Stumbled across this intriguing interactive site while researching an obscure fact about opera.
You may enjoy seeing my list, and the site's many, many other lists to rank. To make your own list, just type in their search box, "best operas," or "best rock bands" or anything else.
Warning: can be addictive.
The Best Operas
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Monday, December 15, 2014
Saudi Arabia is playing chicken with its oil
Saudi Arabia is playing chicken with its oil
With ongoing proxy wars in Syria and Iraq, Saudi Arabia risks
instigating an oil war with Russia and Iran—a war that the kingdom can
perhaps win in the short term. But like sectarian conflict, Saudi actions threaten a conflagration that can spin out of everyone’s control.....
With ongoing proxy wars in Syria and Iraq, Saudi Arabia risks
instigating an oil war with Russia and Iran—a war that the kingdom can
perhaps win in the short term. But like sectarian conflict, Saudi actions threaten a conflagration that can spin out of everyone’s control.....
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Friday, December 05, 2014
Obscure Composers: not about music
My 2014 book, Obscure Composers, wasn't really about music, in the final analysis. It was about life. It concludes like this:
What have we learned from this study, in practical
terms? If you wish to compose, get the
best possible education, then secure the best possible employment to fund your
artistic aspirations. Follow your own
voice versus compositional trends or fads.
And be patient. Recognition may
take a while to come your way. Indeed:
“Art is long, life is short.”
My piano teacher, Harry Davidson, used to say that from time
to time. To which the thought now occurs
to add, after this study, “Obscurity may be longer still.”
I’ve had a lot of time to think about obscurity while
researching and writing in this space.
And to reach out to others, working musicians, composers, academics,
administrators. The response has been
gratifying. I find I’ve tapped a
nerve. People care about this subject,
more than I would have guessed. What is
it that causes us to respond in rescue mode to save a talented composer – or
other worthy – from obscurity?
What is it, then, that makes each of us rebel instinctively
at obscurity, as one of our quotees said at the outset of this work?
I think it is because obscurity is a meaning, if not THE
meaning of death, and as such, a grievous injustice that strikes right at the
core of the human spirit. We simply don’t
want to die, and even more, we simply don’t want to be forgotten. To vanish, to be obscured, to be obliterated,
to leave no trace whatsoever.
We do our work on planet earth, whatever it is, glorious or
not so, and if we are fortunate, we arrive at the fullness of years, and pass
on, preferably, easily enough. Then
comes a void. We may be remembered – or
not – for what we did, said, didn’t do, didn’t say. The remembering might be brief. Likely it will be. Still, obscurity looms. If you don’t think so, write an essay about
your great-great-grandparents, and send it to me. It only takes four generations to become
completely unknown, even to your descendents.
There is, in the opinion of this author, and many others,
another dimension, a world of spirit, of which we know little, but which in no
way mitigates its reality. And so it
would seem that the only permanent, real “cure” for obscurity lies in the realm
of spirit – in the God realm.
Men, some sage, some simple, have written that we enter that
realm by faith, simple, humble, even childlike faith. For those willing to trust God in like
manner, and follow his dictates, the question of death, and obscurity, is
resolved forever, and eternal life arises to take its place. “For God so loved the world.....” becomes the
operative verse, transcending all other ideas, theories, tenets, wishes, hopes,
dreams, and devices of mankind.
For more on this theme, see our book on the texts of a set
of vocal works from a most Un-Obscure Composer: Bach and Heaven: The promise of afterlife in the text of the
Cantatas.
We wish you only the best.
Thanks for taking this voyage of discovery with us. Keep traveling, and
discovering -- and trusting your own ears.
Sincerely yours, John A. Sarkett
Tuesday, December 02, 2014
B.C. (Before Computers) Big Data was the province of hands and eyes and notebooks
Data analysis, once upon a time, in the land of tennis.
Pointer credit to friend Len Kasper, Chicago Cubs broadcaster, an avid and superb tennis player in his own right, and my former doubles partner when we had indoor league some years ago. Thanks, Len.....
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