Books and Music 2010

Dear Lovers of Books and Music,

This year, as in the past, I've decided to keep a record of the books I've read and significant pieces of music that I have listened to. I am not a fast reader, so this list won't grow quickly. However, I like keeping a record. My goal last year was to read a book a week. If you want to count, you will find that I did accomplish my goal, although, I had to search my memory to pull one last book out of the hat. (A children's book, but a book nonetheless.)

I'm rather committed to keeping most of my reading on a classic level. I am trying to catch up on the best of literature. Plus, I really do prefer books that have a lot of substance, even when I miss some of the points, which I often do. Other readers sometimes help me understand, and for their insights I am grateful. Regrettably, I don't have too many musician friends to help me with my musical passion.

Books

Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman
Beowulf by Anonymous, Translation by Robert Kay Gordon
Manga Messiah published by Tyndale House
A History of God by Karen Armstrong
The Shack by William P. Young
What Now? by Ann Patchett

Epic: The Story God is Telling by John Eldredge

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

The Runaway Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes

Romanian Fairy Tales and Legends by E.B. Mawr

The Lifted Veil by George Eliot
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

The Niagara River by Kay Ryan

Japanese Children's Favorite Stories compiled by Florence Sakade

The Illustrated Anansi compiled by Philip Sherlock

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard

Great Masters: Stravinsky--His Life and Music taught by Robert Greenberg

A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer

Cinderella Tales from Around the World compiled by Ila Lane Gross

The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage by Mark Twain

The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Christian Speaker Aged 45 3/4 by Adrian Plass

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Ghosts: The Story of a Reunion by Adrian Plass

Great Masters--Shostakovich: His Life and Music by Robert Greenberg

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman

Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire by Rafe Esquith

Concert Masterworks: Part II: Nationalism and Expressionism in the Late 19th Century by Robert Greenberg

Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860 by Carl Kaestle

Women's Education in the United States, 1780-1840 by Margaret Nash

Power and the Promise of School Reform: Grass Roots Movements During the Progressive Era by William Reese

We Make the Road by Walking by Myles Horton and Paulo Freire

Dracula by Bram Stoker

American Mind Part II by Allen Guelzo

American Mind Part III by Allen Guelzo

The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education by David Tyack

Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms by Diane Ravitch

Tinkering Toward Utopia by David Tyack and Larry Cuban

The Life of Our Lord by Charles Dickens

Silas Marner by George Eliot

The Castle by Franz Kafka

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

The Amazing Mrs. Polifax by Dorothy Gilman

Music

L'Enfance du Christ by Hector Berlioz

The String Quartets of Shostakovich

Gloria: The Sacred Music of John Rutter by John Rutter

Love's Twilight by Anne Sophie von Otter

Dvorak Symphony #9 conducted by Arturo Toscanini

Survey: Which Requiem Mass is the Greatest?

Dear John Rutter,

Of course today, I say your requiem is best, for I have heard live at my own church.

But there are so many wonderful Requiems out there, and I have rattled on about them many times.

My surveys don't usually gather many participants (sadly), so this time I decided to join with a survey that someone else is successfully conducting and simply report their results here.

To vote for your favorite requiem mass, go here. Vote in the little yellow and blue box on the left. Someone who is interested can learn lots about requiems at that site, including yours, Mr. Rutter.

What I enjoyed about hearing the requiem in church was that it wasn't a show. We followed the piece through the service of worship. That is what it is about, and I would enjoy worshiping this way every single week, though I understand why choirs might resist. Even one full mass per year demands an inordinate amount of rehearsal.

But oh, it is so worth it. My favorite moment was when I found myself on my knees waiting to be served the Eucharist. It is such a beggarly moment each week, acceding to reality. And that was when your Agnus Dei broke upon my heart.

After the service, I chatted with one of the sopranos about the difficulty of singing this piece because the time signature keep changing from 4/4 to 2/4 to 3/4.



But it was not that brought me to tears, on my knees, as I received the body and blood of Jesus Christ. (Listen round about minute 3:20 and following.) It was not the drum, drum, drum, drum of the typany. It was not the critical blare of the brass. Or yes, yes it was that of course, partly. But more, it was the truth of those words:

"Whom may I seek for succour, whom may I seek for succour, whom? Agnus Dei, qui tollis pecatta mundi. Yes, in the midst of life, we are in death, but you are the resurrection and the life."

So, John, I don't really know who has written the best of the requiem masses, but I do know this: My soul is touched by this music that celebrates not death, but the life that rises from the death we experience in this life.

BRD

CaDh 8 -- Books of 2008

Dear List Makers and Milestone Keepers,

I too am a list maker, and I like keeping track of milestones and accomplishments, so this is one for the books of 2008.

I thought the discussion of what we have read for the year was an interesting topic. I guess what you take time to read says a lot about you. It is what you choose to actively engage in for relaxation. I mean, what you watch on TV says something about you, and yet, I hope that when I sit mindlessly in front of almost anything that happens to be playing that it won't be counted against me. But what I read is real every time.

This year due to a membership to Audible.com I listened to a lot of books. I started off the year with "I am Legend". This was to prep for going to see the newly released movie. I did a lot of that this year, with follow ups of The Prestige, The Kite Runner, The Day the Earth Stood Still and I started on Marley and Me before the year ended.

I really enjoyed I Am Legend. The movie took a lot of license and made changes, so both book and movie were different but good. The Prestige made a better movie than it did a book, but it was enjoyable. I have not yet seen the Kite Runner, but it was a great book. The Day the Earth Stood Still was an odd story, especially to make into a movie. And the changes they made to the movie were strange and poorly planned. It takes a lot for me to be totally disappointed in a movie theatre experience, and I enjoyed "The Day", but probably won't watch it again. Both the Marley and Me book and movie were great, but the book wins out 100%. A very enjoyable read, yet watch out for crying...should say SOBBING.

I also listened to Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlan, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, Enchantment by Orson Scott Card, Annes House of Dreams by LM Montgomery, The Joys of Love by Madeline L'Engle, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, and I ended up with Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card. Sci Fi is obviously my cup of tea, but I had a mix of light and enjoyable reads. I don't want anything that is going to be to heavy to think about when I am half asleep on my way into work, and I definitely want something I can look forward to after work. Of all the books I listened to, Life of Pi was the one I enjoyed the most. I had never heard of it until I looked at the recommendations section on Audible.com. I am glad I gave it a try.

Other books I actually read this year include the Mars Hill Trilogy, including The Evidence, The Proof and The Return by Austin Boyd, and Truck by Michael Perry.

I did some self-improvement and Spiritual development too, including The Great Omission, by Dallas Willard and The Gift of Being Yourself by Benner, The Shack, by William Young was a really awesome read, and I loved So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobson, Jake Colson, and David Coleman, He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobson, and Lord Foulgrin's Letters and The Ishbane Conspiracy by Randy Alcorn. I think that the Ishbane Controversy, although not your typical book on teenage development, is a must read for all parents. This is real stuff. Of my personal development books, I think the Shack is the most important read of the year. It will change how you see life.

Wow, when I list them all out, it seems like a lot!!

But, if I am going to nominate a contender for the Ellstrom award, it would have to be. . . Life of Pi. It was the best book I read this year. And it was not only enjoyable, but discussed deep Spiritual ideas and issues. I have always been partial to these types of stories. A boy on a boat and his tale of survival. Very Robinson Crusoe or Old Man and the Sea. It was great, and although I don't know if Pap Ellstrom would have liked it, I think he would have appreciated the writing and the topic.

So that was 2008. Can't wait to see what 2009 will hold. And I plan to pilfer off of BRD's list, because I know it will lead to my personal and mental development and betterment. So I will be starting with The Eyre Affair. Just call me an intellectual! :)

Yours truly,

CaDh8

Books and Music 2009

Dear Lovers of Books and Music,

This year, as last, I've decided to keep a record of books I've read and significant pieces of music that I have listened to.

I am not a fast reader, so this list won't grow quickly. However, I like keeping a record. Perhaps, this year, I will add brief reviews as I build the list.

I'm rather committed to keeping most of my reading on a classic level. By that I mean that I am way behind in my reading of the best literature in all the world, so I am trying to catch up. Plus, I really do prefer books that have a lot of substance, even when I miss some of the points, which I often do.

Other readers sometimes help me understand, and for their insights I am grateful. Regrettably, I don't have too many musician friends to help me with my musical passion, save Elizabeth who occasionally helps to keep me on my operatic track.

Note: It will be from this listing that the Ellstrom Award for Literature 2010 will be chosen. The 2009 award is soon to be announced. (See 2008.)

Books

Seraph on the Suwanee by Zora Neale Hurston
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Falling Man by Don DeLillo
Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich
20th Century American Fiction (Part II) by Arnold Weinstein
20th Century American Fiction (Part III) by Arnold Weinstein
Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
20th Century American Fiction (Part IV) by Arnold Weinstein
Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Glory by Vladimir Nabokov
King Lear by William Shakespeare
The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Henry James' Portrait of a Lady - Lecture series by Elliot Engel
Beowulf by ?? but Translated by Francis B. Gummere
The Hamlet by William Faulkner
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx.
Nostromo by Joseph Conrad
Shiloh by Shelby Foote
Slaughterhouse Five or the Children's Crusade a Duty Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson
My Day by Jean Rhys
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Hammer of God by Arthur C. Clarke
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
Breakfast of Champions or Goodbye Blue Monday by Kurt Vonnegut
The Quest of the Silver Fleece by W.E.B. DuBois
Miss Liberty? by John Digby
The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
Bayou by Jeremy Love
A Day of Pleasant Bread by David Grayson
Giving Up: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath by Jillian Becker
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Everyman by Philip Roth
Mother Courage by Bertolt Brecht
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Winter's Gift by Jane Monroe Donovan
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier
The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke
Maus a Survivors Tale: My Father Bleeds History Vol I by Art Spiegelman



Music
Barber: Prayers of Kierkegaard/Bartok: Cantata profanna/Vaughan Williams: Dona nobis pacem by Samuel Barber, Bela Bartok, and Ralph Vaughan Williams
La Rondine by Giacomo Puccini - This live in HD broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera was most beautiful with a stellar cast, both the lead singers Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna, but also the comic secondaries Lisette Oropesa and Marius Brenciu with Samuel Ramey as the not too wicked foil to boot. The best know aria of the opera is sung by Gheorghiu here-Chi il bel sogno di Doretta.
Erwartung by Arnold Schoenberg with Jessye Norman
Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti
La Cenerentola by Gioachino Rossini (Take a listen: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/audio_pop.aspx?id=253)
The Saint of Bleecker Street by Gian Carlo Menotti
Christmas Oratorio (L’Enfance du Christ) by Hector Berlioz

For the Joy of the Advent Season

Dear Readers of Letters and Surveys,

May your advent season be filled with joy and beauty.

Traditional Catalonian Carol: Fum, Fum, Fum

English Translation

On December five and twenty,
Foom, foom, foom!
On December five and twenty,
Foom, foom, foom!
For the love of us is giv'n The holy Infant,
Son of Heav'n,
Of the Virgin, Joseph's bride,
To all the earth good will be tiding,
Foom, foom, foom!

Little birds from out the forest,
Foom, foom, foom!
Little birds from out the forest,
Foom, foom, foom!
All your fledglings leave behind,
And seek the infant Savior kind.
Come, and build a downy nest
To warm the lovely Baby blessed,
Foom, foom, foom!

Little stars up in the heavens,
Foom, foom, foom!
Little stars up in the heavens,
Foom, foom, foom!
If you see the Baby cry,
O, do not answer with a sigh!
Rather, lighten up the sky
With Heav'ns beams of radiant brightness,
Foom, foom, foom!


Spanish

Veintecinco de diciembre,
Fum, fum, fum!
Veinticinco de diciembre,
Fum, fum, fum!
Nacido ha por nuestro amor,
El Nino Dios,
Hoy de la virgen MariaEn
esta noche tan fria,
Fum, fum, fum!

Pajaritos del los bosques,
Fum, fum, fum!
Pajaritos de los bosques,
Fum, fum, fum!
Vuestros hijos de coral
Abandonad, abandonad,
Y formad un muelle nido
A Jesus recien nacido,
Fum, fum, fum!

Estrellitas de los cielos,
Fum, fum, fum!
Estrellitas de los cielos,
Fum, fum, fum!
Que a Jesu mirais llorar
Y no llordis, y no llordis,
Alumbrad la noche ascura
Con vuestra luz clara y pura,
Fum, fum, fum!

Happy Holidays,

BRD

The Variation to End All Variations on a Theme by Paganini

Dear Sergei,

I have been spending quite a bit of my travel time these last few days reviewing your music. Did I ever tell you that I have a very long commute to work? Sigh, yes, but my car has a nice sound system. I say reviewing, because I have been a long time fan. My earliest forays into classical music were in the shadows of your moving concertos. I travel to Knoxville, Tennessee, each day. (That is where you performed your final concert isn't it.)

But it has not been your concertos that have enamored me of late, but that glorious rhapsody on the ever enduring theme of Paganini. Why was that simple theme such an inspiration to so many. It is hard to say?

Did you know that YouTube provides renditions of you, Sergei, playing the whole of this work in three sections?
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

I guess that somehow this theme carries with it a spirit of the quintessential life flow that moves us through our various existences. It has inspired composers and in that, it has inspired all of us to life. You, of course, do not fail to remind us in places throughout your set of variations of the ever-present threat of death. A number of times I heard that fixed idea, the one you tap into throughout your many works, the dias irae theme. (I do not forget that. It is always a sub-theme isn't it. You Russians never let us forget. Remember that stirring work by Shostakovich, the 14th, that used the poetry of, among others, Rilke?

All-powerful is death.
It keeps watch
even in the hour of happiness.
At moments of higher life it suffers within us,
awaits us and thirsts for us -
and weeps within us.

No, we can't forget. It weeps within us, even during your variations on the theme by Paganini, that points us to the best of life.) And so you whisper reminders in variations 7 and 10 and, at the end. But death, though ever-present in life is not what it's about. It is just there, isn't it? And it's there with all the failures (variation 12?) and successes (variation 14?).

But it is life, full life, that continues through your rhapsodic variations on Paganini's lively theme. And what is life without love? Death is not the main sub-theme of life, but love certainly is. It must be. And you, my romantic friend, are the best one to state it fully in variation 18, and in D minor (like your most beautiful concerto and as Patrick Piggott* says--"in the key of sunset and romance").

In variation 16 you take us into a melody so delicately alluring that our tightening throats and not just our ears tell us it can be leading only one place, to the dearest recesses of the heart. So variation 16 with interwoven phrases for oboe, horn, harp, is harbinger of the wonder of love and intercourse. I enjoy the way you use this figure, here in the original A minor, shift it to B flat minor in 16, and then through variation 17 modulate to the erotic variation 18. (Listen to Part 2 above from 2:24 to the end.)

When I first listened to this rhapsody, I found variation 18 to be somewhat of a jolt. Too much, I thought. Out of character with the rest of the piece. But as I listened more, and especially in relation to the seduction of 16, I realized that the orgasmic strains were a deliberate expression of the richest of intercourse between the orchestra and piano. The beauty of description rivals that of the overture to Tristan and Isolde and it's conclusion leaves the chords that enveloped the notes of the Paganini motif inverted and panting on the staff.

I love this interpretation of the 18th variation done by Artur Rubenstein. He was a wonderful interpretor of your work, wasn't he?


So, I think of all the composers who have played with this group of notes first uttered by Paganini, it is you who have brought it to it's most full expression.

Thank you for these beauties.

BRD

*Rachmaninov Orchestral Music by Patrick Piggott (BBC Music Guides) 1974

Netrebko Sings Rachmaninov, and Pushkin

Dear Deb,

Thank you for the wonderful Christmas gift. It is Anna Netrebko in perfect form. I have been enamoured with her voice for about a year now, ever since I heard her sing I Puritani. She is the perfect diva!

But this recording is perfectly perfect with the Russian singer singing Russian songs. It feels like she is at home in the living room back in Krasnodar wearing slippers and performing not for an audience of critics but for Aunt Tanya, or her father (who, she says she chats with everyday), or Erwin.

Perhaps this is so good, so удобный, because she is working with Valery Gergiev, the conductor she looks upon as a godfather. I'm not sure why, but this album really works. Thank you for discovering it for me.

My favorite on the album (The Russian Album) is the Rachmaninov setting of Pushkin's "Don't Sing to Me." It is moving.

Ne poy, krasavica op. 4, no. 4



My beauty, do not sing for me
The songs of Georgia, of grievance:
My thoughts immediately flee
To another life and shores in distance.

They bring to me -- your cruel tunes --
Alas, the sad and clear vision:
The steppe, the night -- under the moon,
The poor and very distant virgin.

While seeing you, I could forget
The image so sad and fair,
But, look, you sing -- and it is set
Again before my eyes in air.

My beauty, do not sing for me
The songs of Georgia, of grievance:
My thoughts immediately flee
To another life and shores in distance.

-A. Pushkin

---

By the way, did you know that Anna's been cancelling shows lately? She's pregnant. You know I like that.

I love you darling. And thanks again.

MOM
XOX

Requiem vs Requiem Mass

Dear Terry Riley,

I have been wondering about myself and my musical passion for the Requiem form. I could be wondering whether I am obsessed with death and why in the world I'm fascinated with music that celebrates passings, but no, nothing so psychologically mature as that. I was wondering if I like just Requiem masses, you know, the full-blown form based on Latin texts and lux aeterna, or whether my interest extends beyond that to, well, all things requiemesque. I tested my ponderings by listening to a few things including your Requiem for Adam and Toru Takemitsu's Requiem for Strings.
My first listen of your work was captivated by the initial movement Ascending the Heavenly Ladder and the note pattern that rungs its way in different harmonic arrangements right up to heaven. But after that I started thinking just about your title reference to Adam and that took me on a detour of the mind. If someone uses the name Adam, people automatically assume universality. Requiem for Adam. "Oh," we say, "it is a requiem for humankind." But suppose one tipsy afternoon you decided to do a Requiem for Eve. That would be a different matter. Since she is mother to the race, we could assume the universal, but we don't, unless our minds stray to the universality of evil. Is not that the worst of the curse of Eve? She bears that universal ignominy of inescapable symbollic association with universal evil.

What burden would a requiem for Eve be forced to bear? Could it begin with ascending scales of a heavenly ladder or would it dive with Mozartian immediacy into the wrath of God.

Fool Eve, perhaps she would be well characterized by something like Takemitsu's Requiem with hardly a glance at eternal delight and just the one recurring convulsive motif. Three steps up the dreamy Jacobian ladder before convulsive precipitation and a fall far beyond the degree of ascent.

I remember one New Year's Eve long, long ago. (Where could we, my husband and me, have been going? Home after a Christmas visit?) The radio station of our choice must have rewarded its station crew with a party and us with a repetition, over and over and over again, of the Zeppelin classic, Stairway to Heaven. Now there, is a requiem for Eve, isn't it? Our lady grabbing the golden apple, not totally without hope, but "Oh, it makes me wonder."
Want to hear a midi of this?

Oh well, my mind travels don't really have anything to do at all with your requiem for young Adam Harrington, do they? And isn't that the way, death is universal, but I'll be switched if we pay much attention until it touches the son of our violinist friend, or our mother, or our seat mate, and then the specter before us is more than we can bear, without a requiem. And that, I think is why I listen, to the formal ones and the informal ones, listen, listen, listen, listen. Listen.

All ears,

Betsy

The Black Monk, Saving Orchards from Frost, and Lensky's (or Kovrin's) Aria

Dear Anton Chekhov,

I was fascinated by a couple of things while reading your short story, The Black Monk. The first is a criticism. The other, I'm not sure. The first is something about horticulture. It is about living in an orchard.

Early in my married life I lived in orchard country, more specifically, in the middle of orchards of apples and peaches. Have you ever eaten a ripe peach, picked warm from a tree, ripened wholly on the branches? Oh, how divine the taste, the sweetness. I have never eaten a "store-bought" peach that even closely compares. I don't even buy peaches. My palette has been ruined.

But, back to the subject, the farmer who worked that land, who like Tania's father works from love and attachment to land and plants, is full of knowledge and solutions. The solution you described in the opening pages of The Black Monk is one that was used at the time of your writing, and is used yet today. However, the weakness in your portrayal of Kovrin, upon returning to his adopted home one frosty spring night, is that he was surprised and full of questions at the process of burning debris to save the budding trees of the orchards. Frankly Anton, he would have known. He could not have grown up near an orchard ignorant of such fires and the stoking of such smoke. April, says Eliot, is the cruelist month. At least it is for the farmer. He or she just begins to breathe deeply the sun stroked gusts of blossom-scented air when it freezes in his/her nostrils.

So Yegor Pesotsky and Tania and Andrei Kovrin too, all would have known from hard experience the drill of long nights tending fires on the evenings of spring that had played them false. I, too, have known the phantom clouds, not appearing as a whirlwinding Black Monk but wafting from piles of burning trash and used tires with the rubber emitting acridity as well as makeshift cumulus forms.

The second element I noticed was the song from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin that Kovrin chose to hum to Tania when first he noticed her, not as a child, but as a woman.

Interestingly, one of my favorites of late, Vladimir Nabokov, translated a version of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin in which I found this passage:

Or when a falling star along the dark sky flew and dissipated, then Tanya would hasten in confusion while the star still was rolling her heart's desire to whisper to it. When anywhere she happened a black monk to encounter, or 'mongst the fields a rapid hare would run across her path, so scared she knew not what to undertake, with sorrowful forebodings filled, directly she expected some mishap.

So is this where you found inspiration for your eerie Black Monk? I notice that here Pushkin pictures Tanya as being frightened by a falling star. You used that image, too, in your story about an artist. You must have liked Pushkin's novel/poem very much, so I can imagine that you were among the first, at the opening nights of Tchaikovsky's operatic version of Onegin to listen and love the music. From Pushkin you secreted away the name of the leading lady for your tale. From Tchaikovsky's Onegin you took a little musical reference. But that is where I tripped, for though you had your Onegin-like hero hum a tune from the opera, the reference doesn't quite work. That tune was not one that Onegin sings to Tanya. Instead, Tchaikovsky's Lensky sang it of Olga. "Olga how I loved you." In the example below though, I'll let you hear Fritz Wunderlich sing it, for he was one of the great Lenskys!


Apart from such particularities and snobbery of detail, I liked your story very much and it carries with it great pathos.

Affectionately,

Betsy

The Ellstrom Award for Literature

Dear Alfred Nobel,

I recently ran across this quote:

My dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world
conventions. As soon as men will find that in one instant, whole armies
can be utterly destroyed, they surely will abide by golden peace.
~Alfred Nobel

Didn't they say that later about the atomic bomb, too? I think your later endeavor, the one that kind of got kicked off after you did, has done more than dynamite to foster the peace process. At least once a year it gets us to think about peace again and who is contributing to it.

Sometimes I wonder about how the folks who snag the Nobel Prize for Literature are contributing to peace. Excellent writing does not necessarily encourage peace. Some writers seem determined to just write, and they, embracing Heidegger's thinking "language speaks man," perhaps don't vie for the peacemaking consequences of their words. But some authors do embrace the connection I think. Are those the ones who get the prize?

Anyhow, thinking about all this has led me to set up my own award for literature, The Ellstrom Award. There is no cash prize for this. It is just my own little tip of a hat to what I think is fine. I named it the Ellstrom Award because my grandfather Ellstrom came from Sweden and your nordic influence played into my decision. I am making this award to the book not the author. I am choosing from a slim field, just the books I read this year, a list of which you will find at:
Books I Read This Year—2007.

I'm wondering if this should be the 2007 award or the 2008 award?

Here are the books that are in contention:

The Last Gentleman—Walker Percy
The Plague—Albert Camus
The Sand Child—Tahar Ben Jelloun
Black Boy—Richard Wright
Lolita—by Vladimir Nabokov

As you can see, this isn't an obscure list. Who could say I'm not making a good choice, whichever one I choose? They all are really fine works. In fact, I'm going to have to think some more about this. If you have an opinion to express on this, I'll take it into consideration.

Betsy

Books and Music in 2008

Dear Me,

This is the spot where I'm keeping a list of reading and watching and listening. Mostly it will be books and CDs. I could include movies, but only if they are really important.

Books
Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov
Transparent Things by Vladimir Nabokov
The Black Monk and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov
Run by Ann Patchett
Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo
Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Burning Plain: and Other Stories by Juan Rulfo
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Leguin
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery by David G. Benner

The Pearl by John Steinbeck
20th Century American Fiction (Course Part I) taught by Arnold Weinstein
The Body Artist by Don DeLillo
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Tamborines to Glory by Langston Hughes

Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-Tales from the Gulf States by Zora Neale Hurston

Curses by Kevin Huizenga
The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan

Pushing the Bear by Diane Glancy

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
George Eliot: A Light and Enlightening Look by Elliot Engel
Jazz by Toni Morrison
Flight by Sherman Alexie

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Dubliners by James Joyce

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Music
Faure's Requiem performed by the Monteverdi Choir with other compositions by Saint-Saens, Ravel, Debussy, etc.
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem
Distant Future by Flight of the Conchords
Howells Requiem with Vaughan Williams Mass in G Minor
Requiem for Adam by Terry Riley
Takemitsu: Visions November Steps By Toru Takemitsu
Selected Works by Einojuhani Rautavaara, Including Cantus Arcticus and A Requiem in Our Time
Requiem in C Minor by Luigi Cherubini
Requiem by Frei Manuel Cardoso
Messa Da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi
The Russian Album with soprano Anna Netrebko and conductor Valery Gergiev
Forgotten Songs: Dawn Upshaw Sings Debussy
Passion sung by Jose Carreras
Amahl and the Night Visitors by Gian Carlo Menotti
Faure: Cello Sonata No. 2 by Gabriel Faure with Steven Isserlis

The Faure Album with Gil Shaham, violin

Elgar from EMI Classics with Sir Adrian Boult

Wings in the Night: Swedish Songs sung by Anna Sofie von Otter

Sadko an opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Koyaanisqatsi by Philip Glass with Godfrey Reggio
Francesca da Rimini by Riccardo Zandonai
Polyphony: Requiem and Other Sacred Music by John Rutter
Powaqqatsi by Philip Glass with Godfrey Reggio
Rachmaninoff Plays Rachmaninoff

Rachmaninov Piano Concertos 1-4 by Sergei Rachmaninov with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Andre Previn

The Magic of Satie by Erik Satie with Jean-Yves Thibaudet

Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances & Suites for 2 Pianos with Emanuel Ax & Yefim Bronfman

Rachmaninov I with Andrew Litton

Books, Music and Studies of the Year 2007

This is a list. I am tracking my year of reading, listening, and studying.

Under Books I’m listing books that I’ve basically read straight through or perhaps read “mostly.” Does that last part sound like I’m cheating. Yes, perhaps under one definition of cheating. That would be the third grade, sitting on a stool in Ms. Bowers room and under her steel-eyed glare, saying, “Yes, Mzbowrz, I did read about Guatamalan exports, but I forget,” when really you did not read about Guatamala at all, but sat on your bed the night before with the social studies book on your lap while you traced the pattern of the pine knots of your bedroom paneling with your finger-definition of cheating. See note below for my current definition.*

Also, reading for me is usually done in audio form. I listen to books and agree with author Orson Scott Card who says that listening to books aloud is the best way to read because you can read with your eyes shut and just allow the mind pictures to form.

Under Music I'm listing the music that is important to me. Thus it is heavy on the classical. I will also list other things that I find that strike me as fine. I am also working on a "Requiem Mix" list, just because.

Books

The Last Gentleman—Walker Percy—End of 2006
As I Lay Dying—William Faulkner—End of 2006
Bel Canto—Ann Patchett
The Plague—Albert Camus
The Moviegoer—Walker Percy
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits—Laila Lalami
The Libretto for Tosca
Truth:Four Stories I Am Finally Old Enough to Tell—Ellen Douglas
A Street in Marrakech—Elizabeth Fernea
Secrets of Videoblogging—Michael Verdi and Ryanne Hodson
The Sand Child—Tahar Ben Jelloun (My post on this)
The Abolition of Man—C.S. Lewis (My post on this.)
The Book of Isaiah
The Gospel of John
The Trouble with Poetry—Billy Collins
Lancelot—Walker Percy
Enders Shadow—Orson Scott Card
The Turn of the Screw—Henry James
King Lear—William Shakespeare
Taming of the Shrew—Shakespeare
Cymbeline—Shakespeare
New Southerners—Discussions with and Readings by Emerging Southern Writers from the National Humanities Center
Eugene Onegin and other poems by Alexander Pushkin Translated by Charles Johnson (a.k.a. Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin)
Saving Grace by Lee Smith
The African-American Audio Experience—This set included readings from Langston Hughes, Mikki Giovanni, Lorraine Hansberry, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Included was a full dramatized reading of Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.
Year of the Elephant—A Moroccan Woman's Journey Toward Independence—Leila Abouzeid
The Stranger—Albert Camus
Black Boy—Richard Wright
American Hunger—Richard Wright
Much Ado About Nothing—Shakespeare in the Square
Teacher Man—Frank McCourt
At Canaan's Edge—Taylor Branch
The Penultimate Peril—Lemony Snicket aka Daniel Handler
The Bad Beginning—Lemony Snicket aka Daniel Handler
Remembering Jim Crow—Stephen Smith, Kate Ellis, and Sasha Aslanian
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination—Toni Morrison
Lemony Snicket—The Unauthorized Biography—Daniel Handler (Which reminded me very much of the graphic work of an unknown Mississippian whose work, Sandusky Review, vol.1, I had on order, but whose distributer, sold out of and is dragging his feet about publishing a second run, believe that or not.)
The Grim Grotto—Lemony Snicket aka Daniel Handler
More Super Sudoku—(OK so I'm an addict. But I can finally do these things!)
The End—Lemony Snicket aka Daniel Handler
The Kite Runner—by Khaled Hosseini
Sense and Sensibility—by Jane Austen
The Space Between Us—by Thrity Umrigar
Hamlet—by William Shakespeare
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books—by Azar Nafisi
Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self Help Book—by Walker Percy
Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith—by Anne Lamott
The Inheritance of Loss—by Kiran Desai
Lolita—by Vladimir Nabokov
Tears of the Giraffe—by Alexander McCall Smith
The Thanatos Syndrome—by Walker Percy

Music
The things listed here are either CDs or live performances or TV/video/DVD performances

La Boheme—Knoxville Opera Company—Live
Tosca—Leontyne Price—CD
I Puritani—Metropolitan Opera/Public TV Broadcast—Anna Netrebko
The First Emperor—Metropolitan Opera/High Definition Cinema Broadcast—Placido Domingo
German Requiem—Johannes Brahms
War Requiem—Benjamin Britten
Appalachian Journey—Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Mark O'Connor
Requiem—Penderecki
Rutter: Requiem—John Rutter
Mozart Requiem
Faure’s Requiem
Mozart’s 25, 40—Mozart Meets Mariner
Nickel Creek—This Side
Bruce Springsteen—Nebraska
Classical Mix from Diane
Portrait of Kiri Te Kanawa
The Chairman Dances—John Adams with the San Francisco Symphony
Eugene Onegin—Tchaikovsky—PBS Broadcast from Metropolitan Opera—Renee Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Liszt Piano Recital—Leif Ove Andsnes—EMI Classics
Il Trittico—Giacomo Puccini—Metropolitan Opera/High Definition Cinema Broadcast
Akhnaten by Philip Glass
the CIVIL warS—a tree is best measured when it is down—ACT V—The Rome Section—by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson
Albert Herring—by Benjamin Britten
The Turn of the Screw—by Benjamin Britten performed by the University of Tennessee Opera Workshop
Requiem—by Roman Maciejeski
Romeo and Juliette—by Gounod—Metropolitan Opera Goes to the Movies with Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna

Requiem Mix

Introitus or Intro—Brahms, Mozart
Introit and Kyrie—Faure
Dies Irae—Britten, Brahms
Pie Jesu—Rutter

Website Experiences

YouTube I Puritani by Bellini—Anna Netrebko sings The Mad Scene
YouTube Nixon in China by John Adams—Mandy Kelly sings I Am the Wife of Mao Zedong

*cheating—reading something or studying something because you "have to" and not because you love it.