There is an universal consensus among scientists that human beings are first and last social animals. IT would stand to reason then that relationships – and social consciousness – would be pivotal. In this complex society human beings simply would not be able to function is they didn’t have some form of functional social consciousness. Hinduism h…[Read more]

Publications on form in popular music have largely assumed the formal sections germane to pop-rock to be the formal designs of “popular music.” But the most popular music of our time—music charting on the Billboard Top-40—has absorbed the influence of electronic dance music (EDM) in a way that has fundamentally changed its formal structu…[Read more]

Tritones sounding over subdominant harmony, either as suspensions, accented passing tones, or incomplete neighbors, constitute a class of sonorities regularly heard in film and television music. I collectively refer to these phenomena as “subdominant tritones” (SdTT), and theorize a link between the SdTT and emotions it engenders. The article pre…[Read more]

Eighteenth-century Spanish music experienced a golden age thanks, especially, to the proliferation of centers such as the chapels, which articulated and structured the musical life of our cities: the main sound activity was centered on ecclesiastical music, both liturgical and paraliturgical, with which religious festivities were solemnized.…[Read more]

Eighteenth-century Spanish music experienced a golden age thanks, especially, to the proliferation of centers such as the chapels, which articulated and structured the musical life of our cities: the main sound activity was centered on ecclesiastical music, both liturgical and paraliturgical, with which religious festivities were solemnized.…[Read more]

Geertz, perhaps the most influential of the anthropologists, contends that symbolism and meaning are central to religion: “The view of man as a symbolizing, conceptualizing, meaning-seeking animal, which has become increasingly popular both in the social sciences and in philosophy over the past several years, opens up a whole new approach not o…[Read more]

Uno de los muchos manuscritos de la Crónica de Enrique IV de Enríquez
del Castillo,1 en concreto el que hoy reposa en la Biblioteca de El Escorial
(X.II.15), se abre con unos curiosos versos seguramente redactados por el
anónimo amanuense autor de esta copia, fechada en la primera mitad del
siglo XVI.2 El poemita, que creo es inédito (algo lóg…[Read more]

Uno de los muchos manuscritos de la Crónica de Enrique IV de Enríquez
del Castillo,1 en concreto el que hoy reposa en la Biblioteca de El Escorial
(X.II.15), se abre con unos curiosos versos seguramente redactados por el
anónimo amanuense autor de esta copia, fechada en la primera mitad del
siglo XVI.2 El poemita, que creo es inédito (algo lóg…[Read more]

Einstein observed, “Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration of this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious.” As the p…[Read more]

The little known German card game “Höllfahren” or “Hölle” has a forgotten history that stretches back into the 16th century, when it was called “Untreue”, “untreuer Nachbar”, “in die Hölle (fahren)” and similar names. Several images and textual references indicate the game’s popularity in the 17th century. Unusual for a card game, Höllfahren emp…[Read more]

‘There is no truth, only perception of truth’, and that perception too changes with time. Lysistrata is one such text where this difference of perception prevails. Written by Aristophanes in 411 BCE, Lysistrata is one of the eleven Old Greek Comedy plays surviving out of forty-two. The play revolves around the Peleponnesian war, when women hav…[Read more]

‘There is no truth, only perception of truth’, and that perception too changes with time. Lysistrata is one such text where this difference of perception prevails. Written by Aristophanes in 411 BCE, Lysistrata is one of the eleven Old Greek Comedy plays surviving out of forty-two. The play revolves around the Peleponnesian war, when women hav…[Read more]

No descubro nada nuevo comenzando estas líneas aludiendo al sobradamente conocido carácter de mecenas cultural y de impulsora de grandes obras artísticas de Isabel la Católica , cuyos resultados son fáciles de detectar a lo largo de todo su reinado (1474-1504). Concretando este comentario general en lo que ha sido el núcleo de mi tesis docto…[Read more]

No descubro nada nuevo comenzando estas líneas aludiendo al sobradamente conocido carácter de mecenas cultural y de impulsora de grandes obras artísticas de Isabel la Católica , cuyos resultados son fáciles de detectar a lo largo de todo su reinado (1474-1504). Concretando este comentario general en lo que ha sido el núcleo de mi tesis docto…[Read more]