The Prince and Father of Music: Palestrina at 500
REGISTER HERE The quincentennial of the birth of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina is an occasion to recognize the outstanding legacy of this talented musician not only in realm of sacred music but also in the history of composition more broadly. In an 80-minute concert presentation without intermission, Schola Antiqua explores an array of Palestrina’s sacred choral works, ranging from hymn and psalm settings to motets and spiritual madrigals. In-concert commentary illuminates Palestrina’s central role as conservator of Catholic plainchant and the ‘perfect art’ of imitative counterpoint. Schedule: 5:00-5:30pm Reception 5:45-7:15pm Concert 7:15-7:20pm Sung Compline 7:20pm …
Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages: Umberto Eco Graduate Reading Group
REGISTER HERE Open to current graduate students at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Others interested in participating should contact Aidan Valente at valenteaidan@uchicago.edu. Books and drinks will be provided. This will be held at the LCI Residence (5554 S Wooodlawn Ave). “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” – This well-worn aphorism suggests that what we find “beautiful” relies only on subjective taste; and yet, many would agree in finding a Gothic cathedral obviously more beautiful than a brutalist library. Is there, then, an objective component to beauty, and if so, where and how can…
The Solzhenitzyn Question
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn left a vast body of work, an inestimable influence on Russian culture, and a deeply divided public opinion. He documented the Soviet prison system, developed forms of literary representation for describing the experiences of prisoners, and was courageous in the face of repression. But doubts linger about him as artist, thinker and person, and thus prompt us to raise the Solzhenitsyn question.
Vestiges of the Trinity: Joyce on the Artist as Imago Dei
Thomas Aquinas’s doctrine of the Trinity is crucial to James Joyce’s presentation of the artist in both Portrait of the Artist and Ulysses. Now, Joyce’s deployment of Trinitarian themes is not strictly orthodox of course. But the Trinity does provide a model, an exemplar, for a proper understanding of artistic fecundity and a subtle critique of popular romantic conceptions of artistic self-expression. Whatever his intentions, Joyce’s treatment suggest ways in which the Thomistic doctrine of the Trinity and the Imago Dei can contribute to a fresh understanding of artistic activity.
Shakespeare’s Jewish Questions
David Nirenberg (University of Chicago) Cosponsored by the Chicago Center for Jewish Studies
West Meets East: French Sacred Music from Cyprus
Tickets: $15 general, $5 students and seniors University of Chicago students free with ID Cosponsored by the France Chicago Center
Follow the Star: Medieval and Renaissance Music for Epiphany
Friday, January 7, 8:00pm Rockefeller Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave. Saturday, January 8, 8:00pm St. Clement Church, 642 W. Deming Place Tickets available at door: $20 general, $10 students and seniors, Free for University of Chicago students
“The Freedom of a Christian”
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson will deliver an Yves Simon lecture entitled, “The Freedom of a Christian.”
The Schola Antiqua of Chicago at Roosevelt University
“Tomorrow’s Music Today II” featuring Pacifica Quartet, eighth blackbird, and special guest, Schola Antiqua of Chicago Sunday, The Lumen Christi Institute co-sponsors Artist-in-Residence Schola Antiqua of Chicago in a University of Chicago Presents concert event. Founded in 1943, University of Chicago Presents is one of Chicago’s oldest and most distinguished concert series. Early performers in the series included Igor Stravinsky, Artur Schnabel, Isaac Stern, Arnold Schoenberg, and the Budapest Quartet, who performed, offered public master classes, and spoke about music and composition. The Schola will be premiering Jacob Bancks’ Litany of the Sacred Heart with two GRAMMY award-winning ensembles: eighth blackbird and Pacifica Quartet….
Dostoevsky’s Pilgrimage: Aesthetics and Ascesis in “The Brothers Karamazov”
Co-sponsored by the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures Dostoevsky’s final novel, set partly in a monastery, continues to shape contemporary images of Orthodox Christian monasticism and ascetic practice. Bird will examine how well Dostoevsky actually knew this milieu and this tradition, and how profoundly his knowledge affected his writing of The Brothers Karamazov. This will serve as a case study for the broader question of the influence of the Orthodox Christian ascetic tradition on modern Russian aesthetics.