Schumann’s songs, especially Dichterliebe, are both romantically expressive and relatively simple in structure, almost like aphorisms. They have none of the virtuosic glamour or massive presence of a romantic symphony or concerto. Dichterliebe is a string of sixteen little gems, mostly only a page or two, some less than a minute in length, that are strung on an invisible (or inaudible) thread. They’re for tenor or baritone and piano, suitable for intimate chamber music performance. Schumann picked Heine’s poetry to […]

Categories: Ed Mooney, ZiR

Face it, you’re a computer! I’d be happy if I could remember where in my browsing I encountered this argument clincher. I was many hours removed from that first (and only) encounter — “Face it, you’re only a computer!” — when I realized that the triumphant argument clincher didn’t really stop the discussion. It would be equally true to blurt out “Face it, you’re flesh and blood!” or “Face it, you’re DNA!” or “Face it, you’re a Highly Evolved Mammal!” […]

Categories: Ed Mooney, ZiR

This morning light rain falls, winds ruffle the trees, birds frantically peck at my feeder. If I add a swath of green visible from my balcony, and notice the moist air enveloping the room, I begin to feel taken up, lifted by this fabric of things that shape and animate my morning and so animate me. My immediate surround is something like the weather, except it includes more than mists and winds — birds, grass, trees, the discrete pace of […]

Categories: Ed Mooney, ZiR

I do not follow the decisions of the Supreme Court at all closely, but occasionally a decision arrives of such moment that one cannot help but take note. Such was the case with the decision delivered June 26 requiring states to recognize gay marriages. Prohibitions in place in 13 states were struck down. Justice Kennedy wrote for the majority of the Court. Here are his eloquent and moving final words: No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies […]

Categories: Ed Mooney, ZiR

I remember a long book review from the 90s of a well-known New York film critic’s collection of weekly reports. The reviewer of the collected reports noted that of the 163 films that were considered, the critic only gave a positive grade to four. The tale is not apocryphal, and is worth retelling because we tend to think that critique or review is finding fault. But there’s a kind of reading that can be affirmative through and through. What I […]

Categories: Ed Mooney, ZiR

I know of few accounts in the press that make sense of a commitment many of us feel to sustain the arts of reading and writing we were taught were the heart of a humanistic education, and near the heart of a culture we could embrace. We have writers who cite the benefits of critical thinking and writing skills for those entering business or the professions. We have scholars who should know better – Stanley Fish, for one – announcing […]

Categories: Ed Mooney, ZiR