Monday, July 26, 2004
“THY LIBERTY IN LAW”
Is Anyone Listening?
What follows is a little bit of ketchup blogging, so, please, if you will, bear with me.
Last Tuesday, July 20, the Philadelphia Orchestra performed one of its free community concerts -– I understand they’re doing just three this year -- the latest at Penn’s Landing.
Near as I could tell, and I’m open to correction on this, several of the orchestra’s best players, our real stars, were not in attendance. That is, they were not performing Tuesday night. Naming names, which I kind of like to do, and as best I can, among the missing: David Kim, William de Pasquale, Roberto Díaz, Jeffrey Kahner, and Ricardo Morales.
Oh, and by the way, Christoph Eschenbach was nowhere to be seen. And do you know what? Nobody cared, least of all me.
The orchestra’s program began with the first verse of “The Star Spangled Banner.” (We stood, hands over hearts; politics be damned, in Philadelphia we love this country, and Pennsylvania has lost a disproportionate number of its citizens to this senseless war.) But ask any singer, and a singer I am not, the “SSB,” beautiful as it is, is a tough one.
Also on the program Tuesday night: Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture (Op. 26), Tchaikovsky’s Serenade in C major (Op. 48); Rossini’s Overture to The Silken Ladder; and Mozart’s Symphony No. 31 in D major.
Then, to conclude the evening, the Philadelphia Orchestra played “America the Beautiful.”
The orchestra performed but two verses, and the audience was asked to sing along.
Most of you know the first verse, but it was the second stanza of the second verse that truly brought tears to my eyes and the proverbial choke to my throat.
And here it is:
America! America!
God mend thine ev’ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.
The lyrics, as I’m sure you know, are by Katharine Lee Bates (d. 1929).
Miss Bates has been away from us for 75 years, but those four lines are words worth committing to memory today.
| HOME |
The Rittenhouse Review |
Copyright 2002-2006 | PERMALINK |
|
|
|
| CONTACT |
|
Send E-Mail
JAMES MARTIN CAPOZZOLA
|
|
| BIO & STUFF |
|
James Martin (Jim) Capozzola launched The Rittenhouse Review in April 2002, TRR: The Lighter Side of Rittenhouse, HorowitzWatch, and Smarter Andrew Sullivan in July 2002, and Bulldogs for Kerry-Edwards in October 2004. He is also a contributing member of President Boxer.
He received the 2002 Koufax Award for Best Post> for "Al Gore and the Alpha Girls" (published November 25, 2002). Capozzola's record in the Koufax Awards includes two additional nominations for 2002 (Best Blog and Best Writing), three nominations for 2003 (Best Blog, Best Series, and Best Writing), and two finalist nominations in 2004 (Best Blog and Best Writing).
Capozzola’s experience beyond the blogosphere includes a lengthy career in financial journalism, securities analysis, and investment research, and in freelance writing, editing, ghost-writing, and writing instruction.
He earned his bachelor's degree in political science from the University at Albany and a master's in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia.
Capozzola lives in Philadelphia with his bulldog, Mildred.
|
| PUBLICATION NOTES |
|
Posts pertaining to site developments, news, and updates are subject to deletion and to withdrawal, and with respect thereto, without notice.
~~~~~
Access to linked articles may require registration or subscription.
~~~~~
Linked articles are subject to expiration at the sole discretion of the original publisher.
~~~~~
Letters received by The Rittenhouse Review are subject to publication in full and with complete citation and attribution, including the sender's mailing and/or e-mail address and/or addresses, unless otherwise specifically requested in writing and at the time of submission.
~~~~~
The publisher reserves the right to confirm the identity and/or identities of each, any, and all correspondents through and by whatever means legal and necessary.
~~~~~
Any and all correspondence received and published hereat is subject to editing by the publisher for content, particularly but with no limitations implied thereto, with respect to vulgarity and other offensive language, and length, at the complete, full, and unhindered discretion of same.
~~~~~
The decision to publish each or any correspondence, if at all, rests solely with the publisher of this site.
~~~~~
The publisher retains copyrights to all original material here published and any submissions here received, including correspondence directed hereto, whether or not published hereat, unless otherwise specified.
~~~~~
Obviously, no provision is here made for immediate comments from readers.
~~~~~
All rights reserved and all that.
|
|
|
| LINKS |
|
|
|
|
|