Defending the 12th century since the 14th; blogging since the 21st.

Catholicism, Conservatism, the Middle Ages, Opera, and Historical and Literary Objets d'Art blogged by a suburban dad who teaches law and writes stuff.


"Very fun." -- J. Bottum, Editor, FIRST THINGS

"Too modest" -- Elinor Dashwood

"Perhaps the wisest man on the Web" -- Henry Dieterich

"Hat tip: me (but really Cacciaguida)" -- Diana Feygin, Editor, THE YALE FREE PRESS

"You are my sire. You give me confidence to speak. You raise my heart so high that I am no more I." -- Dante

"Fabulous!"-- Warlock D.J. Prod of Didsbury

Who was Cacciaguida? See Dante's PARADISO, Cantos XV, XVI, & XVII.


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Desert prophets v. the Hellenized

A comment found at the Gates of Vienna blog:

xlbrl said...

Paul Johnson, in his volume "A History of the Jews" briefly makes mention that Islam is a mutant Hebrew religion. We see similarities to this day in some details of Hassidic grooming, dress, religious school chanting, and separation of sexes, however superficial they may be.

For the many centuries preceeding the diaspora Jewish prophets came from the desert regions and gained followings of varying significance. Most did not have staying power, but the culture was not ever static, and these movements all had effects on the general state of Israel whether it was a state at the moment or ruled by others. The desert prophets tended to be austere and fanatical, representing traditional Hebraic thinking against the upscale urbanized Jews living with and absorbing the powerful cultures of occupying powers like the Greeks. Jesus was most certainly a Hellenistic Jew and not a desert prophet.

We forget that Moses and a long line of his desendants were polygamous. There was no Microsoft or Berkshire Hathaways stock to store and create wealth, power, and prestige. It was done with seventy children in Moses's case, and Brigham Young later had the same idea. Believing themselves to be the lost tribe of Israel, why wouldn't they?

The Jews spent a few centuries working through their worst habits and understandings. The Moslems do not seem to care to.

I call particular attention, of course, to the last paragraph.

I have not read the Johnson book referred to (though I've read other Johnson books and consider him the model of what a well-read journalist-historian should be). I will say, though, that in every recent confrontation that I have followed between "Hellenization" and the alteratives to it, Hellenization comes out ahead. The Holy Father's Regensburg Address, for example.

I repeat here my invitation to readers to join my Manuel II Paleologos Appreciation Society and Anti-Dehellenization League. A Serb-activist friend in DC, with whom I don't see eye-to-eye on everything but who's a good egg, is co-chairman. (When Croats and Serbs aren't getting along, neither are we. Lately they have been, so we are: we're all in the antemurale Christianorum business together.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:34 PM

 
London near-bombing: for facts, analysis, links, and the text of the message posted on a jihadi website the night before, go here.

According to Fox's account, one of the suspect cars "was ticketed and then towed an hour later to the impound lot on Park Lane on Hyde Park's eastern edge" -- right underneath Speakers Corner during an Islamist rally, if there's any justice. (I can assure you that there are no impound lots "on" or "in" Park Lane. They must be underground. At street-level, Park Lane has indoor BMW showrooms, in addition to the Dorchester and the Hilton.)

posted by Cacciaguida at 9:37 PM

 
Sorry to introduce a somber note, but I'd appreciate your prayers for Beverly Sills....
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:42 PM

 
Signs of the times:

Plaintiff in Morse v. Frederick: BONG HITS 4 JESUS

Washington Post editorial cartoon yesterday about the Supreme Court: BONG HITS 4 CONSERVATIVES

St. Blog's: MO 2 PROPRIO

Movie theaters: ORDER OF 3 NIX

Book stores: DEATH 3 HALLOWS
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:00 PM

 
Conversation chez Cacciaguida: in search of lost attorneys general

CACCIAGUIDA: ....So Bork told Nixon that the only authority Congress could have for enacting the bill would be its Katzenbach v. Morgan power --

ELINOR: Who?

CACCIAGUIDA: Katzenbach --

ELINOR: Dogs in front, birds perched nervously on wire....


(For recent Supreme Court opinions, go here, here, and here.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:48 PM

 
Kath.net says Official: Motu Proprio on July 7:

The motu proprio liberating the Tridentine Mass for the entire Catholic Church has been given [earlier today] to about 30 bishops from all over the world in the Sala Bologna of the Apostolic Palace by Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone.

Also: In another motu proprio, Pope restores two-thirds requirement for papal election.
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:59 PM

 
Gordon Brown is Prime Minister.

Meanwhile -- "I'm having the same week you're having, Prime Minister." And this. And this.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:52 PM

 
Mario Vargas Llosa, interviewed in the WSJ. Interesting; never read him, but I may have to start. Of note:

...."I went to Iraq after the invasion," he tells me. "When I heard stories about the sons of Saddam Hussein, it seemed like I was in the Dominican Republic, hearing stories about the sons of Trujillo! That women would be taken from the street, put in automobiles and simply presented like objects. . . . The phenomenon was very similar, even with such different cultures and religions." He concludes: "Brutality takes the same form in dictatorial regimes."

Did this mean that Mr. Vargas Llosa supported the invasion of Iraq? "I was against it at the beginning," he says. But then he went to Iraq and heard accounts of life under Saddam Hussein. "Because there has been so much opposition to the war, already one forgets that this was one of the most monstrous dictatorships that humanity has ever seen, comparable to that of Hitler, or Stalin." He changed his mind about the invasion: "Iraq is better without Saddam Hussein than with Saddam Hussein. Without a doubt."

posted by Cacciaguida at 12:06 AM

 
Happy Feast of St. John the Baptist!


"As an authentic prophet, John bore witness to the truth without compromise. He denounced transgressions of God's commandments, even when the protagonists were people in power.

"Thus, when he accused Herod and Herodius of adultery, he paid for it with his life, sealing with martyrdom his service to Christ, who is the truth in person."

-- Pope Benedict, earlier today


A huge black arm, the arm of the Executioner, comes forth from the cistern, bearing on a silver shield the head of lokanaan [John the Baptist]. Salome seizes it. Herod hides his face with his cloak. Herodias smiles and fans herself. The Nazarenes fall on their knees and begin to pray.

-- a stage direction in Oscar Wilde's Salome
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:46 PM

 
Conversation chez Cacciaguida [haven't done one of these in a while, have we?]: Delivery service

UPS man: *drops off L.L. Bean package*

Doorbell: *Ding dong*

CACCIAGUIDA: Ah. It's my pants.

ELINOR: Thank heavens for that.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:25 PM

 
Michael Yon reports on the Baqubah arm of Operation Phantom Thunder.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:58 PM

 
From the weekend website of our local paper:

Where else but [Lameville-on-Squat] could you see Elvis impersonators, get your fill of crawfish and see jazz legends like ___ ___ perform all in one weekend?

Where indeed.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:35 PM

 
Mike Bloomberg: fascist. Today's WSJ editorial highlights a disturbing pattern in the Mayor's recent speech announcing his switch from Republican to independent:

"We do not have to accept the tired debate between the left and right, between Democrats and Republicans, between Congress and the White House."

Yep, the parliamentary system leads only to paralysis; or so Mussolini and Hitler often said. The Journal adds:

[H]is contention that what the country really needs is an executive that transcends politics to "get things done" merits closer scrutiny.

Does it ever.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:15 AM

 
I totally enjoyed Gene Weingarten's flattening of Lou Dobbs in last Sunday's Washington Post, and I don't even watch Lou Dobbs!

If a charge is incendiary enough, Lou doesn't demand all that much by way of verification. Not long ago, his show suggested that illegal immigrants had recently caused nearly an eight-fold increase in leprosy here. Leprosy! That'll get your attention!

Unfortunately, this proved to be somewhat false, but only in the limited sense that illegal immigrants haven't caused a big rise in leprosy in this country, inasmuch as the number of new cases has actually declined since 1988. Lou's source was a long-discredited report by a fulminating racist with no medical credentials. The woman, now deceased, also believed that most Latino male immigrants were child and/or nun molesters.

(I suppose National Review can always argue that the leprosy rate went down less than it would have had it not been for illegal immigrants....)
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:34 PM

 
Katie Leung Says Don't Expect Her Back for 'Harry Potter 6'. Nobody did, dear. I'm sure you were the envy of Edinburgh's Chinatown when you got the part in GoF, the fact it was the part of a girl shallower than a Privet Drive puddle in August, and that Harry is well shot of her, means no one has bought any advance tix for Movie 6 just to see you. "Something sweet, dear?"
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:27 PM

 
Toddler Served Margarita in a Sippy Cup. Well now we know where to take Ratty if she ever has kids!

Did they put the little salt-crystal thingies around the sipper?
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:19 PM

 

From the Telegraph:

The spokesman [for Cardinal Murph-O'Connor, of Westminster] pointed out that the English and Welsh bishops were the first in the world to be allowed to permit the celebration of the Tridentine Rite.

An indult was granted in 1971 by Pope Paul VI after a group of English luminaries - including Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis, Agatha Christie, Kenneth Clark, William Rees-Mogg, Malcolm Muggeridge, Ralph Richardson, C Day Lewis and Iris Murdoch - complained to him about the loss to civilisation and culture that the suppression represented.

posted by Cacciaguida at 1:00 AM

 
Pope visits Assisi -- and I just couldn't help noticing there were no imams, rabbis, shamans, Methodists, witchdoctors, muftis, swamis, dervishes, or Archbishops of Canterbury.

I'm just saying.

EDITED TO ADD: Spirit of Assisi is Not Syncretism, Says Pope
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:55 AM

 
Motu Proprio watch

From Rorate Coeli, via Catholic World News: Motu Proprio "will be published right before the departure of Benedict XVI for the summer vacation," which begins July 9.

(That may just allow it to avoid being lost amid all the Harry Potter events. Unconfirmed rumors: burlap banner is a horcrux; "Introibo" is new password to headmaster's office; Snape wrote "Take This Bread" before turning spy for the Order; Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos will officiate at Ron and Hermione's wedding.)

Ahem, moving right along. This report names three tasks -- er, um -- cardinals who will give the press conference introducing the Motu Propio: Francis Cardinal Arinze, Dario Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, and Julian Cardinal Herranz. A very interesting trio. Cardinal Arinze is a proven agitator for a more reverent, rubrical, "vertical" usage of the Novus Ordo, but is not known for enthusiasm for the Tridentine rite. For Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, the Tridentine revival has become issue number one, with issue number two being the reconciliation of the Lefebvrists. Cardinal Herranz, a priest of Opus Dei, recently retired as head of the office that interprets Canon Law.

These three seem well chosen. Because Arinze and Herranz will be there, Castrillon Hoyos is unlikely to say that the Novus Ordo is over and gone, or that the Lefebrvists aren't in schism, or that the crumple-horned snorkack can be seen in Sweden. Because Castrillon Hoyos will be there, Arinze is unlikely to try to minimize the impact of the M.P. (assuming he would wish to do so, which I don't mean to imply with any certainty). And because Herranz will be there, canon-legal questions will be answered with precision.

All of the above assumes, of course, that the report cited by Rorate Coeli is correct. And frankly, we who've been waiting for the Motu Proprio have gone through more than our share of crumple-horned snorkacks.
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:24 PM

 
Notice to diplomats from Mongolia: I'd be the last to blame you for wanting to live in New York rather than Ulaanbaatar, but according to our Supreme Court, you're going to have to pay city taxes on that residential space, diplomats though ye (and your Indian colleagues) be.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:33 PM

 
Go see the redesigned E-Pression: it'll lift your spirits even when you're most e-pressed!
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:48 PM

 
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell is currently overflowing the remainder tables and featured in all the sale catalogues. As I recall, it was marketed as the next Harry Potter or something like that; perhaps Harry-Potter-meets-Foucault's-Pendulum.

Does anyone know if it's any good?
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:59 PM

 
Screaming Paris Hilton ordered back to jail. That's hot!

'Dbe even hotter if that sheriff who let her out were thrown in after her for contempt of court.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:14 PM

 
Gen. Peter Pace, first Marine ever to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, will not be renominated. I do not think this is good news.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:19 PM

 
Happy Feast of Corpus Christi! (It will be celebrated this Sunday in many locales, but in real life it's today.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:53 PM

 
Motu proprio movement? It's just not news any more when Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos says it's imminent. I mean, I love him to pieces, but he's definitely the Luna Lovegood of the Tridentine revival. But when Cardinal Bertone, the Secretary of State, says it, it's not just another crumple-horned snorkack.

In an interview with the Italian Bishops' newspaper Avvenire last Sunday (click here, select "domenino 3 giugno," and scroll down to "Gli altri articoli"), we find this Q & A with Bertone:

AVVENIRE: E l'altrettanto atteso motu proprio che liberalizzerebbe l'uso del Messale cosiddetto di san Pio V a che punto è?

BERTONE: Credo non si dovrà aspettare molto per vederlo pubblicato. Il Papa è personalmente interessato affinché questo avvenga. Lo spiegherà in una sua lettera di accompagnamento, sperando in una serena recezione.

Which is as much as to say:

Q. And the much-awaited motu proprio that would liberalize the use of the so-called Missal of Saint Pius V, at what stage is it?

A. I believe that one will not have to wait much to see it published. The Pope is personally interested that this should happen. He will explain it in an accompanying letter, hoping for a calm reception.

Well he might as well hope for blackbirds to fly to Jupiter, but that's hardly the point, is it? (Catholic World News summarizes here.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:54 PM

 


ELGAR

June 2 was the 150th anniversary of the birth of England's greatest symphonic composer, Sir Edward Elgar, 1857-1934.

Though, as you can see, he projected the image of an Edwardian toff to the nth degree, he was actually something of a self-made man, being born to a family "in trade" -- and Roman Catholic too.

Yes -- the ultra-Englishman who composed the Pomp and Circumstance Marches was RC! There is dispute about the nature of his faith, but he never made the "obvious" move for a socially ambitious artist, which would have been to pitch it and join the Established Church.

Also, one of his first "hits" was The Dream of Gerontius, an oratorio set to a dramatic poem by Cardinal Newman about death, the first steps of the afterlife, and Purgatory.

England is going ga-ga about the anniversary. When I was there last month, the Daily Telegraph ran a series of essays by Elgar interpreters, including Dame Janet Baker on singing the Angel in Gerontius, and Julian Lloyd Webber (Andrew's brother, a cellist) about playing the Cello Concerto.

As Torygraph columnist Simon Heffer puts it here, it is sometimes said of Elgar that he "wrote the soundtrack of the Empire." Yet he did so without constant (or indeed, any) recourse to folk tunes, and by cultivating, in an English idiom, the German high-romantic school of grand orchestral writing (e.g. Wagner, Bruckner, Brahms, Richard Strauss -- the last of whom hailed Elgar as a fellow "progressive," by which he meant Wagnerian high romantic).

But what does one mean by saying Elgar "wrote the soundtrack of the Empire," or that he used an "English idiom"? If there's an answer, it's probably too technically musicological for me; Heffer rightly notes:

His musical style is mainly German, suffused with Wagner and Brahms. But he made his music seem English to the English, which is not the least of his achievements.

Heffer goes on:

In the 15 years between the première of the Enigma Variations in 1899 and the start of the First World War, he composed some of the greatest musical works not just in the English canon, but in the world. After the Variations, there was the Dream of Gerontius; four Pomp and Circumstance Marches (a fifth appeared in 1930); two majestic symphonies; a stunning violin concerto; and sundry other oratorios, songs and orchestral works.

It is easy to see why, even before his death, Elgar was already being discounted, and encouraging detractors (usually from among the narrow-minded and the ignorant). He was the ultimate Edwardian, and splendour and opulence radiate from much of his music. From the aftermath of the First World War to beyond the collapse of the Empire, the soundtrack seemed to some to be inflated, pompous, dated and irrelevant.

Well, the fact that England is one big Elgarfest this month shows that it's the detractors who are inflated, pompous, dated and irrelevant. Some of them have given up, urging their own kind to cease rejecting Elgar and instead "reclaim" him from "the conservatives." E.g. this piece by Martin Kettle in The Guardian, fisked a few days later by this one by Martin Henderson in the Telegraph.

Back to Heffer for a moment:

For all his Germanic influences, [Elgar] was deeply original. For all the imperial bluster, he was lyrical and sensitive (even when being imperial: there really are few tunes quite so ravishing as the trio of the fourth Pomp and Circumstance March). For all his perceived starchiness - the buttoned-up tweeds and the walrus moustache - he was intensely passionate: listen to the Cello Concerto as the expression of the shock of the First World War and the decline of his wife, or to the opening of the Violin Concerto for unrestrained passion.

Yes, or just about any part of the First Symphony. Or the Second Symphony's second movement: a hymn of national mourning at the death of King Edward, and also a passionate personal portrayal of the sort of grief that breaks through all English restraints.

Or the mysterious Fifth Pomp and Circumstance March. Heffer is right -- tunes don't get much better than the "trio" (or slow section) of Number Four. And the really famous one, the one used at graduations -- that's the trio of Number One. Numbers 1-4 were all written in Elgar's -- and the Empire's -- heyday, the first decade of the 20th century. But P&C #5 didn't come along until 1930, long after Elgar had basically stopped composing, and long after critical disfavor had closed in on him.

So what's up with #5? Well, listen to all five in the best recording available -- that would be the one by Daniel Barenboim, the only conductor who plays them not as marches but as small symphonic pieces -- and see if it doesn't seem to you, as it does to me, that the trio of #5 is an expression of tragedy and resignation almost on a level with the second movement of the Second Symphony.

For the two Symphonies, I recommend Sinopoli (this set also gives you his wonderful reading of P&C Nos. 1 and 4); also Barbirolli (this set also gives you Enigma and other goodies). Barenboim's and Solti's recordings are good too, and (like Sinopoli) they give the lie to the notion that only Englishmen care about Elgar. (Sir John Barbirolli was English. RC, but English. He once conducted Part One of Gerontius for Pope Pius XII; afterwards the Holy Father said to Sir John, "Figlio mio, e questo un capolavoro supremo.") And let's not forget that other walrus-mustached Elgarian, Sir Adrian Boult: 1st Symphony here, 2nd here.

My preference for the Elgar conducting of the late Giuseppe Sinopoli is very subjective. All I can say is, when I listened to the First Symphony over and over as a 17-year-old, I wondered, how does he (meaning Elgar) know? Thirty-plus years later, when Sinopoli's recording appeared, I again asked, he does he (meaning Sinopoli) know? It was the same shock of recognition. (Ah, you say, but whose recording was I listening to when I was 17? Barbirolli's!)

For Enigma, avoid Solti's: he tries the experiment of playing the famous "Nimrod" movement fast instead of slow -- and it fails. Go with Sinopoli, Barbirolli, Barenboim, or Boult. (Note that some of these give you the Cello Concerto as well.)

The Dream of Gerontius: Benjamin Britten conducted a performance starring his extremely good friend Peter Pears, and I don't think it's been equalled; you also get John Shirley-Quirk as the Priest. Barbirolli's is highly regarded, not least because of Janet Baker; this one is great too -- beautifully meditative conducting by Richard Hickox -- though the upper reaches of the Angel's part are a strain for Felicity Palmer.

Go you likewise, and Vary your Enigma.

posted by Cacciaguida at 4:03 PM

 
Cardinals issue abortion warnings to MPs.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of Scotland's Catholics, said the abortion rate north of the border was now equivalent to "two Dunblane massacres a day".

His counterpart in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, said for the first time that Catholic politicians who back abortion must clear their consciences before receiving the sacrament.

posted by Cacciaguida at 1:23 PM