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In Divided Empire, Robert T. Fallon examines the influence of John Milton's political experience on his great poems: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. This study is a natural sequel to Fallon's previous book, Milton in Government, which examined Milton's decade of service as Secretary for Foreign Languages to the English Republic. Milton's works are crowded with political figures—kings, counselors, senators, soldiers, and envoys—all engaged in a comparable variety of public acts—debate, decree, diplomacy, and warfare—in a manner similar to those who exercised power on the world stage during his time in public office. Traditionally, scholars have cited this image...
For Olivier Messiaen, music was a way of expressing his faith. He considered it his good fortune to have been born a Catholic and declared that 'the illumination of the theological truths of the Catholic faith is the first aspect of my work, the noblest and no doubt the most useful'. Messiaen is one of the most widely performed and recorded composers of the twentieth-century and his popularity is increasing, but the theological component of his music has so far largely been neglected, or dealt with superficially, and continues to provide a serious impediment to understanding and appreciating his music for some of his audience. Messiaen the Theologian makes a significant contribution to Messi...
What is the role of providence in Paradise Lost? In Looking into Providences, Raymond B. Waddington provides the first examination of this engaging subject. He explores the variety of implicit organizational structures or ‘designs’ that govern Paradise Lost, and looks in-depth at the ‘trials,’ or testing situations, which require interpretation, choice, and action from its characters. Waddington situates the poem within the context of providentialism’s centrality to seventeenth-century thought and life, arguing that Milton’s own conception of providence was deeply influenced by the theology of Jacob Arminius. Using Milton’s Arminian conception of free will, he then looks at the providential trials experienced by angels and humans. Finally, the work explores the ways in which providentialism infiltrates various kinds of discourse, ranging from military to medical, and from political to philosophical.
A once-glittering music hall now hides dark mysteries in this atmospheric thriller set in both present day and Edwardian London. A hundred years ago, the Tarleton Music Hall on London's south bank was one of the city's most popular attractions. People lined up night after night to see its headliner, the legendary song-and-dance man Toby Chance. But that was before Toby disappeared in 1914. People were shocked to see the Tarleton suddenly locked up. But that’s how it’s been ever since. Today, with property prices soaring, an investment group hires Robert Fallon to survey the place. Fallon is as charmed by the project, especially when he hears the rumors of a Singing Ghost who haunts the building. But he must admit that something is indeed odd about the Tarleton. What, for instance, can be made of the mysterious wall in the basement? Fallon delves into the Tarleton’s history, and learns the story of the brilliant but troubled Toby Chance. But the deeper he goes, the harder it is to shake the feeling that he is being menaced by the past.
Witch World has been destroyed, blasted for three days by a starship that would not communicate with the peopleof the planet below. Queen Celine and her four princesses managed to save themselves through magic on their dying planet, but only long enough to hear a voice in the darkness reveling in their destruction. Then they were blasted into blackness. Years pass, and the five warrior women find themselves drawn back to life, granted peace and honor by another unknown voice. They have passed through the gates of time into another world-but only time will tell whether they can build a new life in this new place. In this fantasy novel, aft er dying in an attack on their planet, a queen and four princesses reemerge through the gates of time to arrive on a different planet, where they must survive.
In this comprehensive study of Olivier Messiaen's magnum opus, Saint François d'Assise, Vincent Perez Benitez examines the opera from both theological and musical-analytical perspectives to ask how Messiaen expresses his Catholic theology through his work. Benitez combines a close reading of the opera score with accounts from Messiaen's associates, studies of Messiaen's birdsong notebooks and other primary documents, and an examination of the religious, musical, poetic, and visual arts literature with which the composer was familiar to explore how the opera's harmonic language and sound-color relationships motivate its musical meaning and expression. Through his analysis of these diverse sources and comparisons of Saint François d'Assise with other works such as Berg's Wozzeck and Wagner's Parsifal, Benitez places Messiaen's compositional practice within larger musical perspectives and historical contexts.
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