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Posts published by “David Yearsley”

Scott Joplin Had Wall Street Down

A parallel survey of the historical soundtrack and stock market crashes reveals that musicians are not deaf to the beat of the financial markets…

Slippery Slope

Ithaca, New York — Snowflakes had been falling two weeks ago, but Wednesday brought blue skies and temperatures in the 80s to Upstate New York. Classes…

Toots at 100

When I sat down this morning to write my column on my laptop, the day’s Google Doodle greeted me. There was a colorful tableau of…

Cruel & Unusual Handel

On Wednesday South Carolina’s Supreme Court temporarily halted the execution by firing squad of Richard Moore, a 57-year-old Black man who has been on death…

The Place To Be

After clubs and concert halls shut down in March of 2020, the enterprising and exuberant pianist Emmet Cohen invited the cameras and microphones into his…

Travelers, Sour & Sentimental

“I hate traveling and explorers.”— Claude Levi-Strauss, Tristes tropiques (1955) It is an illusion to think that a need to complain about travel is unique…

Bondage at the Oscars

If ever there were steps of power that need storming by an angry mob, they are those of the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard on…

Big Oil, Big Opera: Handel at the Met

Handel was born with an umlaut on his name: Händel.  He rubbed it out after he left his native Germany for a sojourn of several…

Who Needs a Conductor?

One of the longest seconds I ever lived through came just before the beginning the Dies irae from Mozart’s Requiem. The members of the Stanford…

Handel Makes War

Yesterday began for me before dawn when I awoke, went downstairs and watched footage of the night sky above Kyiv lit up with the bursts…

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