MUSIC: A HISTORY IN VOICES
In this sequence of poems Peter Whitfield takes music as a means of transcendence, a gateway to dimensions of emotional and spiritual awareness unknown in our normal day-to-day existence. The poems are imaginary monologues spoken by 21 composers from Palestrina to Messiaen, and each poem alternates with a musical excerpt. The poems are read by the distinguished classical actor, Anton Lesser.
Full text available in book form, with audio CD.
Playlist :
| 1. Prelude | 4. Palestrina | | 6. Monteverdi | 8. Bach | | 10. Vivaldi | 12. Mozart | | 14. Beethoven 1 | 16. Beethoven 2 | | 18. Schubert | 20. Chopin | | 22. Brahms | 24. Mahler | | 26. Debussy | 28. Sibelius | | 30. Vaughan Williams | 32. Respighi | | 34. Britten | 36. Shostakovich | | 38. Sumera | 40. Messiaen | | 42. Coda | |
OURSELVES AS GODS: A POLEMIC
In the past two centuries mankind has achieved levels of power and control over his life and environment that should theoretically have produced a golden age in human history. Yet instead it seems that our lives are filled as never before with discontent, conflict, anxiety and unhappiness. We have immense, undreamed-of knowledge, but what used to be called wisdom has vanished from our lives. How can this paradox be explained ? This essay argues that humanity has become corrupted by its own powers, by a ceaseless drive for technical and social control, and that this drive distorts our entire vision of reality. It argues that a return to a sense of individual and collective peace can be achieved by looking back to the spiritual traditions of the past, especially the non-western past. This is an unusual and disturbing analysis of the human condition in the twenty-first century.
Playlist:
| 1. Prelude | | 2. The Beginning | | 3. The Technical Commercial Nexus | | 4. The Political Dimension | | 5. The Mass Media and the Corruption of Public Discourse | | 6. Fear and Death | | 7. Out of the Labyrinth: the Self and the Universe | | 8. Coda |
English Poetry
A New Illustrated History
This is the first general history of English poetry to be published for a generation. It sets out to celebrate poetry as one of the glories of English culture, and to describe clearly, and sometimes passionately, the lives and works of those who created it.
The great ages of English poetry - Elizabethan, Augustan, Romantic, Victorian and Modernist - are evoked in turn, while the classics of American poetry receive a chapter of their own. The book concludes with a brief survey of some contemporary poetry and a discussion of the very nature of poetry, in the past and in the present.
Filled with information and perceptive criticism, this book will be an invaluable resource for all students of literature and a delight for the general reader.
Publication Date: 8th September 2008
ISBN: 9780951483848
377 pages
170 Ilustrations
Price: £20
A Universe of Books
What was the most powerful tool ever to have shaped our civilisation? The wheel, the ship, the engine, the means of controling fire or measuring time?
Overshadowing all these physical tools stands the book, the great container of human thought. As an object the book is small, passive, silent, and fragile, but its contents are mysteriously powerful and everlasting.
This survey ranges over world literature, examining key texts in science, religion, history, fiction and poetry, displaying the vastness of the intellectual universe which books contain. It shows why the role of the book is still a vital one in the electronic age.
From Homer to Eliot, from Plato to Freud, from the Bible to Marx, from Dante to Darwin, this book turns the spotlight on the classic texts which have defined our cultural heritage.
Thought-provoking and richly illustrated, this is a work which no book-lover will want to miss.
TO VIEW THE OPENING PAGES OF 'A UNIVERSE OF BOOKS' CLICK ON SAMPLE PAGES
Publication date: 31 October 2007
ISBN: 9780951483831
250 pages
240 illustrations
Price: £15 hardback
Peter Whitfield writes for Naxos Audiobooks
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