Now listening to - - -

I see this topic of "now listening to" in popular blogs, MySpace, and Facebook entries, so here is my own offering. This morning on KWAX, the classical music station from the University of Oregon, I listened to excerpts of Edward Elgar's Dream of Gerontius, before the very popular Pomp and Circumstance. Yesterday it was the Enigma Variations, which turn out to be musical portraits of various friends plus a selfportrait. This whole week on Exploring Music, we have heard about Elgar. Last night on the drive home, I heard a Haydn symphony new to me (perhaps #95 or #103?). When I was in Paris on my college "Junior Year in France" with Sweet Briar's program, I took a wonderful class in music history. I would argue that a musical tune is a thesis and that the piece is an argument. Thus, rhetoric can be seen more broadly applied beyond words. In fact, it just now seems to me that paintings, too, must of course be rhetorical, which is not to deny their beauty and grief.