A new musical discovery

Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco (1675-1742)

The Voice of Firestone

Firestone Tires used to have a TV show dedicated to opera during the 1950's. American families would tune into listen to opera stars strut their stuff. There was an organic unity between the culture of the past and the America of the 1950's.

Now, instead of the "Voice of Firestone", we have nigger entertainment in the form of "American Idol".

Would someone please pass the hand grenade?

Astrid Varnay (1918-2006)

The great Hungarian soprano sings Liebestod by Wagner, here.

Strauss's "Salome"

I had the opportunity to watch this opera last Friday. I can say now, without a doubt, that Richard Strauss is one of the greatest orchestral colorists. His orchestral palette is wide-ranging and rich. I found that it was the orchestra that carried the melody and that the voice was not melodically attractive most of the time. My friend, Dirty Old Bastard, told me that this is a result of the Wagnerian heritage. Now, as much as I like Wagner, I feel that his novel approach was not a step forward for music. The beauty and mellifluousness of the voice was compromised.

Anyway, I still consider Salome to be a great work. I wish Strauss would have continued composing in a similar vein. Perhaps he just lost his touch? I think a claim can be made about his other operas (except Elektra) being big nothings. In fact, as far as I can remember his others works, I was disappointed.

An excerpt from Elektra's very powerful monologue: here.

Somethings never change...

From "Two Landowners", a short story in Turgenev's Sketches from a Hunter's Album:

...thanks to a preparation bought at the Romen horse fair from a Jew who passed himself off as an Armenian...

A new West Bank settlement book tells its adherents to kill gentiles - even children and babies - if necessary

The first article is no big deal. The second, however, shows what lies Iranian Jews make, like their brethren around the globe during times of weakness, in order to diffuse anti-Semitism from their followers.

Rabbi Golestaninejad knows full-well that that Jewish treatise is legitimate. He's afraid, like other Iranian Jews, of the backlash. After all, he and his ilk live under an Islamic theocracy where treating non-Jews poorly is forbidden. He and his fellows are overwhelmingly supportive of Israel and Zionism, but keep their heads low, his asseveration to the contrary.

Indeed, The Iranian government is the stupid one for buying into this, because of their Islamic prejudice that blinds them to this "People of the Book".


The original work is here.

Just came back from a night at the opera

Let me just say for now that the older I become, the more of an inveterate defender and lover of Western culture I become as well.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

The twentieth anniversary was celebrated last Monday, November 9th. As usual, for such jubilatory events, Beethoven's nineth symphony was performed. I've always viewed its last movement as bombastic. Its message, "Ode to Joy", concerning the brotherhood of European Man, is too maudlin for my taste.



The fall of the Berlin Wall was a symbol of the purported fall of totalitarianism. This is utterly asinine as those "who have ears to hear" recognize. Essentially, communism's demise is great, but it had lost steam a decade or two before 1989. Our up-coming, much more horrid, and bone-chillingly Huxleyesque world devoted to the destruction of Whites is called liberal democracy and it's here to stay! We have replaced one totalitarianism that oddly enough had very strong anti-NWO attributes (no miscegenation, no pornography, no "do your own thing", etc.) for a dictatorship that is a greater threat because it numbs us and titillates our genitals.



Anyway, I don't want to digress. My goal is to come up with an alternative musical celebration. First and foremost, there will be no "popular" music played whatsoever. Beethoven's Nineth will be excluded and replaced with an all-sacred repertoire. This is a time, not of blind jubilation, but of somber reflection and muted rejoicing. The music must reflect these moods.



What better way is there to exude the spirit of meditation than utilizing the mass ordinary? The mass ordinary, generally about five movements long, encompasses the Catholic dogma and this worldview represented the tenets of the West for centuries. Various composers, from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, composed masses and thus shared this thread of commonality that unified Western Man throughout the centuries. Obviously, the program would only be in Latin.



To complement the mass, with its parts taken from diverse composers and periods, there would be motets devoted to the Virgin. They would exude the spirit of devotion and supplication. They would ask the Virgin to pray for us and bless this day, bringing us both peace and hope.



Here's an idea of a musical program:



1. A Gregorian chant, maybe a "Gaudeamus" ("Rejoice")

2. Machaut's Kyrie from his "Mass of Our Lady"

3. A Gloria, maybe from Ockeghem

4. "Ave Maria" by Schubert

5. Beethoven's Credo from his "Missa Solemnis"

6. Beethoven's Sanctus from his "Missa Solemnis"

7. Another Marian motet by Jean Mouton perhaps

8. Bach's "Dona nobis pacem" from the Agnus Dei of his "Mass in B-minor"