French musician Gautier Serre and others, and she has also released two very interesting solo albums under the name Rïcïnn. (more…)
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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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…)
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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…)