Category: List of articles

  In the 19th century, and still long afterwards, Brahms was considered a ‘conservative’ composer, while Wagner and Liszt represented the ‘progressive line’, a notion which, with hindsight, was used by progressive composers like Schönberg to justify their own explorations which were presented as developments away from, and in the same time, rooted in tradition….

I found an excellent article about the meaning of art on the website of ‘City Journal’. Use the following web address and hear a sane voice: www.city-journal.org/2013/23_4_urb-art.html To get a taste, here is the first paragraph: —————————————————————— John Armstrong: What Is Art For? To help us live better, more flourishing lives   For decades, Western…

  Graag wil ik op deze plaats verwijzen naar het essay van Adreas Kinneging: ‘Anders dan alle anderen’, over de invloed van de Romantiek op de hedendaagse Westerse samenleving, te vinden onder de titel ‘Een uit de hand gelopen idee’ (zie menu ‘Texts’ bovenaan deze site). Van groot belang voor iedereen die in de problemen…

  In one of the more respectable German music magazines, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal for Music), set-up by Robert Schumann in 1834 and still in full swing, a devastating article has appeared in the 06/2013 issue about my book ‘The Classical Revolution’, tearing it to pieces with a vehemence, mostly reserved for…

  The other day, a neurobiologist (who had recently published a book, doing away with the ‘romantic notion’ of ‘personality’ and ‘soul’), accused me of being merely a bag of neurons. ‘Speak for yourself’, I reacted, since her happy smile betrayed her accusation to be perfectly referring to herself, and went out for a walk…