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James Gaines

Evening in the Palace of Reason: A Few Excerpts

I‘m realizing that if I wait until I am completely finished reading Evening in the Palace of Reason, there will be too much material for one post. So, I thought I’d post a few more excerpts in order to spread things out a bit. The book alternates with a little bit of history concerning Bach, and then a little bit of history concerning Frederick the Great. Even though they are not the same ages {Bach was, I think, at least Continue Reading…
June 4, 2010
Evening in the Palace of Reason

The next book scheduled to soon depart from my Current Reading shelf in the library is James Gaines’ Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment, which I mainly picked up because it sounded fascinating. I was not disappointed when I got my first taste of the connection between counterpoint, mathematics, and astronomy. {And never before did contemporary music seem to be so entirely lacking depth!} I’ll be reviewing this book either Continue Reading…
May 27, 2010
High Art: Counterpoint, Math, and the Music of the Spheres

As I’ve been reading through Ken Myers’ book All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes, I keep coming back to this issue of “high art.” I think we all instinctively know what it is, or at the very least can come up with an example. For me, it’s Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven because I was a pianist in my youth. {I say “was” because I am just now getting back into practice after my seven-year pregnancy stint.} I don’t connect well Continue Reading…
February 16, 2009