Music

About this Collection

From historic changes in form to the choice of what texts to set to music, the art of music has long been a vital force in the expression of the human desire for liberty.

Freedom Music

Key People

Johann Sebastian Bach

Leonard Woolsey Bacon

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais

Ludwig van Beethoven

Antonio Ghislanzoni

Edmund G. Hurley

Lorenzo Da Ponte

Charles Sanford Terry

Giuseppe Verdi

Titles & Essays

Group by Category

Aida by Antonio Ghislanzoni, music by Giuseppe Verdi

Antonio Ghislanzoni (author)

A side-by-side Italian and English edition of the libretto. Famously first performed in Egypt in 1871, Aida, an Ethiopian princess, has been enslaved in Egypt. Her father has invaded Egypt in order to free her but he is defeated. A…

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Authority and Oppression in Verdi’s Operas

By: Gary McGath November 22, 2022

Giuseppe Verdi’s operas present drama and conflict, heightened by his superb music. Like most opera composers, he didn’t write his own texts but employed several different librettists. In his most successful ones, he worked with the…

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Bach’s Ode to Caffeine

By: Gary McGath February 1, 2023

Our modern picture of Johann Sebastian Bach is lopsided. He wrote both secular and religious vocal music, but much more of the latter survived. It’s unquestionable that his Christian beliefs inspired him to write some of the…

Bach’s Chorals, 3 vols.

Johann Sebastian Bach (author)

A three volume work on Bach’s Chorals with detailed commentary, melodies, translations, and analysis of these great pieces of music. Vol. 1 contains The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the “Passions” and Oratorios; vol. 2 contains The…

Bach’s Chorals, vol. 1 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the “Passions” and Oratorios

Johann Sebastian Bach (author)

Part of a three volume work on Bach’s Chorals with detailed commentary, melodies, translations, and analysis of these great pieces of music. Vol. 1 contains The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the “Passions” and Oratorios; vol. 2 contains…

Bach’s Chorals, vol. 2 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Cantatas and Motetts

Johann Sebastian Bach (author)

Bach’s Chorals, vol. 3 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Organ Works

Johann Sebastian Bach (author)

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Beethoven and Napoleon: Clash of the Titans

By: Gary McGath August 3, 2023

No one in Europe could be indifferent to Napoleon’s ascent. He was its greatest liberator or its greatest threat. Beethoven, who despised ruling classes, was wildly enthusiastic about him. His manuscript for the Third Symphony, the…

Beethoven’s Opera Fidelio. German Text, with an English Translation

Ludwig van Beethoven (author)

Beethoven was one of the great European classical composers of the first part of the 19th century. He was influenced by the Enlightenment and in his only opera, Fidelio, he addressed the problem of individual liberty in a very moving…

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Christian Prudence in C Major

By: Henry T. Edmondson III November 13, 2023

In recent months, financial services company Northwestern Mutual has used the chorus from a song by the Americana band “The Avett Brothers” in a commercial about managed wealth. The song, “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise”…

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Conducting Oneself and Others in Tár

By: Garth Bond March 15, 2023

Todd Field’s Tár, nominated for six Oscars, is a beautiful but densely constructed film that expects much of its audience and explains little. The movie assumes a familiarity with the world of classical music, and viewers must…

Don Carlos: Opera in Four Acts

Giuseppe Verdi (author)

Based on a play by Friedrich Schiller. Don Carlos, the Crown Prince of Spain, is in conflict with his father, Philip II and King of Spain over his love for Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry II, King of France. Don Carlos is arrested…

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Fidelio: Beethoven’s Hymn to Freedom

By: Gary McGath June 2, 2022

Beethoven’s opera Fidelio, which dates from 1805, addresses issues which are just as important today. Its plot concerns a whistleblower whom a corrupt prison governor has “disappeared.” His wife, Leonore, disguises herself as a…

Gregorian Chant for the Teacher, the Choir, and the School

Edmund G. Hurley (author)

A book which introduces the performance of Gregorian Chants for schools and church choirs with copious musical illustrations and explanations.

The Hymns of Martin Luther

Martin Luther (author)

A nice 1884 edition of Luther’s hymns with parallel German-English versions and musical scores of some 36 hymns.

Mozart’s Opera Marriage of Figaro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (author)

One of Mozart’s most popular operas, with a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, based upon the notorious play by Beaumarchais. The play had been banned in 1786 because it questioned the legitimacy and rationality of the aristocracy by…

Rigoletto: An Opera in Four Acts

Victor Hugo (author)

Jealous courtiers decide to play a trick on the court jester, Rigoletto, who has been mocking them for being the victims of the Duke’s seductions. However, Rigoletto’s own daughter Gilda has also been wooed by the Duke. When the…

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Schiller’s Ode to Joy, and Beethoven’s

By: Gary McGath April 11, 2023

On December 24 and 25, 1989, Leonard Bernstein led concerts celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. They included Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, in which solo singers and a chorus present part of Friedrich Schiller’s “An…

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The First Walpurgis Night

By: Gary McGath May 17, 2023

Concert music from before the twentieth century that sympathetically treats pagan religions suffering from Christian persecution is rare. Felix Mendelssohn’s cantata based on Goethe’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht (the first Walpurgis…

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The Marriage of Figaro and the Fall of the Aristocracy

By: Gary McGath June 22, 2022

When Mozart wanted to make his name known to Vienna’s opera-going public, he made a daring choice. He had Lorenzo Da Ponte write a libretto based on a controversial play by Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. Like the play, the…

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The Marriage of Figaro: Banned in France

By: Gary McGath October 20, 2023

“So it will never be performed?” said the queen. “Certainly not,” said Louis XVI. “You may be sure of that.”

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The Politics of Music under Louis XIV

By: Gary McGath February 14, 2023

Louis XIV of France was a renowned patron of the arts. He provided extravagant royal funds for theater, architecture, dance, and music. Artists who won his favor lived very well. Those without royal connections, though, found it…

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Verdi’s Don Carlo: The Beginnings of Religious Liberty

By: Gary McGath August 24, 2022

The Protestant Reformation threw 16th-century Europe into turmoil. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was also the king of Spain, tried to maintain Catholic power in the face of religious schisms. Suffering from poor health and worn…

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Wagner and Nazism

By: Gary McGath March 2, 2023

The Nazis made Richard Wagner a national hero. Hitler loved his music, and Germany made the Bayreuth Music Festival a center of Nazi propaganda. Goebbels called Die Meistersinger “the most German of all German operas.” Today, many…

Quotes

Literature & Music

Bach asks God “when will I die”? (1700)

Full Quote

Literature & Music

Beethoven’s hero Florestan in the opera Fidelio laments the loss of his liberty for speaking the truth to power (1805)

Full Quote

Literature & Music

J.S. Bach and Martin Luther on how God (the “feste Burg”) helps us gain our freedom (1730)

Full Quote

Literature & Music

Thierry on the need for songs about our lost liberties which will act as a barrier to encroaching power (1845)

Full Quote

Notes About This Collection

See also the extracts, chapters, and introductions in the Music section of the Ideas page.