“The tyranny is now gone and tonality is back. But the restoration of reality has not taken place all at once. What began emerging from under the rubble of 12-tone music back in the 1960s was minimalism. In it, tonality returned with a vengeance but was, at first, more like a patient from a trauma ward gradually recovering consciousness. The traumatized patient slowly comes out of a coma, only gradually recovering motor skills, coordination, movement, and coherent speech. The musical movement known as minimalism is the sometimes painfully slow rediscovery of the basic vocabulary of music: rhythm, melody, and harmony.”
Tag: 07.17
A Ballerina Explains What It’s Like To Move From Europe To The U.S.
Dores André, a principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet, “loves life in the United States. She considers San Francisco home. But with her Spanish perspective, she says she would like to see the government and US citizens reflect on their collective past more often. ‘By being a pioneer, sometimes you forget to look back and [check] on your own history,’ she points out. ‘I think that learning from its past could be a really good thing.'”
Essential Training For Tech Industry? Three Books Argue For Humanities
“What matters now is not the skills you have but how you think. Can you ask the right questions? Do you know what problem you’re trying to solve in the first place? Scott Hartley argues for a true “liberal arts” education—one that includes both hard sciences and “softer” subjects. A well-rounded learning experience, he says, opens people up to new opportunities and helps them develop products that respond to real human needs.”
Ringling Bros. May Be Gone, But 21st-Century Circus Is Thriving (Animal-Free)
“No joke: Circus scholar Janet Davis counts some 85 circus schools and training centers scattered across the country, where everyone from bona fide big-top and art-house pros to curious civilians and energetic youngsters learn the ropes, high wires and German wheels of circus yore. … And roving troupes and single-ring spectacles abound.” Journalist Holly Millea visits the very last performance of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Xtreme as well as several of the new-style circus spectaculars (a group in which, interestingly, she has included Elizabeth Streb’s dance company). Millea even tries out a trapeze class.
What Happened To America’s Public Intellectuals? They’re Still Around, But They Look Different From The Old Days
“The potential market for intelligent discussion is greater than ever. Over a third of the adult U.S. population holds four-year degrees – an all-time high. And because the number of graduates who are women or African-American or Hispanic has increased dramatically, … it’s no accident that some of our fastest-rising intellectual powerhouses are people of color, such as Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay.” (includes public intellectual “starmap”)
Arundhati Roy Has A New Novel (If That’s What You Can Call It)
“More than a novel, this book wants to be an offering. It isn’t concerned with the conventional task (or power) of fiction to evoke the texture and drama of consciousness. Instead, it acts like a companion piece to Roy’s political writings—collected in books such as The Algebra of Infinite Justice (2001) and Walking With the Comrades (2011). It tours India’s fault lines, as Roy has, from the brutal suppression of tribal populations to the 2002 pogrom against Muslims in Gujarat.”