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Beethoven Symphony No.6 – Best Recorded Version
I have two versions of the 6th Symphony: Otto Klemperer with the Philharmonia Orchestra on EMI John Eliot Gardiner with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire Et Romantique on Archiv In fact I have all of Beethoven’s symphonies by both conductors, and they make excellent companions. Klemperer is firmly in the ‘romantic’ camp: big sound, slow tempos, wonderful […]
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Cambridge Forum Radio: Christopher Ricks on Bob Dylan
Here’s something to check out if you’re interested in serious analysis of Bob Dylan’s work. In fact it’s worth listening to anyway, as an excellent example of literary analysis. And it’s free on the iTunes music store – if you have iTunes on your PC or Mac, click on ‘launch application’ when prompted and it […]
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Third Assignment: Juvenal, Wordsworth and Beethoven
The theme for our next assignment is ‘From city to country’. Here’s the list of works we’ll be discussing: Satire III by Juvenal The Two-Part Prelude of 1799 by William Wordsworth Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth Symphony No.6 (Pastoral) by Ludwig van Beethoven
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Introduction to Juvenal
This is an excellent feature on Juvenal which adds a bit more to the Penguin Classics introduction. Check out this link: http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/21/apr03/juvenal.htm A few gems here including the fact that there is a total vocabulary in all 16 satires of 4,790 words in of which a startling 2,130 are hapax legomena (words that appear only […]
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Download The Classics With Google
Google Book Search now enables you to download PDF versions of out-of-copyright books and print them out for yourself. Examples of books available include: Ferriar’s The Bibliomania A futurist from 1881’s 1931: A Glance at the Twentieth Century Aesop’s Fables Shakespeare’s Hamlet Abbott’s Flatland Hugo’s Marion De Lorme Dunant’s Eine Erinnerung an Solferino Bolívar’s Proclamas […]
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The Origin of Mephostophilis
An interesting note in the New Mermaid edition of Doctor Faustus states that the name Mephostophilis wasn’t known before the Faustus legend. A.E. Taylor, in a letter to T.L.S. (6th December 1917) suggested that it might derive from the Greek me faustopheles, which translates as ‘no true friend to Faustus’.
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Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe – Thematic Cohesion
As with much great Renaissance drama, many of the scenes and speeches within Doctor Faustus reflect the overall theme, creating a powerful thematic cohesion. For example, the scenes depicting the Pope’s arrogance and abuse of his power reflect Faustus’s actions when using the magic that Mephostophilis provides him with. Likewise the Horse-courser’s curiosity with regards […]
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Second Assignment: Faust, Schubert and Robert Johnson
We agreed at the last meeting to absorb and discuss the following works for our next Culture Club meeting: Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe Seven songs by Franz Schubert The works of Robert Johnson There is a connection, with three of the Schubert songs being settings from Goethe’s Faust, and the works of Robert Johnson […]
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Stephen Fry, The Ode Less Travelled
Despite its terrible title, Stephen Fry’s ‘The Ode Less Travelled’ is an excellent and highly approachable book for anyone who wants to understand the mechanics of writing poetry. It also helps to explain what makes good poetry good and great poetry great. The following quote expresses very well something that I take as fundamental to […]
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Jack B. Yeats, O’Connell Bridge
My contribution to the nightcap at our first session was an oil painting by Jack B. Yeats (brother to WB Yeats), called ‘O’Connell Bridge’ (1927). According to the book I was referencing, this is currently in the collection at the Pyms Gallery in London: Jack B. Yeats, O’Connell Bridge, 1927 I discovered the work of […]