Benjamin Ivry, Author at Catholic Herald

Benjamin Ivry

‘Mystic passionate emotion’: Hector Berlioz’s uncompromising Catholic vision

December 01, 2023

Although he wrote a Requiem Mass, Te Deum, and other spiritual compositions, the French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz has regularly received brickbats from Catholic listeners. In The Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), the Dutch-American organist and choirmaster Joseph Otten decried the Berlioz Requiem as a “sacred work, but it does not express any deep personal faith from

A divided Church in Sri Lanka?

November 23, 2023

The old Roman political maxim of divide and rule is still in effect in Asia in dealings with the Church. Or so asserts Orlando Woods, a social scientist. In a 2022 article, Woods notes that Sri Lankan Catholics, a well-established minority advocacy group, have been protesting since a secret deal was made in 2010 with China to

How Blaise Pascal’s legacy endures – and gains the respect of Pope Francis

October 01, 2023

Benjamin Ivry on the French Catholic polymath Blaise Pascal, born 400 years ago, whose sharp mind inspired a kinship with Pope Francis. Anticipating the 400th anniversary this year of the birth of French mathematician and physicist, literary talent and Catholic philosopher Blaise Pascal, some observers inquired if Pope Francis might beatify him. After all, in a

The spiritual life of Václav Havel

June 01, 2023

Benjamin Ivry looks at the Czech leader’s complicated relationship with Catholicism. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the election of the Czech author Václav Havel (1936 –2011) to the presidency of his homeland. Havel’s rapport with Catholicism was, as he readily admitted, a work in progress, intertwined with fascination for the lives of the

Fervent faith in fiddles: Heinrich Biber’s genius

May 14, 2023

Heinrich Biber, a 17th- century Bohemian Catholic, took the Psalmist’s exhortation to “sing unto the Lord a new song” further than most other composers of Western music. Biber’s innovations included a set of Rosary Sonatas, also known as the Mystery Sonatas, 15 short pieces for violin and continuo, with a final work for solo violin.

Music for the Masses: Dave Brubeck and Catholicism

April 01, 2023

Benjamin Ivry looks at the ways the US jazz composer Dave Brubeck explored Catholicism through his music in his 60-year career. The American jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck (1920-2012) musically refined the traditional notion of conversion to Catholicism. In her informative if sometimes overdetailed new book, Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness, musicologist

The American playwright Christopher Durang may help us understand

February 01, 2023

The news that the American Catholic playwright Christopher Durang has been diagnosed with aphasia and is retiring from theatrical activity might be an occasion for reevaluating his comic artistry. Born in New Jersey in 1949, Durang acquired notoriety for his 1979 one-act play, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, an absurdist dark comedy

Lost and found

November 07, 2022

Benjamin Ivry searches for Catholic inspirationin the work of Marcel Proust

Gadfly and Scourge: On Alice Thomas Ellis

September 24, 2022

More work is needed on Alice Thomas Ellis, argues Benjamin Ivry

Jack Kerouac at 100

June 28, 2022

The American writer Jack Kerouac, whose centenary fell this year, was adamant about the Catholic inspiration of his work, which he repeatedly referred to, in part to disarm his critics. In 1961, Kerouac claimed to one correspondent that his most celebrated novel, On the Road (1957), was “really a story about two Catholic buddies roaming

A cautionary tale: Ungaretti, the gifted poet who fell into anti-Semitism

June 30, 2020

Giuseppe Ungaretti admired Catholicism, but went in a very different direction

The trials of a convert novelist

March 26, 2020

Almost a century ago, Catholicism offered inspiration to authors striving to cope with a minority status. The novelist Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943), whose The Well of Loneliness (1928) is expertly presented in an edition from Penguin Modern Classics, is a case in point. Hall’s protagonist Stephen, named after the first martyr of Christianity because her parents

1 2 →

Sorry, no search matching search results found. Please try again.