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also: church justice / American justice BOSTON COLLEGE SUMMER magazine 2 4 . 1 $ THE NEW LAND — 1 PROLOGUE Territorial imperative C.P.E. Bach and the Rebirth of the Strophic Song (Scarecrow, going badly for Germany, one of the economic conse- 2003), by the recently retired English and music professor quences was a marked uptick in the sale of songs that dealt William Youngren, is a patio pavement stone of a book: 1 with spiritual longing. inches tall, 8 3/4 inches wide, and 1 3/8 inches (518 pages) thick. Weighing in at just over three pounds of take-no- IT'S A STANDARD conceit of American universities to prisoners literary, musical, and cultural analysis, it is fur- claim that the research conducted by their faculties results ther flavored with sheet music reproductions, cascades of in (or in the temporizing phrase I have too often written untranslated German poetry, long discursions on the prin- into press releases, "could well result in") a cure, a boost, in- ciples of 18th-century aesthetics (Youngren's first academ- creased understanding, reduced cost, a new paradigm, less ic specialty) and philological sidebars (the distinction recidivism, fairer distribution, or earlier detection. between deiritlich and dentliche turns out to be a matter of As a rule, this isn't true. Yes, these lovely outcomes do consequence). occur, but mosdy not, and most of what most faculty mem- C.P.E. is in fact a reduction of the dissertation (975 bers obsess about late into the night, most of the thick books pages) that Youngren wrote for a doctorate in music he they write, and most of what they discover about the dead and began working toward when he was in his mid-fifties and the unseen (their principle subjects) affords no general happi- was awarded when he was in his late sixties. The book's the- ness, stirs no observable march of progress, and has no prac- sis, simply put, is that the second surviving son of Johann tical implications. Sebastian Bach was not just a master instrumental compos- And that, to me, is the university's glory, in that it makes er and the author of the best-selling keyboard instruction a home for work that simply examples, for the benefit of book of his era Die Runst das Clavier zu spielen, if you need students principally, a way of living that steers not by the to know—but a prolific and compelling writer of strophic nearest obtrusive rock but by intelligence, alertness, and songs, which, you need to know as I needed to know, are stubborn hunger for the labor that makes one strangely songs whose stanzas consist of lines with recurring patterns happy, including, if it comes to it, spending half a decade of rhythm and rhyme, as is common in folk music. More- correcting the record about the origins of lieder. over, says Youngren, C.P.E.'s mastery of this medium has C. P. E. Bach and the Rebirth of the Strophic Song has earned been obscured because the man had the misfortune to de- adjectives such as "unprecedented," "monumental," "magis- cline while Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven were rising and terial," "essential [for] all serious [library] music collections," just as intellectuals, dazed by Enlightenment dreams, be- and "a key illustration of what liberal arts means." I would came convinced that history was a straight ascending line of not know one way or the other, of course, nor have I any in- human progress, which led those of them studying the his- tention of trying to acquire the scholarly apparatus, as they tory of music to draw a satisfyingly tidy connection from the say, that would help me to know. In fact, I don't intend to elder Bach and Handel to the Romantic geniuses, bypassing read any further in the book than has been necessary for C. P. E. and a number of his inconvenient contemporaries, writing this essay. For me, rather, the higher significance of and leaving the world (or at least the portion of it that cared) C.P.E., and of similar volumes that justify yards of shelf with the impression that the German predilection for mak- space in my office, is not the knowledge it purveys but its ing high art of poems and music began with Schubert. unselfconscious affirmation that this universe is a stop worth That's about what the book says, though it's possible, of making, a place of mystery and possibility, with new territo- course, to learn much else from a stroll through its pages, ry on every hand to be plowed, cleared, or just gawked at, such as why Haydn's simple-sounding music is not so sim- range after endless range, the view jolting us into acts of rev- ple after all, and that Horace's influence on 18th-century erence, practical and impractical. German aesthetics, and particularly poetry, was consider- Our story on Boston College's new material territory, able for a man who'd been dead about 1,700 years, and that which will serve as a venue for exploring further ethereal an F-major cadence, when it follows a B-flat chord, feels territory, begins on page 34. "rather hopeful," and that when the Seven Years' War was Ben Birnbaum ' BOSTON COLLEGE SUMMER 2004 TftHQ'ilZlTlC VOL.64 NO. 3 1 f :JF**1 33 20 Women's place Elizabeth A. Johnson, CSJ DEPARTMENTS Two conflicting views guide the Church's position on women, 2 LETTERS and have from the very beginning. And therein lies hope 3 LINDEN LANE • Songcraft • For Carroll • Radio 29 Small wonders Jason Reblando '95, girlz • Chasing chocolate • Fit to '98 Andrew Teed print • Good hair day • Rumors • Winners of the 2004 flash fiction contest Pigskin pioneers • Summer reading list • Safe by design • The way we were 30 In re: Brown charksjogktreejr. 49 WORKS & DAYS The court's decision was simply just. "Deliberate speed" was China TV's Keith Gallinelli '94 simply not ADVANCEMENT AND CLASS NOTES 34 Overview Follows page 23 A tour of the Brighton campus COVER A view to the apple orchard on BCs new campus. Photo by Gary Wayne Gilbert special section: 42 THE CHURCH IN THE 21ST CENTURY learning from others—Padraic O'Hare on Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Fr. Robert P. Imbelli on the i8th-century's Jonathan Edwards, Mary Jo Bane on the activist Ida Wells-Barnett, Roberto Goizueta on Latino Catholics — LETTERS BOSTON COLLEGE BENEFIT PACKAGE ture. It goes with other stories TRADITION magazine Alicia MunnelPs article that foreground the many Re "Distance Learning," by "Retirement Blues" (Spring different Catholic cultures in Paige Parvin (Spring 2004): SUMMER 2004 2004) makes one of the America: Frank O'Connor's I teach in the religious studies VOLUME 64 NUMBER 3 strongest cases I've seen East Coast Irish, Flannery department at a Jesuit high EDITOR although the author probably O'Connor's southern school in San Francisco. My Ben Bimbaum didn't intend it—for 401(k) or Georgian, Robert Olen students, formed by a post- DEPUTY EDITOR defined-contribution plans to Butler's Louisiana Vietnamese, modernist worldview, often Anna Marie Murphy replace the current Social Sandra Cisneros's Chicago struggle to appreciate the role * Security Automatic I'll DESIGN DIRECTOR system. Mexicans. ask my students that tradition plays in our Elizabeth Brandes enrollment in such plans, with Paul Elie's questions—is the Catholic identity. As a teacher SENIOR DESICNER government-mandated re- apparently stripped house of scripture, I struggle with Eamonn Bonner quirements, would be far hoarding the faith's treasures ways to help them to under- * preferable to the bloated gov- or trash? Is it somehow magi- stand the power and wisdom PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR ernment agency we have cally producing a Christian of our history. Gary Wayne Gilbert now and to Congress using retire- faith the secularized In Atlanta, BC's president SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Lee Pellegrini ment funds as loans for highly Americanized couple from William P. Leahy, SJ, re- * questionable public spending. India needs, or reproducing sponded to a question regard- EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS BILL MARKOT '67 the colors of their homeland's ing women's ordination by Nicole Estvanik, Paul Voosen Newton, Massachusetts faith in Catholicism's tradi- that "a * saying person without BCM ON-LINE PRODUCERS tional "creole?" I'll ask them memory is without identity." Ben Jones, Noah Kuhn, REPAST REVISITED whether artifacts appearing in Indeed. My students may have Jeff Reynolds I was thrilled to see BC the house seem to them to be trouble grasping the impor- Readers, please send address changes to: Hillel's Kabbalat Shabbat din- marked "Christian" or tance of shared interpretation Development Information Services ner featured in the Spring "Catholic." And I'll trust that through the ages, but they More Hall 220, 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 2004 issue ("Meal Clans"). Catholics coming of age in the don't have any difficulty with (617) 552-3440, Fax: (617) 552-0077 When I was a student, this current climate of division and the question of who they u-ww4.bc.edu/update.html was one of my favorite events, loss will recognize how our would be without their own Please send editorial correspondence to: Office of Marketing Communications bringing together the stu- flights as well as our quests are memory. I now understand Lawrence House, 122 College Rd. dents, faculty, and alumni who part of our pilgrimage. how to help them understand. Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 were the core of our BC PROFESSOR JUDITH WILT CHAD EVANS MA'97 Boston College Magazine Jewish community.