On this day in history...

I thought it would be fun to take a look at happenings on this day in history: events, births, and deaths. I used various sources across the internet to compile the list and lighted on things that interested me. Your mileage may vary. 

1859 – French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope. (Quoted from Wikipedia.)

1908 – The largest “impact event” (asteroid or meteorite hitting Earth) recorded takes place in Eastern Siberia. The Tunguska Event flattened 80 million trees over 830 square miles.

1921 – President Harding appoints William Howard Taft (27th President) as Chief Justice of the United States.

1934 – “The Night of the Long Knives” is launched by Hitler to purge his political and military rivals.

1936 – Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell published.

1950 – President Harry Truman orders U.S. troops to assist South Korea against North Korea.

1953 – The first Corvette was made on this day.

1954 – A total eclipse of the sun is seen around the world.

1971 – Three Soviet cosmonauts were found dead from asphyxiation in their capsule upon its return to earth.

1997 – The British flag was lowered for the last time over the Government House in Hong Kong as the colony was to go back to Chinese rule the next day.

Births

1908 – Winston Graham, author of the Poldark series.

1917 – Lena Horne, songstress extraordinaire. Also, actress Susan Hayward.

1934 – Harry Blackstone Jr., magician

1966 – Mike Tyson, boxer

1985 – Michael Phelps, swimmer

Deaths

1973 – Nancy Mitford – author and journalist

1984 – Lillian Hellman, author and playwright

1995 – Gale Gordon, actor and most famously, nemesis for Lucille Ball

2001 – Chet Atkins, guitar god

2003 – Buddy Hackett, comedian

2003 – Robert McCloskey, children’s author and illustrator: Make Way for Ducklings and Blueberries for Sal.

It’s also International Asteroid Day, probably because of that event in 1908. If you have interesting events that I missed, add them in the comment section.

 

 

Bernard Herrmann and his music

You’ve never heard of Bernard Herrmann (29 June 1911 – 24 December 1975)? Well, maybe you’ve never heard of him, but you have heard him if you’ve ever seen tv’s Twilight Zone or Have Gun – Will Travel or classic films such as Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Psycho, North by Northwest, Fahrenheit 451, or Taxi Driver. The music is all from the fertile, talented mind of Bernard Herrmann. 

Herrmann worked with Orson Welles on the radio on such programs as CBS Workshop, Welles’ Mercury Theater on the Air, and Campbell Playhouse. This led to Welles having Herrmann score two of his films, Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons.

Herrmann also had great success in working with Alfred Hitchcock: The Trouble with Harry (1955), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) where Herrmann is seen conducting the concert at the Royal Albert Hall, The Wrong Man (1956), Vertigo (1957), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), and Marnie (1964). He was also sound consultant on 1963’s The Birds; there was no music score, just bird sounds.

You’ll recall the music to the Twilight Zone that goes dada dada dada dada. That’s not Bernard Herrmann. His theme was used in the early years of the show and, in my opinion, is the better of the two. Its atmospheric and sinister bent is much more in keeping with the disturbing ideas of the episodes.

He was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning only once in 1941 for The Devil and Daniel Webster. However, his music has been used or sampled in everything from Volkswagon and Dodge commercials to songs by Busta Rhymes and Lady Gaga and Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1. Even so, it’s best to listen to Herrmann’s music in context and for its own greatness. Here are two samples: the first is a suite from Psycho, including the infamous shower scene music and then his Twilight Zone theme music. Enjoy!

Shakespeare's Sonnets: X

The theme of Sonnet X carries on from the previous poem. The “beauteous roof to ruinate” might be the house or lineage of a royal personage, although it could apply to anyone. If he wishes to repair it, he must have it carry on by marriage and family.

Sonnet X

For shame deny that thou bear’st love to any,

Who for thyself art so unprovident.

Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many,

But that thou none lov’st is most evident:

For thou art so possessed with murderous hate,

That ‘gainst thyself thou stick’st not to conspire,

Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate

Which to repair should be thy chief desire.

O! change thy thought, that I may change my mind:

Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love?

Be, as thy presence is, gracious and kind,

Or to thyself at least kind-hearted prove:

                Make thee another self for love of me,

                That beauty still may live in thine or thee.

 

 

St. John the Baptist

Tomorrow is the feast day of the Nativity of St John the Baptist (June 24). The last great prophet of the Old Testament (before the revelation of Jesus as the Messiah), John was brave, humble, and devoted to God. He leapt in his mother’s womb when she was visited by the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was carrying Jesus in hers. John recognized the Messiah even then. He knew he was not worthy to baptize Jesus, but conceded to His wishes and then witnessed the dove descending from Heaven on Jesus and the voice of God saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” John also previously had described himself as not being worthy to loosen the thongs of Jesus’ sandals. After the baptism, John declares that he must decrease while Jesus must increase.

St John’s bravery can be seen in his very actions of preaching the Messiah and baptizing people, even though it was a dangerous time with pressure from the Jews and the Roman authorities. His declaring the truth about sin and the need for repentance brought him no end of trouble. He publicly criticized Herod for marrying his brother’s wife Herodias and John ended up in prison. Herod’s step-daughter Salome agreed to dance for Herod if he would give her whatever she asked for. He did and she did and she asked for John the Baptist’s head. The Bible doesn’t reveal what then happened to Salome, but in Richard Strauss’ opera, based on the play by Oscar Wilde, Herod has her killed.

On hearing of John’s death, Jesus responds, “I tell you, among those born of woman none is greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” Certainly John’s reward for his faithfulness was greater than any suffering he endured in his life and death on Earth.

St. John the Baptist, pray for us. 

Minor Prophets

The minor prophets aren’t called that because their value is less than, say, an Isaiah or Ezekiel. The books are shorter and are grouped together, even though they lived at different times, but they all contain valuable material. The prophets were called by God – some against their wishes – and were often mistreated, ignored, or reviled. Remember the parable of the wicked husbandmen (found in the three synoptic Gospels) who tended the vineyards of the owner who went away for a time. When he sent a servant to gather some of the fruits, the tenants beat one, stoned one, and killed another. They did likewise to other servants the owner sent. Finally he sent his son and they killed him too. If they did this to the Son, is it any surprise the prophets were treated poorly? People of any time don’t want to hear they are sinners.

As we learned in the books of Kings and Chronicles, the rulers and the people could plumb the depths of depravity and disobedience to the Lord God. The job of the prophets was to bring this to their attention in order to give them the chance to repent. That they often failed was not the fault of the prophets; it speaks more to the hardness of heart and stubbornness of the people. As we also know, God is always ready to forgive and welcome back the repentant sinner (the Prodigal Son).

The twelve minor prophets are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi (whose name means “my messenger”). They appear in the Bible just before the last Old Testament book, Maccabees. It seems appropriate that the stories of these messengers of God’s love are placed in proximity to the Son Himself, fulfilling the Messianic prophecies in the New Testament.

Crime and Punishment

Our last book club selection for the season was Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. A blast of summer fun it wasn’t. Did I like it? I can’t say “like” is the right word. It was a dense book and reading it was like slogging through knee-deep snow. But though the journey was slow, it was worth it. It’s always more difficult to read a book that has to do with a character’s internal struggle or moral dilemma than a plot that is full of action.

Most of the characters were unlikeable but I think that was to prove a point in what Dostoevsky was trying to say about certain philosophies and the world. He was concerned about the Russian nihilism that was overtaking the country at that time and the characters revealed the consequences of these practices. The transformation of Raskolnikov was what Dostoevsky wanted for the country.

The theme of the books we read this year was the Year of the Sister. The sisters that appeared in Crime and Punishment on the surface might have seemed similar, but I think were quite different. In Sonya, the self-sacrificing was genuine. She became a prostitute in order to provide for her family, but her heart and soul always were saintly. Dunya, (Raskolnikov’s sister) on the other hand, was also self-sacrificing, but it seemed to be much more of a “hey, look at me” type. It was passive-aggressive more than humble. 

The men, with the exception of Razumikhin, were beastly. They treated the women – and themselves – brutally, falling to drunkenness, murder, and suicide. Only Raskolnikov escaped, because of Sonya’s selfless love. It was a bleak, dark, godless landscape and story. Only at the end when repentance and suffering were understood to give life meaning and love was finally accepted and given (because God is love) was there a glimmer of hope.

Two items on a lighter note: the creators of the tv series Columbo admit that his character was partially based on the police inspector Porfiry Petrovich, with his relentless pursuit of Raskolnikov, pushing him to confess. And, for fans of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show, the bad-guy character Boris Badenov used to curse by exclaiming “Raskolnikov.” The influences of great literature lead to strange places. 

American Popular Song 3

Cole Porter (9 June 1891 – 15 October 1964) was known for his erudite, witty, and sometimes risqué lyrics. Unlike some other of the famous composers of American Popular Song, he wrote both words and music.

He wrote shows for the stage (Broadway and London) and scores for Hollywood movie musicals, some more successful than others. His best known were mostly from the 20s and 30s, but his biggest hit came in 1948 with Kiss Me Kate. It ran for a combined 1400+ performances in New York and London and was made into a popular motion picture in 1953. Many of his songs from these shows became instant hits in their day and were recorded by all the biggest singers of the jazz and pop field. 

Ella Fitzgerald recorded the Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook in 1956. One of the songs she did was “In the Still of the Night,” a short, smooth styling of the song. Written for Nelson Eddy in the 1937 movie Rosalie, it was not the basic AABA format and Eddy found it difficult to sing, asking for a replacement. Eddy lost that battle because it stayed in the film and he even sang it in his concerts. So did a lot of other people.

I like the song because it isn’t the standard form and uses an internal rhyming scheme that could be juvenile in other hands, but becomes crisply sentimental with Porter’s talent. 

Here are the lyrics and the 1956 Ella Fitzgerald performance. Enjoy!

In the Still of the Night

In the still of the night

As I gaze from my window

At the moon in its flight

My thoughts all stray to you

 

In the still of the night

While the world is in slumber

All the times without number

Darling when I say to you

 

Do you love me, as I love you

Are you my life to be, my dream come true

Or will this dream of mine fade out of sight

Like the moon growing dim, on the rim of the hill

In the chill, still of the night

 

Happy Birthday Dorothy L. Sayers

Dorothy L. Sayers (13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) insisted that her middle initial always be included in her full name. That’s the way she referred to herself and so shall we. Essayist, playwright, poet, mystery novelist, and Christian apologist, she was what we’d refer to today as a workaholic. She wrote morn, noon, and night.

Probably her most famous creation was Lord Peter Wimsey, aristocratic amateur sleuth. Lord Peter was the second son so the duties of the estate fell to his elder brother the Duke, leaving Lord Peter time to indulge in whatever activity took his fancy. His fancy was solving murders. From London to countryside he solved crimes, sometimes putting himself at risk (damaging his hearing in The Nine Tailors). For a time Dorothy L. Sayers worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency and so the action of Murder Must Advertise took place in an agency with Lord Peter playing Death Bredon, junior copywriter. Not all the stories or characters were based on Sayers’ experiences, but it is said authors do best to write about what they know. (According to Wikipedia, Sayers is credited with coining the phrase “It pays to advertise.”)

In addition to two sets of short stories, there were eleven Lord Peter novels, as well as a twelfth unfinished at Sayers’ death, completed by novelist Jill Paton Walsh (who then went on to write three more on her own). Sayers also wrote short stories about another detective Montague Egg, a wine salesman. There was a fair amount of criticism about Lord Peter and Sayers’ writing, but there will always be people who can’t stand taking something as plebian as detective stories seriously. My opinion (and it is my blog after all) is that they were highly entertaining and well written. Loved the whole series.

Her non-fiction, especially her translations and writing about Christian apologetics, was taken much more seriously. Writers who admired her work and became her friends included C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton. Creed or Chaos? has been compared to Lewis’ Mere Christianity and she and Chesterton founded the “Detection Club,” a group for British mystery writers (he of the Father Brown stories fame).

The work she was most proud of was her translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Her ability to translate the work from Italian to English and keep Dante’s line length and rhyming scheme (terza rima), while making the work poetic was widely praised. She was able to complete Hell (1949) and Purgatory (1955) but died before finishing Paradise. Barbara Reynolds, Italian scholar and Sayers’ goddaughter, completed the translation and it was published in 1962. (Barbara Reynolds also edited several books about Dorothy L. Sayers and was the president of the Dorothy L. Sayers Society.)

Whether you want a good mystery (the Lord Peter Wimsey novels and short stories), a play (The Man Who Would be King), an essay (Are Women Human?), or poetry (Divine Comedy along with volumes of the Dante papers) Dorothy L. Sayers will have something that will delight and intrigue you and make you think. Try her out! 

Happy Birthday Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss (11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor. He was known for operas, tone poems, concertos, songs, and two symphonies. He lived and worked in Germany even through World War II, leading some to believe he was a Nazi sympathizer. In fact, Strauss’ daughter-in-law was Jewish and he used his position as a celebrity (and head of the Reichsmusikkammer and principal conductor of the Bayreuth Festival) to save Alice and her children from the concentration camps. He also tried to save Alice’s family but was less successful, many of them dying in the camps.

Among his most famous operas were Elektra, Salome, Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Die Frau ohne Schatten. Elektra, the ancient Greek character seeking revenge for the murder of her father Agamemnon, and Salome, based on the play by Oscar Wilde, are both one-act operas. But what a punch in one act from each of them. Der Rosenkavalier is miles away from them both. A three-act comic opera, it is as light and frothy as the other two are dark and gut-wrenching. 

Tone poems were the other music form that no one did like Strauss. Whereas a symphony has four or more movements and is pure music, a tone poem is usually one continuous movement and is based on a picture or story or poem that is supposed to bring something visual to mind. His first tone poem was Don Juan. Others were Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Death and Transfiguration, Don Quixote, and Also sprach Zarathustra, the famous piece used in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Strauss also composed much lieder, and most of these were with his wife Pauline’s voice in mind. It is said, though, that he composed his Four Last Songs for the Norwegian opera singer Kirsten Flagstad and she premiered them in 1948.

I’ve picked two pieces for you today. The first is the opening to the tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra in a video from the opening of the MGM movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you can, listen to the rest of the composition, which is different from the beginning. (And, by the way, watch 2001: A Space Odyssey. A great movie.)

The second is the famous waltz from Der Rosenkavalier. This appears to be from one of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts, a staple from my childhood. Bernstein was one of the best teachers of music for young or old. But that’s a story for another day. Enjoy!

Shakespeare's Sonnets: IX

A widow can look at her children and see her deceased husband in them. However, the world is like a widow without children if the young man does not marry and have offspring. The world has nothing to remember him by and has no consolation.

Sonnet IX

Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye,

That thou consum’st thyself in single life?

Ah! If thou issueless shalt hap to die,

The world will wail thee like a makeless wife;

The world will be thy widow and still weep

That thou no form of thee hast left behind,

When every private widow well may keep

By children’s eye, her husband’s shape in mind:

Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend

Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;

But beauty’s waste hath in the world an end,

And kept unused the user so destroys it.

                No love toward others in that bosom sits

                That on himself such murd’rous shame commits.

 

The Feast of Corpus Christi

Yesterday was the external solemnity of the feast of Corpus Christi (the actual feast was Thursday, June 3, but it was celebrated on Sunday.) Corpus Christi is the Body of Christ. For Catholics this is the celebration of the True Presence of the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ present in the Eucharist.

Sadly, only about 30% of Catholics believe in the True Presence, according to a 2019 poll. Only a third believe what the Church teaches. Why go to Mass, then? Why receive Holy Communion if it’s only bread and wine? I can’t answer those questions because I know why I go and why I receive – I believe in the True Presence.

The day’s Gospel is from John 6:55-59, but let’s back up a bit. Earlier in chapter 6 Jesus said that “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” This caused the Jews to murmur because they all knew him as Jesus the carpenter whose parents they knew. Jesus doubles down. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

This really ruffled feathers. Jesus persists. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”

The disciples were confused and did not understand. “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” Remember, all their lives they had been told, according to Jewish law, that it was wrong to drink the blood of an animal, much less a man. Blood must be drained before the animal flesh could be eaten. And here was this Jesus telling them they must eat his flesh and drink his blood or they could not have eternal life. “After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him.”

Jesus could have said, “Wait! This is only a parable. Let me tell you what I really mean.” But he didn’t. He was adamant that he meant what he said. He said it over and over and over. Later, he would show the form of the body and blood at the Last Supper, offering up the bread and wine. This is the form at Mass, when the priest performs the Consecration. What we receive looks like bread and wine, but because of the Consecration, what we receive is truly the body and blood of our Lord. This is a mystery, but our faith teaches us it is real. 

The Epistle, taken from chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians, tells us “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” It goes on “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord…For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.” What does this mean? If you are not in the state of grace (having committed a grave sin without confessing it), if you support abortion or remarriage after divorce or same-sex unions, or worst of all, don’t believe in the True Presence, you bring judgment on yourself. This judgment will not be pretty.

Ezekiel Saw the Wheel

All of Scripture teaches us how to love and obey the Lord God. The “thou shalls” are as abundant as the “thou shalt nots.” It’s all very simple, if not always easy.

Ezekiel reveals to us in forty-eight chapters what God has instructed him to say to the Hebrews and to us. One of the main themes is personal responsibility. Do the right thing and you’ll be okay, but do the wrong thing without repenting and you’re lost. We’re not necessarily talking about the consequences in this life, because we all know that sometimes bad things happen to good people and vice versa. The more important point is, where will your soul spend eternity. Nothing that happens to us in this life can be as bad as eternity in Hell. (Yes, there surely is one.) 

Ezekiel 18:21-24:

But if a wicked man turns away from all his sins which he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness which he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and does the same abominable things that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds which he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, he shall die.

Part of this point, too, is that the sins of the father are not visited on the son if the son is a righteous man. Ezekiel 18:20:

The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

God is always ready to receive us back into His loving heart. You will be judged on your righteousness or wickedness, not the righteousness or wickedness of your family, your community, your country. Be ready for the end, your end. Examine your heart and make sure you are right with God.

Happy Birthday Sir Edward Elgar

Everyone who has graduated from high school or college is familiar with Sir Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No 1. They may not know who wrote it, but they should, but the lack of music education in schools is a screed for another time.

Edward Elgar, born June 2, 1857, wrote much more than the Pomp and Circumstance Marches. One of his most famous pieces was the Enigma Variations (1899). A composition entitled “variations” consists of a theme and a number of variations on that theme, in this case 14, the most famous being “Nimrod.” The variations were written for many of Elgar’s friends, one of his closest being August Jaeger, who was also his publisher. Nimrod was a biblical figure being called “a mighty hunter before the Lord” and the German word for hunter is jaeger, hence the title of the piece. It is a beautiful melody and puts people in mind of war, death, and loved ones and is often used at funerals, most recently that of Prince Philip. However, given that Jaeger helped his friend greatly through a period of depression the year before the composition, it can also be thought as a deep expression of hope and love.

His next big composition in 1900 was a setting for orchestra, chorus, and soloists of John Henry Cardinal Newman’s poem The Dream of Gerontius. The Pomp and Circumstance Marches (5 total) were composed between 1901 and 1930. There were choral pieces, symphonies, and a violin concerto (commissioned by Fritz Kreisler). After the death of his wife in 1920, Elgar’s composing slowed down but didn’t stop completely, as he was commissioned by the BBC for a Third Symphony, which he was working on along with an opera when he died in 1934.

Elgar is considered one of the most English of English composers. His style typifies the English mood and sensibility. The trio part of the Pomp and Circumstance No 1 is not only known as that “graduation music” but as the song “Land of Hope and Glory,” which some British people think of as a second national anthem. 

I leave you with a recording of Pomp and Circumstance No 1 (with “Land of Hope and Glory” being sung within it) as well as a beautiful rendition of “Nimrod” from the Enigma Variations. I think you’ll enjoy both.