It is the legendary location of hundreds of martial arts action movies, including Shaolin Temple (1982) starring Jet Li and Shaolin (2011) starring Andy Lau and Jackie Chan. It was depicted in flashbacks in the popular 1970s television series Kung Fu starring David Carradine. And it’s a real place, a real Buddhist temple, with a real history. It is the Shaolin Temple of China. Are the legends about kung fu monks true? There is solid documentation of Shaolin Temple monks... Read more
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179; also called Hildegard von Bingen) was a nun, an author, a composer, and a mystic. Today she is probably best remembered for her music, which is still performed. For example, here is her “O Quam Mirabilis.” Her Ordo Virtutum is an early example of liturgical drama. It may be the oldest surviving morality play. But music was just one of her talents. Among her many books was one on natural science, Physica, and another called Causae... Read more
Even if you are not into World War I history, you may have heard of the Christmas Truce. The Christmas Truce was a celebrated, impromptu ceasefire observed by many British and German troops on the Western Front, December 24-26, 1914. Soldiers met between the lines, sang Christmas carols, exchanged souvenirs, and may or may not have played football (or “rugby” to us Yanks). Here is how it happened. First, a little background: World War I, 1914-1918, was an international conflict... Read more
There are several Jewish composers among the greats of classical music — Copland, Bernstein, Mahler, Bloch, and many more. But one you may not have heard of was the first Jewish composer to become a notable part of classical music history. He was Salamone Rossi (ca. 1570-1630), a composer of the Italian Renaissance. Salamone Rossi was the first composer known to compose original music set to Hebrew words in the style of the music of his time, not the traditional... Read more
This is an appreciation of Jewish cantors. Although I am not Jewish, I am a long-time chorister who has had the privilege of performing choral works with Jewish cantors. They were lovely people and amazing singers. In Judaism, a cantor (in Hebrew, hazzan) is a person who chants/sings worship services in a synagogue. Full-time, professional cantors are recognized as clergy who are teachers and chaplains as well as choir and music directors. We know there has always been music in... Read more
Even if you know little else about Buddhism, you’ve heard of the Dalai Lama. The current Dalai Lama is His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. But who was the first Dalai Lama? How did the line of Dalai Lamas get started? Note also that, in a sense, there was more than one first Dalai Lama. But before telling the story of the first Dalai Lama, here is some background to help you understand what’s going on. The Role... Read more
How many days did Buddha sit under the Bodhi Tree? The standard answer is forty-nine days. But there are several other answers. If you are new to the story: The foundational story of Buddhism tells us that a young man named Siddhartha Gautama, the son of a king, left his family to become a wandering mendicant and seek enlightenment. After a time he vowed to sit in meditation under a large pipal tree and not move from that spot until... Read more
You may wonder why the Buddha is so often depicted as chubby and laughing. The Laughing Buddha is understood as a particular Buddha who is not the Buddha who founded Buddhism. This particular Buddha is named Budai (sometimes spelled Pu-tai) in China. In Buddhist iconography there are many different Buddhas. Buddha is a title derived from a Sanskrit word that means “to awaken.” A Buddha is a being who has awakened from ignorance, in particular ignorance of the true nature... Read more
The Gandharan scrolls are ancient scrolls, mostly in fragments, that in recent years have been turning up in northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. The scrolls are Buddhist, and it’s suspected they all came from one monastery’s library. They are written in a language called Gandhari and date from the 1st century BCE to the 3rd century CE. They are the oldest extant Buddhist manuscripts in the world. Scholars have been restoring and deciphering the Gandharan scrolls while expecting they might... Read more
There are a number of dubious stories about George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah. (The formal name of the piece is Messiah, not The Messiah.) For example, Handel is said to have composed the very long work in a remarkably short time. I’ve seen claims that he composed it all in nine days, although other estimates say it was twenty-four days, or maybe three to four weeks. Four weeks is still remarkable. Handel’s Messiah is a lot of music. A standard... Read more
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