The Catholic Culture Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

For the past century or more, the left has put a high value on moral provocation, deliberately transgressing what they see as society's hypocritical or puritanical moral norms, whether in religion, sexuality, or public decorum in general. Now the right, too, is getting in on the fun, performatively violating the speech norms held sacred by liberals - which is sometimes good, but sometimes itself violates traditional morality, not just leftist ideology.

Matthew Schmitz joins the podcast to discuss his First Things article "Taming the Tongue", about the psychology of edginess, the problem with widespread profanity, and the need for restraint in speech.

Links

"Taming the Tongue" https://firstthings.com/taming-the-tongue/

Against the Grain podcast https://www.patreon.com/againstthepod

Compact Magazine https://www.compactmag.com/

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To Heaven's Rim is a new anthology of great Christian poetry translated from non-English languages, from the first 18 centuries of the Faith. Editor Burl Horniachek joins to discuss and read samples from poets from a variety of traditions, like St. Jacob of Serug (Syriac), St. Romanus the Melodist (Greek), an anonymous medieval Irish monk, the criminal Francois Villon (French), Michelangelo's friend Vittoria Colonna (Italian), and the Chinese Jesuit/painter/poet Wu Li.

To Heaven's Rim: The Kingdom Poets Book of World Christian Poetry: Beginnings to 1800, in English Translation https://www.amazon.com/Heavens-Rim-Christian-Beginnings-Translation/dp/1666716820

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My other interview with Jane: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/147-world-is-falling-away-jane-greer/

This is a significantly truncated version of the original episode. Listen to the full episode here: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/126-how-charlie-parker-changed-my-life/

Thomas Mirus goes solo in this episode to talk about how his relationship to music was completely transformed in his late teens, by exposure to the music of alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. Before he had used music to stimulate an emotional response, but soon he found himself listening for the sake of musical beauty itself, regardless of emotions or lack thereof. This quickly opened up a whole world of contemplation (musical and otherwise).

After discussing this deeper way of listening to music, Thomas explains how to follow the musical form of a jazz performance, and introduces the music of Charlie Parker and the new form of jazz he pioneered in the 1940s and early 50s, known as bebop.

If you want to listen more extensively to the jazz artists heard in this episode, check out these albums (no links because these things are always going in and out of print in different compilations):

Charlie Parker, listen to the complete Savoy and Dial master takes in whatever compilation you can find

Bud Powell, Jazz Giant

Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street

Sonny Rollins Plus Four

Music heard in this episode:

Blind Lemon Jefferson, "Rising High Water Blues" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsFNi0ZVzj4

Charlie Parker, "Perhaps" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LOOvq1sJvw

Charlie Parker, "Blues for Alice" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7USMqAH8qk

Charlie Parker, "Parker's Mood" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wa7El-k3jQ

Charlie Parker, "Anthropology" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HkFBT4h190

Bud Powell, "So Sorry Please" from Jazz Giant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-IoDXFWr1c&list=PL9C4lRUjCkCt_oXThX81D3LhhRIUXVDqb&index=6

Clifford Brown and Max Roach, "Gertrude's Bounce" from At Basin Street https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ7TdrmmDkc&list=PLUJ7V33M1wR3yDePSuvG8W1LmV3uuPg-S&index=8

Sonny Rollins, "Pent-Up House" from Plus Four https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INeqyCTvm4s&list=OLAK5uy_k6jR4wR5XEIyRL95Ov95VXhkYkAKQZIfw

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Art historian Elizabeth Lev joins the show to discuss her new book, The Silent Knight: A History of St. Joseph as Depicted in Art.

The book offers not only a history of sixteen centuries of art featuring St. Joseph, but also an account of the development of devotion to St. Joseph over the past two thousand years -from the old man sitting overlooked in the corner of early Nativity scenes to the glorious Patron of the Univeral Church.

Links

Watch on YouTube to see the artworks discussed: https://youtu.be/LiPgnGAcu-s

Elizabeth Lev, The Silent Knight https://www.sophiainstitute.com/products/item/the-silent-knight

Episode with Elizabeth on the history of St. Anthony Abbot in art https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/90-temptation-st-anthony-elizabeth-lev/

Episode with Elizabeth on the film Ben-Hur https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ben-hur-1959-w-elizabeth-lev/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

For two decades, Maggie Gallagher was a leading voice writing about the importance of permanent, monogamous marriage to society. At first, that included pointing out the problems with divorce, feminism and single parenthood. Then as same-sex marriage became the predominant issue, Gallagher became the public face of the movement against it.

A few years after the Supreme Court made gay marriage legal across the 50 states, Gallagher switched gears when Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco asked her to be Executive Director of the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, which he founded in 2013. She says that to avoid despair, we have to build beautiful things.

In this interview Maggie discusses:

• How becoming a single mother in college led her to focus her career on the defense of marriage
• Her time in the pro-marriage movement, including co-founding the National Organization for Marriage
• Why the defenders of marriage were less effective than the pro-life movement
• Why certain critiques of the pro-life movement's political involvement are unfair
• American classical liberalism's inability to think about social institutions
• Meeting Archbishop Cordileone and getting involved in the BXVI Institute
• The BXVI Institute's patronage of the arts, especially the liturgical arts
• The Archbishop's campaign of prayer and fasting for the conversion of Nancy Pelosi

Links

www.BenedictInstitute.org

Benedict XVI Institute on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4a0pooErfPoWck0xc7WHGg

Maggie Gallagher, Enemies of Eros https://www.amazon.com/Enemies-Eros-Revolution-Killing-Marriage/dp/0929387007

Maggie Gallagher and Linda Waite, The Case for Marriage https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/184776/the-case-for-marriage-by-linda-j-waite-and-maggie-gallagher/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Carl Hostetter, editor of a new volume of J.R.R. Tolkien's unpublished notes, The Nature of Middle-earth, joins the show.

Carl discusses:

• His collaboration with Christopher Tolkien leading to this new volume
• What other Tolkien writings we might expect to see published
• Why it may be good that Tolkien never finished the Silmarillion in his lifetime
• Tolkien's Thomistic reflections on elvish hylomorphism, and other revelations contained in the new book
• How Tolkien's obsession with consistency nearly destroyed his legendarium
• Potential problems with the theology of Middle-earth
• Anti-Catholic bias in contemporary Tolkien fandom and scholarship

Links

Carl Hostetter, The Nature of Middle-earth https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-nature-of-middle-earth-jrr-tolkien

Interview with Jonathan McIntosh about The Flame Imperishable https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-40-tolkien-and-aquinas-jonathan-s-mcintosh/

Other resources recommended:

J.R.R. Tolkien, Morgoth's Ring, vol. 10 of The History of Middle-earth, ed. Christopher Tolkien

Jonathan McIntosh, The Flame Imperishable: Tolkien, St. Thomas, and the Metaphysics of Faërie

Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle-Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology

Verlyn Flieger, Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World

Corey Olsen's seminars on The Nature of Middle-earth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duNayhMrrJ8&list=PLasMbZ4s5vIXZtwVbmyh6sTE56uiI_t0C

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

T.C. Merrill's debut novel, Minor Indignities, is an evocative portrayal of the vanity of undergraduate life at an Ivy League university. Its protagonist, a freshman consumed with what others think of him intellectually, socially and sexually, only makes a fool of himself the more he strains to impress. The novel ultimately becomes a richness of embarrassments whose final catastrophe illustrates the saying of St. Bernard: "Humiliation is the way to humility."

Merrill joins the show to talk about his novel, his essay "The Situation of the Catholic Novelist", Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, how a fiction writer should approach depicting sexuality, the relation between art and emotion, and René Girard.

Watch interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xH1Fm6C9i7E

Links

Minor Indignities https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p103/minor-indignities-by-trevor-cribben-merrill.html

"The Situation of the Catholic Novelist" https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p116/The-Situation-of-the-Catholic-Novelist.html

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Originally published as episode 59 on December 21, 2019, this popular episode is being rerun in a slightly improved version.

This is a love letter to the great English Christmas carols, from "There Is No Rose" to "The Boar's Head".

Did you know that not just any Christmas song is a carol? The true carol, in all its earthy splendor, is a distinctive product of the Catholic middle ages. Yet our forefathers didn't limit caroling to Christmas: they wrote carols for every season of the year covering the entire story of our Redemption, not to mention secular topics at times.

This episode explores the origin of carols in England, their cultural meaning, and how they were suppressed by the Puritans and were revived in modern times. And of course, you'll hear a lot of great music throughout, ranging from historically informed performance to modern arrangements!

Links

Erik Routley, The English Carol https://www.amazon.com/English-Carol-Erik-Routley/dp/0837169895

Andrew Gant, The Carols of Christmas https://www.amazon.com/Carols-Christmas-Celebration-Surprising-Favorite/dp/0718031520

All music in this episode used with permission from the recording artist and/or label.

Agincourt Carol, Alamire https://www.amazon.com/Deo-Gracias-Anglia-Alamire/dp/B008L1GZUO

Nowell sing we both all and some, Quire Cleveland https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/quirecleveland2

Gabriel From Heaven's King, Quire Cleveland https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/quirecleveland2

A Virgin Most Pure, Stairwell Carolers https://www.stairwellcarollers.com/en/o-magnum-mysterium/

Coventry Carol, Harry Christophers and the Sixteen, available on the CORO record label at https://thesixteenshop.com/

Bedfordshire May Carol, Shirley Collins https://mainlynorfolk.info/shirley.collins/records/withinsound.html

Remember O Thou Man, The King's Singers https://www.amazon.com/Remember-O-Thou-Man/dp/B073JZN754

Wassail (Gloucestershire Wassail, arr. Vaughan Williams), Quire Cleveland https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/quirecleveland4

Green Growth the Holly, Early Music New York—Frederick Renz, Director https://www.earlymusicny.org/a-renaissance-christmas

My Dancing Day, Robert Shaw Chorale https://www.amazon.com/Songs-Angels-Christmas-Hymns-Carols/dp/B000003D0G

Drive the Cold Winter Away, Owain Phyfe and the New World Renaissance Band https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/nwrb

In the Bleak Midwinter, Quire Cleveland https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/quirecleveland2

Lullay My Liking (Holst), HSVPA Madrigal Singers (Houston, TX) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw81DCQ3HhI

A Hymn to the Virgin (Britten), VOCES8 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077GC4QVT/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp

There is no rose, Quire Cleveland https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/quirecleveland2

Thanks to all, but especially to Ross W. Duffin for his generosity with Quire Cleveland's back catalogue!

Also recommended:

A Waverly Consort Christmas: From East Anglia to Appalachia https://www.amazon.com/Waverly-Consort-Christmas-Anglia-Appalachia/dp/B000002SRK

Other non-famous carols mentioned: Seven Virgins (The Leaves of Life); This Endris Night; Tempus adest floridum (Good King Wenceslas); Kingsfold (I heard the voice of Jesus say); The Cherry Tree Carol; Masters In This Hall; The Golden Carol; Snow in the Street; New Prince, New Pomp

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Mary Lou Williams: one of the outstanding jazz pianists of all time, composer, Catholic convert, visionary, performer of works of mercy.

Because Williams's career lasted and her style adapted through many changes in jazz from the swing era to the early 1970s, and because she mentored two of jazz's most influential figures (Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk), this episode is an opportunity not only to dive into her life and music, but to learn a little about jazz history more generally.

Deanna Witkowski, herself a jazz pianist and Catholic convert, has written a new biography of Williams, Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul, and performs Williams's compositions on her forthcoming album, Force of Nature.

Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/B31PwFU-FrY

Links

Buy Deanna's book and album: https://www.deannawitkowski.com/store

Musical tracks heard in this episode:

Mary Lou Williams: "Waltz Boogie", "Walkin' and Swingin'", "Night Life", "Holy Ghost" (composed by Larry Gales), "Autumn Leaves" (composed by Joseph Kosma), "Aries", "Taurus", "Virgo", "Anima Christi", "St. Martin de Porres".

Excerpts from Bud Powell, "Cherokee" (composed by Ray Noble); Thelonious Monk "Monk's Dream"; Elmo Hope, "Eejah".

Deanna Witkowski, "Intermission", composed by Mary Lou Williams and Milton Suggs, used with permission. From Deanna Witkowski's album Force of Nature. 

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio