Arts in New York City

That will make the ladies scream.

– Joseph Haydn, speaking of the ’surprise’ in the ‘Surprise’ Symphony No.94; quoted in A Gyrowetz, Memoirs, 1848

I was cut off from the world. There was no one to confuse or torment me, and I was forced to become original.

– Joseph Haydn, speaking of his period as Kapellmeister at the Esterhazy court; quoted in J Cuthbert Hadden, Haydn (1934)

Though I had some instruction from Haydn, I never learned anything from him.

– Ludwig van Beethoven, quoted in Marion M Scott, Beethoven, 1934

So far as genius can exist in a man who is merely virtuous, Haydn had it. He went as far as the limits that morality sets to the intellect.

– Friedrich Nietzsche, 1878

Connect to Loren Holland’s The Virtues of Vice.

Click away with Olaf.

Brian Singer's Dark Days

The appreciation of contemporary conceptual art . . . depends not on immediately recognizable skill, but on how the work is situated in today’s intellectual zeitgeist.

(Bring your mouse to the quote above to read The New York Times article.)

On September 25 and 26, you were exposed to the best New York City has to offer: opera at the Met and dance at City Center. How did this explosion of High Culture affect you? Did you become a better person . . . or had the apex of your character perfection been reached years ago?

Nehru once avowed: “Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.”

A more cynical stance was taken by Simone Weil, a philosopher suffering from sinusitis: “Culture is an instrument wielded by professors to manufacture professors, who when their turn comes, will manufacture professors.”

What’s your definition?

I put together a highlight reel from the class’s recent dance experience.