Essay

In Beethoven’s Shadow

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by Mark English “Are you mad?” “But you asked me to play.” “I asked you to play. If you can’t think of anything better, play a chromatic scale or a five-finger exercise, but spare me your suburban shopgirl trash.” This exchange comes from a very popular movie of the 1940s, The Seventh Veil. (1) A romantic melodrama, it explores the […]

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Essay

A Few Thoughts on Romanticism

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by Mark English The great Romantic writer and statesman François-René de Chateaubriand is virtually forgotten today. The steak or the sauce named after him is still well-known, however. I can’t help feeling that this tells us a lot about our cultural priorities. One of the things that Chateaubriand is known for (by the few who even recognize his name) is […]

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