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The ancient literature of the Mediterranean world is rather divided whether you go ‘up’ to find wisdom/enlightenment, or ‘down’. Interestingly, John’s gospel (John 1:51) talks about angels both ascending and descending on the Son of Humanity. (BTW, the Greek word for ‘Man’ in the phrase commonly translated “Son of Man” is actually gender neutral. “Son…

Fanfare     A. Soler (1729–1783) [ORGAN] Concerto in Am         Vivaldi (1678-1741)/Bach (1685-1750) [ORGAN] Antonio Soler was a Spanish composer whose works span the late Baroque and early Classical music eras. He is best known for his keyboard sonatas, an important contribution to the harpsichord, fortepiano and organ repertoire. Soler was born in…

Moderato con amabilità (‘Moderate [tempo], with loveliness’) Op. 110  Beethoven (1770-1827) Beethoven almost never dated his compositions. This morning’s prelude is a rare exception, dated December 25, 1821. Much has been made of his ability to compose ‘in his head’ without having to ‘pound it out’ on a piano, but that is in fact a…

We’ve been considering a 3rd century text called the ‘Revelation of the Magi’ that purports to tell the story of the Magi in the Christmas story. To recap: we saw that Adam’s son Seth founded something like an ‘Order of the Magi’, and that generations of Magi in this Order have been keeping watch with…

We’ve been considering a 3rd century text called the ‘Revelation of the Magi’ that purports to tell the story of the Magi in the Christmas story. Last week we saw that Adam’s son Seth founded something like an ‘Order of the Magi’, and that generations of Magi in this Order have been keeping watch with…

When revisiting the Christmas story, folks living almost two thousand years ago asked many of the same questions we do. Such as — don’t we all want to know more about the Magi? Traditions have grown up adding to the details in the Gospels: there were three of them (the Gospels don’t say how many,…

Once upon a time there was a pilgrim on a long pilgrimage. And at the end of each day, he would sit by his campfire, massaging his aching feet. One day he was walking through a village, and a vendor approached him: “Sir, if you buy my comfortable folding chair, you will have somewhere comfortable…

Once upon a time there was a knight on a Quest, who heard of a wise Sage living high up in the mountains. So after a long and arduous search the knight found the Sage’s remote cabin. The Sage welcomed him, and the knight sat at his feet. “Wise one,” the knight asked, “please tell…

Once upon a time, a beautiful princess sat at the edge of a clear, ornate pool in her palace grounds. As she leaned over to gaze at her reflection, her priceless crown tumbled from her head and into the water with a loud splash. At the sound of her scream, royal attendants rushed to her…

This is one of those Music Boxes where I introduce two seemingly unrelated ideas and then weave them together. So I ask your indulgence… Thread 1: When working with texts from antiquity, we have the problem that we don’t have the original manuscript in Plato’s or St. Luke’s handwriting. What we have are copies of…