The Library would like to thank all those who made the launch of RJ Stove’s book and the first Bookmarks talk such a success, in particular Mr. Hugh Henry for his introduction to the book and to Rob himself for accepting the invitation to host the event at the Library.

The talk itself was well-attended, with more than thirty music-lovers filling the meeting room to hear stories of the great composers, with a dash of politics and religion to go with them. Perhaps all that was missing was a performance of Rob’s works.

So thank you again to those who came, some photos will follow, and we look forward to seeing the rest of you at the next talk.

Bookmarks 1

This year the Library will commence a series of evening book launches and talks entitled Bookmarks, which will highlight the literary achievements of a number of our members.

For our first Bookmark, the Library is pleased to host the launch of Rob Stove's A Student's Guide to Music History (published by Intercollegiate Studies Institue) on Thursday May 8th at 6:00 pm.

Rob is an accomplished composer and organist, as well as an contributing editor at the American Conservative and writer of two other books: Prince of Music: Palestrina and His World and The Unsleeping Eye: Secret Police and Their Victims. Rob's articles have appeared in The New Criterion, Chronicles Magazine, National Observer, Oriens and Annals Australasia. He is a graduate of the NSW Conservatorium High School and University of Sydney, with majors in History and Italian.

With the musical theme in mind, let us read what Pope Benedict XVI writes in Feast of Faith on its religious siginificance:

[St] Thomas says that through the praise of God man ascends to God. Praise itself is a movement, a path; it is more than understanding, knowing, and doing - it is an "ascent", a way of reaching him who dwells amid the praises of the angels. Thomas mentioned another factor: this ascent draws man away from what is opposed to God. Anyone who has ever experienced the transforming power of great liturgy, great art, great music, will know this. Thomas adds that the sound of musical praise leads us and others to a sense of reverence. It awakens the inner man, as [St] Augustine had discovered in Milan. With Augustine the academic, a man who had come to appreciate Christianity as a philosophy but was uneasy about the Church herself, which seemed to have a lot of vulgarity about her, it was the singing Church which gave him a shattering experience, penetrating the whole man, and which led him forward on the way to the Church. From this point of view, the other, pedagogical aspect, the "stimulating of others to praise God" becomes meaningful and intelligble, particularly when we recall that "pedagogy" meant for the ancients, namely, a leading to one's real nature, a process of redemption and liberation.