Deaths, indirect and preventable

Hmm. I was following this thread in the Posner/Becker blog:

The Becker-Posner Blog

I mainly asked in my two postings: if capital punishment were known to reduce significantly the number of murders, can someone opposed to the government taking lives remain opposed? I argued no. I was pleased to receive this week from my colleague Cass Sunstein an article that he and Adrian Vermuele will publish shortly. They argue in much greater detail than I did that a government that refuses to use capital punishment when it would significantly reduce the number of murders is indirectly taking the lives of those persons who would not be murdered had such punishment been used.

and then saw this bit in the Times:

Pentagon Study Links Fatalities to Body Armor - New York Times

A secret Pentagon study has found that as many as 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper body could have survived if they had had extra body armor. Such armor has been available since 2003, but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials. The ceramic plates in vests now worn by the majority of troops in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines from March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the marines' shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do not reach. Thirty-one of the deadly wounds struck the chest or back so close to the plates that simply enlarging the existing shields "would have had the potential to alter the fatal outcome," according to the study, which was obtained by The New York Times. For the first time, the study by the military's medical examiner shows the cost in lives from inadequate armor, even as the Pentagon continues to publicly defend its protection of the troops.

For now I just leave these two items hanging out there…

More goodies from the used CD bin

Everyone's heard the wonderful music of Giovanni Gabrieli; but his uncle, Andrea, was also a very fine composer; indeed, he contributed to what we now know as the antiphonal, polychoral sound associated with St Mark's in Venice. Timothy Roberts directs His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts in fine performances of his Missa Pater Peccavi, some organ works, and motets. Sadly, this does not appear to be in the Hyperion catalog at present; but it is certainly worth looking for.

Sublime Guerrero

OK, so this recording was on my list years ago but never made it to the top of the heap, but I found it in the used bin yesterday and snatched it up. It is one of the very finest albums of 16th-century Spanish polyphony I've ever heard. The Westminster Cathedral Choir sing magnificently under their then director James O'Donnell, and His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts add just the right dash of intrumental color. A special treat is the instrumental arrangement of Regina caeli laetare. And more good news: Berkshire Record Outlet has it! If you've never heard any of Guerrero's music..., well, you know what to do.

Life-affirming Bach on BBC Radio 3

From December 16 through Christmas Day, BBC Radio 3 did Bach lovers everywhere the huge favor of programming nothing but the Master's works. For me, coming at the end of a very long and frustrating year at work, it was, indeed, a life-affirming experience to be able to access the stream in my office. There were far too many highlights to point out more than a few; but the Proms performance of the Matthew Passion with Herreweghe and the same soloists as in his 1998 recording was certainly special; and the short interviews with the likes of Andrew Parrott and John Eliot Gardiner were just right.

I am disappointed, though, that the BBC has decided against doing a similar Mozart marathon (too many long operas!).

Genre listening: Portuguese Polyphony

Occasionally I'll devote an evening's listening to music by a composer in a specific genre (Schubert songs; Mozart piano concerti; Haydn quartets; Palestrina masses). Saturday afternoon I decided to try a variation on this idea—I listened to music by an extraordinary generation of Portuguese composers trained at Evora's cathedral school in the late 16th century. Magalhães, Cardoso, and Duarte Lôbo (not to be confused with Alonso Lobo, the composer of the beautiful and much-recorded setting of the funeral motet "Versa est in luctum") all wrote in the stile antico of Palestrina and their Iberian patron saint Victoria long after the rest of Europe (except England, of course) had followed Italy into the proto baroque. Cardoso was perhaps the most adventurous of the trio harmonically, while Lôbo was the most conservative. Much of the Portuguese music from this period was destroyed in the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Much, but not all.

Fortunately much Portuguese polyphony was recorded during what seems now to be a golden age of early music recording in the late 80s and 90s. I listened to a recording by The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers, of three motets by Cardoso along with his Mass "Regina caeli." Also on the CD are two lovely motets by Lôbo, "Audivi vocem" and "Pater peccavi" and one of his two (yes, two) requiem settings, this one for eight voices (the Tallis Scholars have recorded his six-voice Requiem). From there I moved on to Cardoso's great Requiem setting as performed by The Schola Cantorum of Oxford, conducted by Jeremy Summerly (on Naxos). Also on that recording is a performance of the Lôbo eight-voice Requiem. (I wonder how many music lovers have two recordings of that Lôbo piece in their collections?)

Staying with Naxos, I moved on to a wonderful recording called "Portuguese Polyphony" by Ars Nova, conducted by Bo Holten, of music from many periods of Portuguese music including the early 17th century. Represented in this period are all three of my composers of interest. A nice Magnificat and an effective setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah by Cardoso, the two beautiful Lôbo motets mentioned earlier, and an affecting mass setting, O soberanna luz, by Magalhães.

Anyone who is at all attracted to Renaissance polyphony who has not heard these pieces should run not walk to acquire them. Sadly, the Sixteen recording is no longer available, the label (Collins) having gone out of business. I don't know whether it has found new life on The Sixteen's own label, Coros. It's worth looking for.

Friday cat blogging

Our "middle" child, Tilly, in a contemplative mood.

Michael and yours truly

Michael takes a break from piano to coax me away from work (or worse).

Rep Murtha and Nietsche

Reading the latest pathetic Republican actions following Rep Murtha's call for a smooth withdrawl of American troops from the Iraqi disaster brings to mind Nietsche's aphorism "Beware those who have a strong impulse to punish." In TeX terms the macro would be

\def\Republicans{the Party with a strong impulse to punish}.

It would seem that the Republican's first response to a challenge is personal attack, not an engagement with the issues. It is said that you become what you hate. The GOP becomes each day, in its cronyism, its disengagement with reality, its desire to stifle dissent, like the Soviet Communist Party it hated for so long.

Dvorak's quartets

I'm spending some time reacquainting myself with Dvorak's string quartets. Except for the American, opus 96, I had no real memory of them, I'm embarassed to say; but I'm making up for that now. They are wonderful. I'm particularly taken with opus 51 right now, especially the first theme of the slow movement, which stays with you. More detailed comments to follow

The Four Temperaments

The new disc by Phantasm is a mixed bag of 16th century English viol music by Parsons, Ferrabosco, Tallis, and Byrd. The centerpiece is a beautiful performance of Byrd's 4-voice mass, one of the true masterpieces of the era. I became convinced that instrumental performances of Renaissance masses could be worthwhile after hearing the Calefax Reed Quintet's lovely readings of Ockeghem's "Fors Seulement" and Byrd's 5-voice mass. There is, of course, greater color variation with a reed group than with a viol consort, but Phantasm makes up for this with their exceptional ability to phrase—the words were clearly in their minds, informing the actions of the fingers.

Highest praise for this, then. Another wonderful disc from this marvelous group