theme and variations Archives : Professor Carol

Friday Performance Pick – 234

July 26, 2019 by Hank Reynolds

Mozart, Variations on “Ah! Vous dirai je maman” I have “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” on the brain. Having two small grandchildren in the house can do that as the melody takes on an important developmental role. But the tune “Ah! Vous dirai je maman” has … Read more

Friday Performance Pick – 61

January 12, 2022January 29, 2016 by Hank Reynolds

Beethoven, Eroica Variations, Op. 35 Last week we featured a major work of Beethoven, his Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”). This week I want to look at a related work that Beethoven composed for piano the year before in 1802. It’s a set of 15 variations … Read more

And Then There's This . . .

Jonathan Turley, The Fight Over Parental Rights Just Got Primal. “Few would believe that sending our children to a public school means we have transferred the most fundamental parental rights to ‘experts’ on rearing our children.”

Roger Kimball, What the Right Gets Wrong About Art. “Why do so many people feel that if something is regarded as art, they ‘have to go along with it,’ no matter how offensive, foolish, or corrosive it might be?“

Peter Wood, After College: The Coming Cultural Collapse of Higher Education. “Students graduate with a veneer of knowledge rather than a core. An increasingly obsolescent institution has wedded itself to an increasingly noisome cultural stance.”

Anthony Esolen, Heap Songs Upon Their Heads. “We are the most beauty-starved people, I am persuaded, who have ever trod the earth.”