Word: 18th
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
That Indefinable Something. Even apart from the good fortune of being born to culture and marrying wealth, Christian Herter has displayed over the years what 18th century Author Horace Walpole called "serendipity"-the gift (possessed by the heroes of an old tale, The Three Princes of Serendip) of finding good things without having to seek them. He has never sought a new job, says Herter, because he always liked whatever he was doing; he was often urged or invited. "Almost every step I've taken," he says, "was a pure fluke...
...continual fascinations of contemporary music is the tension between originality and tradition arising from apparently conflicting ideals of being at once modern and timeless. While composers plead for the chance to break free from the constraints of the 18th and 19th Centuries, they tacitly concur with the critics (and the audiences), who cling to their touchstones, comparing every modern composition to the classical paragon in its form, usually harshly, often unfairly applying criteria that are not altogether suitable. The composer faces the choices of breaking definitely with the musical past; or creating a new mainstream of music by appealing...
...genius of the framers of that document is apparent when we realize that the words that they used at the end of the 18th century are still alive and are still applicable . . . to a changing and growing society...
...subject is opera itself-the relative merits of words and music-and it might just as aptly have been summed up under the title Six Characters in Search of an Opera. In a rococo salon near Paris, the six main figures sit chatting for the whole of one golden, 18th century afternoon-a Count and Countess, a Musician and a Poet, a Director and an Actress. The Poet and the Musician, both in love with the Countess, plead their special skills ("The poetic spirit is the mirror of the world!" sings the Poet; "The sounds of nature sing...
...title; and his students stoop over so their brains can look for profundities while their arses master star-gazing. The playwright achieved a special mixture of satire, criticism, obscenity, invective, wit, fantasy, and lyricism-all within a set of conventions as rigid and complex as those of the 18th-century opera buffa...