THIS 1788 American baptismal certificate is a an example of fraktur, religious folk art by the Pennsylvania Germans (also known as Pennsylvania Dutch) which was comprised of elaborate calligraphy and colorful drawings of birds, tulips, hearts and other elements of nature. Fraktur included baptismal certificates, marriage and household blessings, illustrated words of wisdom, and book plates. This Taufschein, or baptismal certificate, would have been a cherished family possession. Over the Christmas holiday, I saw a small exhibit of fraktur and was struck by their remarkable beauty and reverence for family life and children.

ALMOST FIFTEEN years ago, feminists in California and New York picketed the Vienna Philharmonic in protest of its refusal to hire women musicians. The protests were influential and the orchestra hired its first full-time female member at that time. The protests did not, however, lead to the rapid change that has occurred elsewhere. The Vienna Philharmonic, one of the world’s premier orchestras, remains remarkably and refreshingly traditional, stubbornly resistant to both feminism and multiculturalism despite concessions to both.

See this shocking group photo which depicts a nearly all-male, all-white ensemble.  Though it appointed its first female concertmaster last year, the Philharmonic still has only six full-time female members. Its concerts are reminiscent of a relatively recent era, when you would not have seen a heavily pregnant concertmaster, as I did at a recent performance of an American orchestra, or women in the front row playing violin in pants, their legs spread-eagled before the audience, or a significant Asian presence. It is difficult to imagine Marin Alsop, the openly lesbian conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducting for this venerated institution in her scarlet-accented high heels.

During its 160-year history, the Wiener Philharmoniker, with its characteristic “Viennese Sound,” has been led by many of the greatest conductors and praised by famous composers such as Wagner, Bruckner, Brahms, Mahler (who conducted it from 1898 to 1901)  and Richard Strauss. The waiting period for weekend ticket subscriptions is 13 years. At this time of year, the orchestra’s New Year’s Day concert, which features Strauss waltzes and ends with a rousing version of The Radetzky March under the chandeliers of the Musikverein, is especially popular and is broadcast on PBS in this country. (See yesterday’s performance of the Radetzky March, conducted by Mariss Jansons, here.) The orchestra has held a concert each New Year’s Day since 1941.

Members of the orchestra have openly stated in the recent past that the ideal member is a Central European man. They have even gone so far as to state that the orchestra’s sound can only be achieved by musicians who possess the appropriate cultural “soul.”

The Philharmonic did not allow women to become full members until 1997. Between 1997 and 2010, a period during which many other orchestras became heavily female, it hired only three women. Paul Fürst, a violist, once stated in a documentary on women conductors:

There is no ban on women musicians playing here but the Vienna Philharmonic is by tradition an all-male orchestra. Our profession makes family life extremely difficult, so for a woman it’s almost impossible. There are so many orchestras with women members so why shouldn’t there be – for how long I don’t know – an orchestra with no women in it … A woman shouldn’t play like a man but like a woman, but an all-male orchestra is bound to have a special tone. [Wikipedia] (more…)

  TODAY is the eighth day of Christmas, the day the Church traditionally marks the historic event of the circumcision of Christ. At that time, after eight days were accomplished that the Child should be circumcised; His name was called Jesus, which was called by the Angel before He was conceived in the womb. (Luke, 2. 21) A male Jew officially became a member of his sacred community with the rite of circumcision. Christ was born a Jew and all humanity became the chosen people upon his death and resurrection.

LAURENCE BUTLER, who has contributed excellent commentary to this site from time to time, married earlier this year. He and his wife, Maria, are birders, and they received as a wedding gift a copy of John J. Audubon’s journals, published in 1897. At his blog, Butlers Birds and Things, which features stunning photography, Laurence is writing about Audubon’s personal history every other week (additional entries are here, here, here and here.) If you are new to Audubon’s fascinating story, this is a good place to become acquainted with it. In his first entry, Laurence wrote:

John J. Audubon’s life began rather inauspiciously, on an unknown day, in an unknown year, on the French island of Santo Domingo (modern Dominican Republic). Audubon’s mother was killed in a slave insurrection soon after his birth, and his father resettled in Nantes, France, were he remarried. (more…)

  IN THIS recent post, I wrote about Kevin Neary, paralysed for life after beng shot in the neck. Here is an even more horrific instance of black violence, the murder of Delores Gillespie, a 73-year-old Bronx woman who was torched in an elevator just before Christmas. Blacks are overwhelmingly the victims of black violence. Her murderer, Jerome Isaac, was charged yesterday. If whites ever speak honestly about black violence, ordinary blacks will say, or at least think to themselves, What took you so long?

FRANK BORZELLIERI, outrageously fired as principal of a Catholic school in the Bronx last summer because of his conservative writings on race, examines the state of the Catholic Church in an article at Alternative Right.  “It is an absolute mystery why liberals hate the Church—for liberals are the Church’s master!”  he writes. (more…)

MORE women are in school than in the workforce, according to Catherine Rampell of The New York Times. The recently reported drop in the number of women in the labor force has been caused in part by women going back to school, where they are racking up debt and becoming oh-so-smart.

Let’s face it, dear sisters, we are the dumber sex. Women, more so than men, are taken in by $200,000 degrees in things like “strategic communications.” This is a bonanza for the higher education industry, which will someday employ many of these hard-working students as in-house indentured servants. (more…)

A GOOD DEATH, said St. Robert Bellarmine, depends upon a good life. But a good life depends on dying to the world, “a business of the greatest difficulty and importance.”

Bellarmine (1542-1621), wrote The Art of Dying Well (De arte bene moriendi) in 1620 and it contains profound reflections on the world’s most neglected and most significant subject. In his second chapter, the Italian Jesuit and theologian responded to the objection that “dying to the world” is impossible. Detachment from life’s pleasures is too difficult. He wrote:

But perhaps the lovers of the world may reply, “It is very difficult to die to the world, whilst we are living in it; and to despise those good things which God has created for our enjoyment.” To these words I answer, that God does not wish us entirely and absolutely to neglect or despise the riches and honours of this world. (more…)

  ALSO known as the Allendale Nativity, this Adoration of the Shepherds is now commonly attributed to the Renaissance painter Giorgione, circa 1500. The dark grotto, the lush trees and distant mountains create a daytime scene of unusual drama. The history of the painting and the debate over its authorship are explored in a post by Hasan Niyazi at his blog Three Pipe Problem.  

THE LATE Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira wrote of the psychological experience of giving birth to Christ in this essay posted at Tradition in Action. He posed a very simple and obvious question: What were her thoughts? He wrote:

Before the Incarnation, Our Lady had a great union of soul with God and, therefore, a union with the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. But after the Incarnation, she began to have a different kind of union – the union of the God-Man with His Mother. Knowing this, we cannot think that Our Lady had no knowledge whatsoever of her Son until His birth and only entered into contact with Him then for the first time. She already had a very intimate and ardent union of soul with Him. (more…)

DANIEL S. writes:

I came across some interesting and illuminating lines from the traditionalist Catholic philosopher Rev. James Schall in his article about Christmas:

Modern culture has made great efforts to obfuscate our understanding of Christmas. It has evaporated the heart of the event while pretending to keep its trappings. The White House has decided to call its decorative pines “Holiday” not “Christmas” trees. Why? we might wonder. It is because “Christmas” means something definite. Of course, even the word “holiday” means “holy day.” Still, it is a form of blasphemy to celebrate Christmas when nothing transcendent is acknowledged to celebrate. Christmas still reveals souls, even in high places. (more…)

  KIDIST PAULOS ASRAT writes about the busy married life of Chelsea Clinton here and here.

IN THIS 1971 BBC interview, Muhammad Ali passionately defends racial identity and explains why he objects to interracial marriage. It’s well worth watching for his unapologetic and commonsense arguments. Sir Michael Parkinson, his interviewer, is a typical liberal sap. He insists that the races are all the same and only “society has made us different.” To which Ali instantly responds, “No, God made us different.”

Ali is applauded by the audience. “It’s nature to just want to be with your own,” he says. “I want to be with my own…. You a hater of your people if you don’t want to stay who you are. Are you ashamed of what God made you? God didn’t make no mistake when he made us all as we are.”

“I think that’s a philosophy of despair,” Parkinson says. (more…)

  A READER shared this card from his own personal mailbag:

  THE BOYS CHOIR is one of the few artistic endeavours in which a masculine esprit de corps still survives. In a boys choir, a boy can sing like a girl and yet not be a girl. See this lovely 2008 version of O, Holy Night  from the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral with James Orrell as soloist.

 JAMES N. writes:

We just put it together. Six hours. Solid wood.

Should I be worried about stereotyping or setting patriarchal expectations?

(more…)

LAST MONTH, I wrote very briefly about Kevin Neary, a 29-year-old graduate of the University of Pennsylvania whose life changed irrevocably in November. His story, as familiar as it seems, is haunting. Neary was walking home in the Northern Liberties neighborhood on Nov. 15 when he was approached by a black thug. The man asked Neary for money. He then fired a bullet into Neary’s neck, shattering his spine, and ran away.  (more…)