"To achieve perfect clarity of expression, that is my aim“

A characteristic attribute of the semantics which underly Benjamin Britten's oeuvre is the deliberate recourse to musical semantems of Renaissance and Baroque. In the "War Requiem", melodic texture is subject to constructive principles inspired by (1) Alban Berg's technique to handle symmetrical interval cycles as it can be found in Berg's opera "Lulu", and (2) the contrapuntal rules of western european modality and solmization controlling ambitus and diastematics of melodic progressions. The a cappella "Requiescant in pace" concluding the work is shown to be a locrian organum strucuture, probably representing Britten's hope for the pacifying power of humanistic tradition.

Humanism vs. Humanitarianism

This chapter surveys Irving Babbitt’s writings in defense of the classical and modern humanities. It demonstrates that Babbitt’s critique of the American research university and its philosophical underpinnings provides a more satisfying intellectual foundation for the humanities than do typical contemporary defenses. The chapter demonstrates that Babbitt offered a radical critique of professionalized American higher education and the attractively romantic—but ultimately problematic—conception of human nature that informs it. It shows that Babbitt fundamentally recast the humanistic tradition to fit the needs of the contemporary world. Importantly, the chapter argues that Babbitt avoided the skills-based rationales for Latin and ancient Greek that had proved so underwhelming during the Battle of the Classics. In their place, Babbitt underscored the unique role that specific humanities content must play in American higher learning in order for the nation to flourish.

From the Studia Humanitatis to the Modern Humanities

This chapter provides a history of the humanities, from their origins as the studia humanitatis in Roman antiquity to the modern humanities we think of today. By charting this path, it offers a sense of the humanistic tradition in its entirety and explains what is at stake in its prospective downfall. The chapter focuses particular attention on the history of the humanities in American higher education, especially during the run-up to the Battle of the Classics. This introduces the reader to much of the historical and intellectual background for future chapters. Part of this chapter also highlights a crucial shift in the definition of the humanities that took place during the latter half of the nineteenth century. This shift, from what one might call the classical to the modern humanities, makes it extraordinarily difficult to defend the hodgepodge of subjects we associate with the contemporary humanities.

The Battle of the Classics

The Battle of the Classics criticizes contemporary apologetics for the humanities and presents a historically informed case for a decidedly different approach to rescuing the humanistic disciplines in American higher education. It uses the so-called Battle of the Classics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a springboard for crafting a novel foundation for the humanistic tradition. The book argues that current defences of the humanities rely on the humanistic disciplines as inculcators of certain poorly defined skills such as “critical thinking.” It finds fault with this conventional approach, arguing that humanists cannot hope to save their disciplines without arguing in favor of particular humanities content. As the lackluster defenses of the classical humanities in the late nineteenth century help prove, instrumental apologetics are bound to fail. All the same, the book shows that proponents of the Great Books favor a curriculum that is too intellectually narrow for the twenty-first century. The Battle of the Classics thus lays out a substance-based approach to undergraduate education that will revive the humanities while steering clear of overreliance on the Western canon. The book envisions a global humanities based on the examination of masterworks from manifold cultures as the heart of an intellectually and morally sound education.

1958-1973

This part narrates how, when anti-Semitism reared its ugly head in Poland during the 1950s, the author fled in 1958 to West Germany, another one of the striking twists in his development. Thanks to his connections with numerous German writers and key people in the mass media, he was able to establish himself quickly on the cultural scene. Indeed, it is astonishing how fast he became famous if not notorious. Through his reviews, books, and radio and television shows, he focused all his efforts on re-establishing the great humanistic tradition of German literature and became the spokesman for the renewal of this tradition on the contemporary scene. In 1972, he received the first honor of his life: an honorary doctorate of the University of Uppsala.

Love and Horror in Grief: An Autopsychography on the Loss of a Beloved Animal Companion

Using an autopsychographic approach as advocated by Yuan and Hickman, this article demonstrates the ways in which love and horror are implicated in one another during the experience of grief at the loss of a companion animal. The relationship between the human and the companion animal is explored through Lacan’s understanding of love premised on lack and an ethical relationship to the lack in the other. When that other dies, horror may be an intrusive emotion premised on a feeling of the uncanny with the familiar becoming unfamiliar. These experiences are then rearticulated in the context of the human–animal relationship through psychoanalytic and existential themes, arguing that the loss of such a relationship needs to be appreciated in theorizations about grief and meaning within the humanistic tradition.

Music at the Court of Catholic Kings of Spain (the Turn of the 15-16 Centuries)

В статье рассматривается придворная музыкальная культура Испании рубежа XV-XVI веков, структура, функции (политические и статусные), а также репертуар придворной капеллы, которая формировалась и выстраивалась под влиянием капелл бургундских герцогов. Среди композиторов, создававших репертуар капеллы, выделяется Франсиско Пеньялоса, успешно ассимилировавший и переработавший франко-фламандский полифонический стиль. Область светского музицирования связана с полифонической песней (вильянсико, романс и другие жанры), представленной в рукописных сборниках (Cancionero). Особое внимание уделяется новациям музыкально-поэтического стиля Хуана дель Энсины, осуществлявшимся в русле европейской гуманистической традиции. В работе применяются методы исторического исследования, основывающиеся на анализе документальных источников (хроник, документов церковных капитулов и т. д.), позволяющих воссоздать относительно достоверную картину. Новизна работы определяется не только ее материалом, практически неизвестным в русскоязычной литературе, но и ракурсом рассмотрения, акцентирующим ведущую роль властных структур (аристократического двора) в развитии музыкального искусства и укреплении авторитета композитора. The article discusses the court musical culture of Spain at the turn of the 15th16th centuries, its structure, functions (political and status), as well as the repertoire of the court chapel, which was formed and built under the influence of the chapels of the Burgundian dukes. Among the composers who created the choirs repertoire is Francisco Pealosa, who successfully assimilated and reworked the Franco-Flemish polyphonic style. The field of secular music is connected with polyphonic song (villanсiсo, romance, etc.), presented in manuscript collections (Cancionero). Particular attention is paid to the innovations of the musical-poetic style of Juan del Encina, carried out in line with the European humanistic tradition. The author of the article uses the methods of historical research based on the analysis of documentary sources (chronicles, documents of church chapters, etc.), allowing to recreate a relatively reliable picture. The novelty of the work is determined not only by its material, unknown in Russian-language literature, but also by the consideration angle taken, emphasizing the leading role of power structures (the aristocratic court) in the development of musical art and strengthening the authority of the artist.

Varieties of Understanding

This chapter has two roles: (a) to introduce some of the key themes and questions in the volume, and (b) to indicate where several of the essays stand on these questions. One of the main questions asked is whether understanding human actions differs in important ways from understanding events in the natural world, and a contrast is drawn between how the “humanistic tradition” answers this question, as opposed to the “naturalistic tradition.” A further central question is why we desire firsthand understanding in areas such as philosophy, morality, and aesthetics, and whether this firsthand understanding is compatible with deferring to the testimony of others on these matters.

Inspired by Word: Stepan Khorob’s Scholarly Universe

The paper characterizes Stepan Khorob’s creative individuality and highlights his contribution into the development of Ukrainian literary studies of the 20th – 21st centuries. It also traces his way of formation as a journalist, theatrical reviewer, historian of literature and critic, as well as the scholar’s activity as a University lecturer. The dominants of his scholarly and critical works are defi ned as universality of philosophical thinking, academic fundamentality, analytical approach to the comprehension of a fi ctional text that leads to the profound understanding of life in general. A special attention is paid to the scholar’s interest in the genre of drama (in particular religious drama and Ivan Franko’s plays). The methodological basis for Stepan Khorob’s research studies is the national existential dominant, attention to the European literary and scholarly heritage. In the rich spectrum of his scholarly interests one can recognize a humanistic tradition of Ukrainian literary studies inherited from Ivan Franko. A special respect for the cultural legacy encouraged the scholar to focus on the works by Western Ukrainian playwrights of the 1920s–1930s, withdrawn from the history of Ukrainian culture by the occupant’s censorship of the time. The paper also mentions Stepan Khorob’s work on publication of the works by Volodymyr Derzhavyn, Leonid Biletskyi, Leonid Rudnytskyi and popularization of these diaspora scholars’ names and research works among students. In addition, it outlines achievements of Stepan Khorob as a translator from the Belarusian language.