Alexi Kenney at CMU, 1/29/2024

Franz Schubert, Violin Sonata No 2 in A Minor, D. 385

Dmitri Shostakovich, Piano Trio No 2 in E minor, Op. 67 

Featured musicians:

Alexi Kenney, violin

Dimitri Papadimitriou,  piano

Anne Martindale Williams, cello

Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble 1/27/24

 The ensemble was led by Daniel Nesta Curtis. Mr Curtis is a CMU faculty and is a resident conductor and artistic director of the CMU Contemporary Ensemble. 

The program included the following four pieces:

Biyan by Raven Chacon

Toque by Tania Leon

Backlight by Meredith Monk

Try by Andrew Norman

Hobbesian Trap

Thomas Hobbes underlines three axes that define human quarrels:

1. Competition which spearheads toward gain
2. Diffidence which targets safety
3. and Glory with the objective of reputation 

In his seminal work, Leviathan (1651), Hobbes points out these mechanisms in a succinct language:

So that in the nature of man, we find principal causes of quarrel. First, competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory. The first market men invade for gain; the second, for safety; and the third, for reputation. The first use violence, to make themselves masters of other men's persons, wives, children, and cattle; the second, to defend them; the third, for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other sign of undervalue, wither direct in their persons or by reflection in their kindred, their friends, their nation, their profession, or their name. 

The diffidence which can be better translated to fear is the root cause of what is known as the Hobbesian trap or security dilemma in political terminology and in the arena of international relations. 

City of Asylum Jazz Series: Paul Thompson Honors Wayne Shorter

Thursday night's event was a tribute to jazz legend Wayne Shorter, by Pittsburgh Jazz bassist and educator, Paul Thompson.

The performance was focused on acoustic works of Wayne Shorter's discography. Pieces such as Children of the Night, Virgo, Yes or No, Witchhunt, Both Sides Now, and Joy Ryder were played. Beautiful music and masterfully organized, as always!

Featured Musicians:

Paul Thompson: bass

Scott Boni: sax

Joe Sheehan: piano

George Heid III: drums

1/25/2024

Nazism: an Antirational and Anti-Enlightenment Stance

 It is impossible to understand so destructive a policy without recognizing that Nazi ideology was, for the most part, not only irrational-but antirational. It cherished the pagan, pre-Christian past of the German nation, adapted romantic ideas of a return to nature and a more "organic" existence, and nurtured an apocalyptic expectation of an end of days, whence the eternal struggle between the races would be resolved... The contempt for rationalism and its association with the despised Enlightenment stood at the core of Nazi thought; the movement's ideologues emphasized the contradiction between weltanschauung ("worldview"), the natural and direct experience of the world, and -welt-an-denken ("thinking about the world"), the "destructive" intellectual activity that breaks reality down through conceptualization, calculation, and theorization. Against the "degenerate" liberal bourgeois' worship of reason, the Nazis championed the idea of a vital, spontaneous life, unhindered and undimmed by compromises of dilemmas. 

Rationality and Holocaust, Yaki Menschenfreund, 2010 

 

January 6th, 2024

Flying Dutchman

The concept and splendor of this opera captivated me:

The main characters are as follows

1. The Dutchman: the protagonist, clad in darkness and under a burden of spell.
2. Norwegian sailor Daland
3. Daland's daughter Senta: obsessed with the myth of the Dutchman 
4. Erik: Senta's longtime suitor who is a hunter by profession

Inspired by the original myth, Wagner wrote Flying Dutchman as a wayward ghostly character doomed to futile travels in the hope of redemption.  

These seven-year cycles are the result of an act of defiance by the Dutchman before God. The spell will only be broken once the sailor can find faithful love. That is the hope of the captain "The Dutchman" every seven years when he guides the vessel ashore. The Daland's ship is swayed from their home harbor by an oversight of a young Steerman deceived by romantic fantasies. The deviation leads to a fateful encounter with the ghostly dark vessel with blood-red sails. 

Daland faces the Dutchman who lays out his ordeal and promises all his treasure and possessions in return for getting to know Senta.

The encounter takes place eventually once the ship lands and Senta recognizes the mystic ideal gentleman she had cherishfully envisioned all along, in the Dutchman. 

At the shore, there are scenes of Dalan's ship personnel rejoicing and celebrating with the port residents. However, their party met its end once the ghostly ship crew, reflecting the gloomy and dark status of their captain, infiltrated into the land. 

In a different scene the old desperate suitor, Erik, is reproving Senta and singing of good old times of romantic engagement with Senta. These scenes are secretly monitored by the Dutchman who feels the promise of love has turned to false hope. In a desperate act of hopelessness, the Dutchman leaves to the dark vacuum of his ship, leaving Senta distraught. She climbs to the top of a cliff and jumps to the water as she restates her eternal commitment to Dutchman. As a consequence, the dark vessel dismantles and eventually sinks.

Next, we see the Dutchman and Sneta together clad in white, ascending in joy. The protracted spell is broken and the Dutchman is liberated, finally.

The Small Pitfalls of an Inevitabilist Mind

The promised land is there; it stands tall and strong and at some point in time all the prophecies will undoubtedly be realized.

What is far less certain is the livelihood of thousands of lives that fade before your eyes. Tragedies are unfolding before your eyes while you are waiting for the golden dust.