The period from about 800BCE to about 200BCE is often called the axial age by historians. During this time, the ethos of cultures in Europe and Asia underwent a profound change. The focal points of the axial age were Persia, India, China, Greece, and the Jewish kingdom. The Zoroastrians in Persia introduced ...
One subject that has been hashed out and chewed over since time immemorial is the dichotomy of free will verses determinism. At one extreme it is said that nothing is predetermined, and everything boils down to choices made by individuals. At the other extreme, determinism or fate is said to be the ...
If you look at the religious traditions of the world as they are presented to the masses, you will not find much common ground. But if you dig deeper and read the more esoteric literature of each tradition, you will find that one salient fact stands out as a common thread: know ...
One of the most interesting religious books that I have read is the Tibetan Book of the Dead. It is ostensibly a guide book for the dead. It aims to show a person what they will experience when they die, with the purpose of helping them to raise their consciousness so that ...
Music can be analyzed as being composed of four basic elements, melody, harmony, rhythm, and texture. Each one of those elements can be broken down into simpler elements. For instance melody can be broken down into pitch and duration of each note.
The concepts that I wish to discuss in this blog are ...
I love hearing a good song. Who doesn’t? As much as I love very sophisticated choral music, opera, symphonies, concertos, chamber music, etc, I will always enjoy a nice simple song. Musicologists distinguish between the so-called art song and the popular song. The term art song is unfortunate, because even creating or ...
The clarinet, with its rich luxuriant sound is a standard instrument of the orchestra. Unlike the oboe and bassoon, which have two reeds, it uses a single reed to produce sound. The predecessor to the clarinet is the chalumeau, an instrument that had been around since medieval times. It had a straight ...
