Moral Fire Musical Portraits from America's Fin De Siècle

Joseph Horowitz writes in Moral Fire: "If the Met's screaming Wagnerites standing on chairs (in the 1890s) are unthinkable today, it is partly because we mistrust high feeling. Our children avidly specialize in vicarious forms of electronic interpersonal diversion. Our laptops and televisions ensnare us in a surrogate world that shuns all but facile passions; only Jon Stewart and Bill Maher share moments of moral outrage disguised as comedy." Arguing that the past can prove instructive and inspirational, Horowitz revisits four astonishing personalities-Henry Higginson, Laura Langford, Henry Krehbiel and Charles Ives-whose missionary work in the realm of culture signaled a belief in the fundamental decency of civilized human nature, in the universality of moral values, and in progress toward a kingdom of peace and love.

ISBN:	9780520267442
Publisher:	University of California Press
Imprint:	University of California Press
Published date:	22 May 2012
DEWEY:	780.97309034
DEWEY edition:	23
Language:	English
Number of pages:	xv, 265
Weight:	522g
Height:	158mm
Width:	234mm
Spine width:	22mm

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