Ignoring Music

David Robertson has written an interesting article about the concert experience in the age of music as commodity. While I don't agree with all of his conclusions, he makes some interesting points as well.

With Reverence and Awe

“The Bible does teach that God has promised to bless the means of grace that he provides in worship in a way that he has not promised to bless anything else…To take the Word, sacraments, and prayer for granted—in other words, to disregard public worship as something to be added on to personal devotions or small-group fellowship—is to trivialize worship and put ourselves at risk…The means of grace are part and parcel of Christian worship. We worship to praise God and to give Him the glory that he alone deserves. And in worship, through the means of grace, God is also at work, extending his blessing to his people, and transforming us into his image.” D.G. Hart and John R. Muether

Disadvantages of an Elite Education

"Our best universities have forgotten that the reason they exist is to make minds, not careers.

William Deresiewicz, former professor at Yale, has written an excellent article critiquing the pitfalls and shortcomings of an "elite" education.

Quotes from Children of Men

In The Children of Men, P.D. James describes a particular church as “a place where silence was more than the absence of noise.”

Later, she rightly describes true cultural change:

“No government can act in advance of the moral will of the people.”
Julian said: “Then we will have to change the moral will. We have to change people.”
Theo laughed. “Oh, that’s the kind of rebellion you have in mind? Not the systems but human hearts and minds. You’re the most dangerous revolutionaries of all, or would be if you had the slightest idea how to begin, the slightest chance of succeeding.”
Julian asked, as if seriously interested in his answer: “How would you begin?”
“I wouldn’t. History tells me what happens to people who do. You have one reminder on that chain round your neck.”
She put up her distorted left hand and briefly touched the cross.

Current Reading

Quotes by Igor Stravinsky

I know that the twelve notes in each octave and the variety of rhythm offer me opportunities that all of human genius will never exhaust.

To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.

Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.

Music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the coordination between man and time.

I was born out of due time in the sense that by temperament and talent I should have been more suited for the life of a small Bach, living in anonymity and composing regularly for an established service and for God.

The Church knew what the psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the Church's greatest ornament.

Music and Food

The Kansas City Star ran an interesting article on the possible connection between musicians and cooking. You can find the article here.

John Cage Plays One of His "Compositions"

This is long, but the absurdity of what is meant as "music" is worth watching.

Love and Covenant Community

“I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”
—Vincent van Gogh

“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”
—Thomas Merton

“I love you, and because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies.”
—Pietro Aretino

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend.”
—Solomon

Time and Work

There was still a faint smell of pumpkins, though the stock had eaten them all. A woodsy smell came from the pile of beech leaves, and a dry, strawy smell came from the wheat. Outside the wind was screeching and the snow was whirling, but the South-Barn Floor was warm and quiet.

Father and Almanzo unbound several sheaves of wheat and spread them on the clean wooden floor.

Almanzo asked Father why he did not hire the machine that did threshing. Three men had brought it into the country last fall, and Father had gone to see it. It would thresh a man’s whole grain crop in a few days.

“That’s a lazy man’s way to thresh,” Father said. “Haste makes waste, but a lazy man’d rather get his work done fast than to do it himself. That machine chews up the straw till it’s not fit to feed stock, and it scatters grain around and wastes it.

“All it saves is time, son. And what good is time, with nothing to do? You want to sit and twiddle your thumbs, all these stormy winter days?”

“No!” said Almanzo.

—Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy