The early nineteenth century's cultural explosion owed much of its excitement to the battle between two opposing artistic camps. Fading Romanticism and youthful Classicism were throwing punches, and Goethe felt the tug of both sides. He considered both angles: the humanistic force of Romanticism h
Why, in the name of all that's decent and civil, would Tchaikovsky have remarked in his diary that Brahms was a "scoundrel" and "a giftless bastard"? What could summon such a fork-tongued comment about the great German composer?
For one, Johannes Brahms was extremely voluble in his own blunt opin
Musicologists usually break up the great Ludwig van Beethoven's career into three periods: early, middle, and late. But to add a touch more flavor, you could call them the "I'm young and getting my feet wet" period, followed by the "Since I'm going deaf, I'm gonna get wacky and break some rules" peri
In Sophocles' world, the gods have receded. They've already determined (more or less) the fate of human beings and are content to watch from a comfortable distance. Of course, it's unclear exactly what their motives are; it all seems basically arbitrary and cruel. Indeed, the morality of the gods is