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Jan Dismas Zelenka was a Bohemian Catholic baroque composer who has at times been called "The Catholic Bach" because his best compositions are on par with those of J.S. Bach, who indeed knew and esteemed Zelenka. This episode covers Zelenka's career at the Catholic court chapel in Dresden with its grand liturgies inspired by Habsburg piety and Jesuit aspirations to evangelize the Protestants of Saxony.
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Links
Janice Stockigt, Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745): A Bohemian Musician at the Court of Dresden https://archive.org/details/jandismaszelenka00stoc/
Music heard in this episode:
The first movements of the trio sonatas in F major and C minor, ZWV 181/5 and 181/6, found on the album Zelenka: Trio Sonatas Nos. 1-6, performed by Ensemble Zefiro https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8121143--zelenka-trio-sonatas-nos-1-6
Nisi Dominus, ZWV 92, performed by Ensemble Inegal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-3cOwmrorI
Miserere in C minor, ZWV 57, performed by Il Fondamento/Paul Dombrecht https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAi_2B3QvAA
Missa votiva, ZWV 18, performed by Collegium 1704/Václav Luks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCL2CWQaH4A
Litaniae Lauretanae "salus infirmorum", ZWV 152, performed by Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Neue Hofkapelle München/Peter Dijkstra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPRhMBJm6xs
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One of the most brilliant philosophers working today, D.C. Schindler, returns to the Catholic Culture Podcast to discuss his latest book, God and the City: An Essay in Political Metaphysics. In it, he draws an analogy between metaphysics as the most comprehensive science in the theoretical order and politics as the most comprehensive science in the practical order. Examining how in metaphysics, God is necessarily involved, yet without being the direct object of that science, Schindler argues that the same is true of the relationship between God and politics. Just as it is in God that the individual person "lives and moves and has its being", even before revelation and grace enter the picture, God is both the highest good of human community, and intimately present within it.
Links
God and the City: An Essay in Political Metaphysics https://www.amazon.com/God-City-D-C-Schindler/dp/1587313286
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Today’s guest is a man with two names and two careers. For decades he has been a distinguished poet and translator under the name of A.M. Juster. This is an acronym for his Christian name, Michael J. Astrue, who for many years was a lawyer, biotech executive, and public servant, most notably serving as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration from 2007 to 2013. During this time, his political enemies tried to dig up dirt on him – but all they could find was that he wrote poetry on the side!
Juster has published multiple books of his original poems, most recently Wonder & Wrath in 2020. His work as a translator includes volumes of Petrarch, Horace, Tibullus, and the Latin verse riddles of the Anglo-Saxon bishop St. Aldhelm. Upcoming projects include another volume of Petrarch poems, a children’s book about a female juvenile manatee called Girlatee, and an anthology of poems about the legendary phoenix, from Ovid to Shakespeare.
In this episode Juster discusses his two careers, his interest in translating early Latin Christian poetry, St. Aldhelm’s riddles, and his own original poetry.
Links
A.M. Juster on Twitter https://twitter.com/amjuster
Saint Aldhelm’s Riddles https://www.hfsbooks.com/books/saint-aldhelms-riddles-aldhelm-juster/
Wonder & Wrath https://www.pauldrybooks.com/products/wonder-and-wrath
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Gregory Roper, a professor of literature at the University of Dallas, joins the podcast to discuss medieval “mystery plays” (also called “miracle plays”). In England these plays, often grouped together in cycles spanning all of salvation history, were performed by town guilds for the festival of Corpus Christi. This tradition, which developed out of the liturgy, could be said to represent the revival of drama in Europe, and was an important influence on the Elizabethan theatre. Shakespeare referenced this tradition a number of times in his plays.
The plays, which served a partly didactic purpose, are full of theological typology, but also delightful verse, earthy humor, and a thought-provoking use of anachronism.
Links
Episode on English carols https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-59-glorious-english-carol/
A.C. Cawley, Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays https://www.amazon.com/Everyman-Medieval-Miracle-Plays-Cawley/dp/046087280X
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Erik Varden, bishop of Trondheim, Norway as well as Trappist monk, joins the podcast to discuss his new book Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses.
Topics discussed include:
Recovering the true meaning of the word “chastity” Continence and chastity are not the same thing What the Desert Fathers can teach us about chastity Why we need to meditate on the original vocation of man before the Fall rather than limiting our options to what our sinful nature is capable of Why having a sense of dignity in one’s masculinity or femininity helps us to be chaste The importance of friendship between men and women The redirection of eros Links
Erik Varden, Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/chastity-9781399411400/
Élisabeth-Paule Labat, The Song That I Am: On the Mystery of Music, trans. Erik Varden https://litpress.org/Products/MW040P/The-Song-That-I-Am
Thomas’s 3-part essay inspired by the Labat book https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/mystery-music-part-i/
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The renowned English theologian Fr. John Saward makes his podcast debut to discuss his new book on angels, the role of art and beauty in his theological work, and his turn away from the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar after years of studying and translating his works.
Fr. Saward’s books named in this episode:
World Invisible: The Catholic Doctrine of the Angels https://angelicopress.com/products/world-invisible-john-saward
The Beauty of Holiness and the Holiness of Beauty: Art, Sanctity and the Truth of Catholicism https://angelicopress.com/products/the-beauty-of-holiness-and-the-holiness-of-beauty
Sweet and Blessed Country: The Christian Hope for Heaven https://global.oup.com/academic/product/sweet-and-blessed-country-9780199543663?cc=us&lang=en&
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