Sunday, July 26, 2009

Bruckner and Kingsolver

Well today has been a rather less than psychologically on par day. I have been experiencing some bad depression most of the day, not that anyone really cares, lol. I went to the thrift store yesterday and bought a couple little things for really cheap. I bought a copy of Barbara Kingsolver's A Prodigal Summer, a novel based in an "ardent commitment to the supremacy of nature" (San Francisco Chronicle). I fell in love with Kingsolver's writing with her book The Poisonwood Bible. Her style is almost musical and it really illustrates what seems to be the true meaning of nature.

I also bought Anton Bruckner's Symphony #4 played by the Philharmonia Slavonica, Conducted by Henry Adolph. I just finished my first listening of it and it one of the finest Romantic Symphonies I have heard in a long while. I now realize why the mid-Romantic to the early 20th centuries are my favorite. The style is almost militaristic with its harsh rhythms and sharp modulations. However, I have feeling that is far from what is truly being expressed. I think this because the slower (though no less intense) places give a mysterious, mystic feeling. It is so wonderfully Romantic (no wonder its subtitle is the "Romantic Symphony"). I have re-fallen in love with Bruckner and am at the moment downloading various Masses by him and Rheinberger. Good music and good literature should help keep my spirits up some.

PS: While reading an article on the Trials of Purification, I found a wonderful quote that I would love to share:

"Blessed are those who may enter the trials of purification in a state of awakeness, and who can go through the experience with God as companion, rather than without."

I love this and it has deeply strengthened me. Please read the blog that this came from. PLANET UPGRADE. You can also find the link in the Blogs I Follow Section on the left.

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