Words and Music

From the Holly-Bedecked Vault Dept .: Here’s a Metroland piece from 1990, posted on this blog in 2011 (I’ve been at it that long ?) and enco...

THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY of the birth of Charles Ives was celebrated in and around Danbury, Connecticut, where he was born and raised and e...

A VISIT TO FRANCE is high on my agenda, and it has to include a stop in Marseilles. I’m prepared to be disappointed – I take it for granted ...

IT WAS ONLY AFTER I watched some Marx Brothers imitators at work that I realized there was a quality about the original quartet that’s impos...

Overindulgence Dept .: It's Thanksgiving again, and, although I swore I wasn't going to spend several days in menu planning and meal...

From the Classical Vault Dept. : I’ve grown much more hopeful about the state of large orchestras in the 32 years since I wrote the piece be...

From the Pages of History Dept. : I blog-posted the piece below more than a decade ago, by which time they had become footnotes to an admira...

I’VE NEVER BEEN MUCH in thrall to the doomsayers. They used to be charmingly represented in single-panel cartoons as a bearded old man hefti...

JEROME KERN AND OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN insisted that they wrote “Old Man River” with Paul Robeson in mind, which is no surprise given the way the...

THERE WAS NO SENSE OF MELANCHOLY in Tom Paxton’s performance on Oct. 19 as he entertained a gathering of the faithful at the Eighth Step in ...

From the Theater Vault Dept.: During the late 1980s, an experiment in theatrical presentation settled into a small Schenectady theater for ...

Guest Blogger Dept. : We hand over the reins again to Robert Benchley, who has an almost-timely piece about the end-of-the-season vacationer...

TURNS OUT YOUR GREAT-GRANDPARENTS were just as filthy-mouthed as you. Filthier, even. Written bawdry has a long tradition, of course, but wi...

AS EACH FLEETING WEEK swipes another physical ability and leaves a fresh pain in its wake, I’m comforted by the mantra I summon: I don’t hav...

IN THE END, it comes down to your Moldy Fig quotient. If, like me, you rooted yourself in a jazz era that barely stretched into the Second W...

HE WAS FAR FROM A SAINT. We want to forgive him because he was funny as hell, a process that grows less and less difficult as the misbehavio...

THERE HAS BECOME A TRADITION for symphony orchestras to devote an evening to serving as accompaniment to a feature-length movie. In nearby S...

THE WORLD THAT JAMES JOYCE presents in his writing is unique. It’s Dublin, of course, portrayed in prose and verse by a master of language. ...

Guest Blogger Dept .: We haven’t heard from Robert Benchley since January, at which time he was addressing a very seasonal topic - a mid-win...

DURING A Q&A SESSION at the Bard Music Festival, the question was posed: “Do you ever fall asleep when you’re conducting?” The question ...