The victorious First Crusade established the capacity for believers to pilgrimage to the holiest sites in Christendom to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and identify with His life on earth.  Biblical references were brought to stunning reality for the pilgrim in Jerusalem.  The immense injection of vitality that this would provide to the church […]... Read More

           This weekend is the occasion of the 280th anniversary of the birth of Franz Joseph Haydn, one of the giants of western musical expression and and somewhat under- appreciatedinnovator in bring ‘classical’ music into the form we know it today.  I find myself pulled lately into communion with Haydn’s music, retreating again and again […]... Read More

     After a significant hiatus, the American troubadour Ryan Adams has returned to writing and performance.  His musical persona as a troubadour was first celebrated by Ramparts on 07/10/10, in the midst of his self induced absence from the music world.   Only 37, the writer and  performer Adams has been associated with reflecting and reforming almost all […]... Read More

     Everybody has their favorite voice variant that defines how they want to hear certain songs in the American Songbook.  For me,  its the melted caramel warmth of Ella Fitzgerald when she sings Rogers and Hart’s Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered , or Frank Sinatra’s masculine yet vulnerable rendition of Gershwin’s It Had To Be You.  The […]... Read More

     The 17th and 18th centuries in Europe were home to some of the most profound individual achievements  in the history of western civilization.   The 17th century proffered the return of the scientist and objectivity with great discoveries and theorems delineated by some of the greatest minds in history, including Descartes, Newton, Galileo, and Hooke […]... Read More

     The silly little argument that underlies the cultural extension of music is that only a person born and immersed in the specific culture that forms the basis of a piece can truly emote the composer’s desired expression. In simple terms as Salieri was supposed to have said, ” a German writing Italian Opera? Preposterous!”  […]... Read More

    The musical world is used to tragic loss associated with the inherent instability associated with creative artistic life.  The early deaths of John Lennon, Buddy Holly, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, George Harrison, and Jim Croce among many others came suddenly and offered little time to absorb the effects of such loss on […]... Read More