scholarly journals Thin Partitions: Remembrance and Reflection in Alfred Fisher's Zakhor: Remember

2013 ◽  
pp. 55-70
Author(s):  
Christopher Lewis

The injunction to remember – in Hebrew, Zakhor – is perhaps the most powerful command in the Old Testament, and memory of the past has therefore always been a central component of Jewish experience. Alfred Fisher's character and music suggest both erudition and practicality as crucial components of the Jewish heritage that has formed an increasingly central part of his life and music during the past decade. In the song cycle Zakhor: Remember, poetic and musical cross-referencing of memories is the framework for a fascinating dialectic that informs the structure and the language of the cycle. In this article, the author studies the different levels of unity in the cycle and discusses its tonal structure, which can be characterized as post-Schoenbergian chromaticism, in which much of the harmonic language is controlled by a limited number of pitch-class sets. Remembrance and reflection are here interwoven with Fisher's emotional responses into the intellectual framework of a profound work of art.

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Drew F. Nobile

This paper presents a framework for analyzing the interval structure of pitch-class segments (ordered pitch-class sets). An “interval permutation” is a reordering of the intervals that arise between adjacent members of these pitch-class segments. Because pitch-class segments related by interval permutation are not necessarily members of the same set-class, this theory has the capability to demonstrate aurally significant relationships between sets that are not related by transposition or inversion. I begin with a theoretical investigation of interval permutations followed by a discussion of the relationship of interval permutations to traditional pitch-class set theory, specifically focusing on how various set-classes may be related by interval permutation. A final section applies these theories to analyses of several songs from Schoenberg’s op. 15 song cycle The Book of the Hanging Gardens.


Author(s):  
Walter Lowrie ◽  
Alastair Hannay

A small, insignificant-looking intellectual with absurdly long legs, Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) was a veritable Hans Christian Andersen caricature of a man. A strange combination of witty cosmopolite and melancholy introvert, he spent years writing under a series of fantastical pseudonyms, lavishing all the splendor of his mind on a seldom-appreciative world. He had a tragic love affair with a young girl, was dominated by an unforgettable Old Testament father, fought a sensational literary duel with a popular satiric magazine, and died in the midst of a violent quarrel with the state church for which he had once studied theology. Yet this iconoclast produced a number of brilliant books that have profoundly influenced modern thought. This classic biography presents a charming and warmly appreciative introduction to the life and work of the great Danish writer. It tells the story of Kierkegaard's emotionally turbulent life with a keen sense of drama and an acute understanding of how his life shaped his thought. The result is a wonderfully informative and entertaining portrait of one of the most important thinkers of the past two centuries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (100) ◽  
pp. 77-82
Author(s):  
V.P. Kultenko ◽  
◽  
K.M. Mamchur ◽  

The article deals with the concept of flat Earth. There has a adherents and defenders in the modern world, despite the solid age of heliocentric teaching. Flat Earth apologists point out, that the evidence in favor of the scientific heliocentric theory is held on confidence. People should trust the testimony of astronauts, space exploration data, and more. However, the vast majority of people cannot verify this data from their own practical experience. If science is a criterion for truth, then the heliocentric concepts and flat Earth are far removed from this criterion. Moreover, in the cultural experience of the past we can find arguments in favor of the concept of a flat Earth. These testimonies are contained, in particular, in the Old Testament Bible, the sacred texts of Christianity and Judaism. The mythological and religious texts of other nations and cultures also refer to the idea of a flat Earth.


Author(s):  
Dirk J. Human

Without doubt the final hymn of the Psalter can be described as the climax, or grand finale, of the Israelite faith’s most known hymnbook. In this psalm, sound and action are blended into a picture of ecstatic joy. The whole universe is called upon to magnify Yah(weh), the God of Israel. The text poses various exegetical challenges. In the past, Psalm 150 was traditionally analysed as a single text; but with the advent of the canonical and redactionhistorical approaches to the interpretation of the Book of Psalms, Psalm 150 can be interpreted as part of the final Hallel (Pss 146–150), or Book V (Pss 107–150) of the Psalter. This view opens up new possibilities for reading the psalm in broader contexts and its broader literary context(s) illuminate its theological significance. This article is an attempt at reflecting on the psalm’s context(s), structure, Gattung and dates of origin, tradition-historical relations to the Pentateuch, Psalms and other Old Testament texts. Ultimately some reflections on the psalm’s theological significance will be suggested.


2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel F. O'Kennedy

The kingdom of God in the Old Testament: A brief survey. The kingdom of God is a central concept in the teaching of Jesus, but the question posed by this article is the following: What does the Old Testament say about the kingdom of God? Several Old Testament terms convey the concept of kingdom, kingship and rule of God. This article focuses on the Hebrew and Aramaic ‘technical’ terms for kingdom: mamlākâ, malkût, mělûkâ and malkû. One finds only a few Old Testament references where these terms are directly connected to God, most of them in the post-exilic literature: 1 Chronicles 17:14; 28:5; 29:11; 2 Chronicles 13:8; Psalm 22:29; 103:19; 145:11–13; Daniel 2:44; 3:33 (4:3); 4:31 (4:34); 6:27; 7:14, 18, 27; Obadiah 21. A brief study of these specific references leads to a few preliminary conclusions: The kingdom of God refers to a realm and the reign of God, the God of the kingdom is depicted in different ways, God’s kingdom is eternal and incomparable with earthly kingdoms, the scope of the kingdom is particularistic and universalistic, the Old Testament testifies about a kingdom that is and one that is yet to come, et cetera. It seems that there is no real difference when comparing the ‘kingdom of God’ with the ‘God is King’ passages. One cannot unequivocally declare that ‘kingdom of God’ is the central concept in the Old Testament. However, we must acknowledge that Jesus’s teaching about the kingdom of God did not evolve in a vacuum. His followers probably knew about the Old Testament perspective on the kingdom of God.Contribution: The concept ‘kingdom of God’ is relevant for the church in South Africa, especially congregations who strive to be missional. Unfortunately, the Old Testament perspective was neglected in the past. The purpose of this brief survey is to stimulate academics and church leaders in their further reflection on the kingdom of God.


2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lodewyk Sutton

Situated in the larger collection of Psalms 51–72, also known as the second Davidic Psalter, the smaller group of Psalms 65–68 is found. This smaller collection of psalms can be classified mostly as psalms of praise and thanksgiving. The relation and compositional work in this cluster of psalms become apparent on many points in the pious expressions between groups and persons at prayer, especially in the universal praise of God, and in the imagery referring to the exodus, the Jerusalem cult and blessing. Such piety becomes most discernible in the imagery and expressions in Psalm 66. The psalm’s two main sections may be described as praise, with verses 1–12 being praise by the group or the ‘we’, and verses 13–20 being praise by the individual or the ‘I’. Personal or individual piety and private piety are expressed by the desire of the ‘we’ and the ‘I’, and the experienced immediacy to God by transposing the past into the present through the memory of the exodus narrative, the Jerusalem cultic imagery and the use of body imagery. In this research article, an understanding of piety in Psalm 66 in terms of the memory of past events and body imagery is discussed from a perspective of space and appropriated for a time of (post-) pandemic where normal or traditional ecclesiological formal practices cannot take place.Contribution: This article makes an interdisciplinary contribution based on knowledge from the Psalms in the Old Testament, social anthropology, literary spatial theories and practical theological perspectives on the church in order to contribute to the relevance and practice of theology today, during a time of turmoil and a global pandemic.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Palamarchuk ◽  
◽  
Ekaterina Terenteva ◽  
Sergey Fyodorov ◽  

The monograph is a study of main trends of emergence and evolution of the national historical writing in Western Europe in the XVIIth century. Based on a complex analysis of several phenomena which defined the development of the Early Modern historical writing, it provides a comparative analysis of the regional schools of historical writing (particularly those of the English antiquaries and French érudits) in the process of their respective growth and formation accomplished by the end of XVIIth century with the advent of the national historiography. The conceptual unity of the book is verified within the context of the rise of the national states in England and France, which stipulated a consistent demand for reinforcing the nationally orientated discourses not only in a historical writing but also in legal and political thought. The perception of England as an empire, entrenched in the insular historical and legal consciousness, recurring during the reigns of the Stuarts and extending to the whole British archipelago, determined the establishment of chorography as a prevalent form characteristic of the English historiography. Chorographic structure of the narrative unfolding the space of the territorial “empire” to the reader corresponded to the method of “intellectual appropriation” of the British Isles by the English antiquarians which could be defined as “cultural-historical”. A considerable role was devoted to reactualization of ethnogenetic myths at different levels: while some of them (primarily – the Galfridian myth) were regarded as relevant to the pan-British cultural and historical past, others emphasized autonomous dimensions of the past and present of distinct composites (Scotland, Ireland, Wales) The continental French variant of proto-national historiography also utilized the idea of empire but in a different mode defined by the formula “rex in regno suo imperator est”. The emerging school of érudits modelled principles of its narratives on patrimonial structures rooted in the feudal medieval society (dynasty; royal family; aristocratic lineages; seigneurial rights and vassal obligations; the system of offices created by the monarch stemming from the royal household etc.). The unity of the subjects of the French kingdom was ensured not by the shared territorial commonality but by their loyalty to the king. Therefore, the French variant of “intellectual appropriation” was developed in a socio-political direction in contrast to the territorial.


2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey D. Miller

All biblical scholars are familiar with the term ‘intertextuality’, but few can agree on the nature of the concept or how readers should identify intertextual relationships among texts. Some scholars employ a purely synchronic approach when reading texts together, emphasizing the autonomy of the reader in attributing meaning to textual connections. Other scholars pursue a more diachronic approach, seeking to uncover the specific links to precursor texts that the author wants readers to perceive. Within and between these two groups, disagreements also persist over how to differentiate legitimate intertextual connections from coincidental similarities, as well as how to exegete interrelated texts in light of their connections. This article surveys literature from the past twenty years that aims to answer these questions. None of these answers have brought about consensus, and perhaps the best solution is to label some of these studies by a name other than ‘intertextuality’.


i-com ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Oliveira ◽  
Sophie Dupuy-Chessa ◽  
Gaëlle Calvary

AbstractInteractive systems have largely evolved over the past years. Nowadays, different users can interact with systems on different devices and in different environments. The user interfaces (UIs) are expected to cope with such variety. Plastic UIs have the capacity to adapt to changes in their context of use while preserving usability. Such capability enhances UIs, however, it adds complexity on them. We propose an approach to verifying interactive systems considering this adaptation capability of the UIs. The approach applies two formal techniques: model checking, to the verification of properties over the system model, and equivalence checking, to compare different versions of a UI, thereby identifying different levels of UI equivalence. We apply the approach to a case study in the nuclear power plant domain in which several UI are analyzed, properties are verified, and the level of equivalence between them is demonstrated.


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