'The Classical Style' reading group, week eleven

 

Fortepiano by Johann Andreas Stein (Augsburg, 1775) – Berlin Musical Instrument Museum.
Creative Commons photo by Gérard Janot. Source. 

V  MOZART 

 1. The Concerto 

By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger

On page 251 Rosen begins discussing K. 503, Concerto No. 25, my favorite. Joseph Kerman edited the Norton critical score of this concerto. I saw that book in a Tower Records in the 1990's, but I couldn't afford it. I later got the book from the library and loved it, and I have a special affection for that concerto.  

The footnote on page 255 deals with changes in pianos over time. When Mozart composed this concerto the piano had fewer keys than the standard 88 key piano of the last two hundred years. Pianists sometimes ask what they think Mozart would have wanted to hear on the longer keyboard. Would he have wanted to hear notes not possible to play on the keyboard for which he originally conceived the piece? 

These last eleven piano concertos, number 17 to 27, seem to me among the greatest creations of humanity. If you find yourself struggling with Rosen's analysis in this book, I recommend just putting the book aside and listening to the music. I think this marks my sixth time reading this book. It covers so much music, I get lost sometimes, but I feel grateful that I get to return to the music, and I feel grateful that you have chosen to join me on this voyage. 

In 1985 I went to London for the first time. Most nights I went to a play, but the theaters closed on Sundays, so I went to hear a concert with Andre Previn playing and conducting a Mozart concerto (I don't remember which one) and conducting the Brahms Requiem. I had read articles condemning pianists conducting from the keyboard, so I found myself most looking forward to the Brahms, but the Mozart performance ended up blowing me away. A few weeks later I found myself in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, on July 23 where I heard the original German version of Falco's song "Amadeus" in a nightclub called Wonderland. The next night in Munich I saw Berman's film of The Magic Flute. 

What we read last month

 

Here is what Mark K. Brown read last month:

Neuromancer by William Gibson 7/23 
Slow Learner by Thomas Pynchon  7/26   
Anti-Sartre, with an Essay on Camus by Colin Wilson  7/27  

Mark is traveling, so he has less reading time. He also is plugging away on Charles Rosen's The Classical Style.

Here's what I read in July:

The Warlord of Greenline Town, J. Kenton Pierce.
The Story of Russia, Orlando Figes.
Kakistocracy: Why Populism Ends in Disaster, Richard Hanania.
Fly On The Tale Of The Tribe: A Rollercoaster Ride With Robert Anton Wilson, Steven James Pratt.
Master Alvin, Orson Scott Card. 

Starting in July, I am trying each month to read at least two books nominated for next year's Prometheus Award (I am a judge), hence the Pierce and the Card.

So, what did you read last month? 

New ebook version of 'Neurologic'

After I tried (and failed) to make an epub version of  Neurologic by Timothy Leary and Joanna Harcourt-Smith, the short book on the Eight Circuit model that is not in print but available on the Internet (see this post for background), Mike Gathers tackled the job. At this link, you can download the original PDF file, or a zipped epub file, which quickly unzips into a working epub file. I have tested the epub on my smartphone and it seemed to be fine. 

This seems worth mentioning in a blog post because an epub of the book seems more convenient to me. You can much more easily read an epub file on your phone than a PDF; I use a well-reviewed app called Readera but there are many others. (Here is a guide to reading apps.) Also, you can use the send-to-Kindle feature to read the book on your Kindle, or  your Kindle app.

Here is a Wikipedia article about Neurologic. Apparently the book dates to when there were seven circuits, not 8. 

I need to look more closely at the book just recovered by Bobby Campbell, The Periodic Table of Energy, would it work as an epub, too? 

Thanks, Mike! 

Don Dulchinos on 'All Things Are Lights'

When I posted my two new articles for Maybe Day, "Reading about Robert Anton Wilson: Biographies, criticism and more," and "Robert Shea: A reader's guide,'  I was not surprised that the RAW essay did get more comments. 

But I was pleased that Don Dulchinos did take a moment to post a comment on the Shea article. He wrote, "For my money, All Things are Lights and The Saracen are a worthwhile explication of how bureaucratic Christianity exterminated personal gnosis, at least for a few centuries."

The late writer and author Patricia Monaghan, Shea's widow, told me in an email that All Things Are Lights was her favorite of Shea's works. 

She wrote (in a 2011 email), "I'm glad you like All Things, which is such a terrific book.  You are right in the 'prequel' idea in that Bob's interest in secret societies and such folded over from Ill! to All Things, but there was not a direct connection.  What drove Bob as an historical novelist was an interest in the underdogs of history, the people who were 'lost' from a historical point of view.  (I keep thinking that Saracen should be made into a movie, now, with the rise in interest in the Islamic world--but of course Bob's Muslim characters weren't terrorists!  Well...they were...sort of....)  The Cathars were persecuted in what was really a land-grab by the French against the Spanish--in Languedoc today, you can still see, in bars, maps of France before and after the 'Albigensian crusade,' which make very clear that France exploded in size after grabbing that land.  Bob's last published book, Shaman, looked at the Black Hawk War from the Indian side.  That was his way--always to focus on the 'other' in any historical situation."

Don Dulchinos is the author of several books, including Neurosphere: The Convergence of Evolution, Group Mind, and the Internet, Forbidden Sacraments The Survival of Shamanism in Western Civilization, Pioneer of Inner Space; The Life of Fitz Hugh Ludlow and The Collected Works of Fitz Hugh Ludlow. (Here is the Wikipedia bio for Ludlow). More information about these books at the official Don Dulchinos website. 

You can also read Dulchino's review of Terra II…A Way Out by Timothy Leary, published by Hilaritas in 2024, with links to related articles. 

RAW on politics as a cause of pessimism

 

With politics lately seeming so bad, not just in the U.S. but in much of the world, I thought the above might be of interest. Via Klaster Chaosmos on Bluesky (worth a follow if you are a RAW fan there!). Klaster responded when I replied "I hope he's right," saying "Whether right or wrong, to me it serves as a stark reminder of the backwards and mostly reactionary nature of government and politics in general .. with Bob's trademark cosmic wink of an incorrigible optimist, of course ... as for relevancy: context matters." 

Klaster also shared the source with me after a bit of research and said the source is The Prism Lecture, 1982. "At some point, Bob discusses economics & politics from an angle of primate psychology & territorial behaviour. The quote comes on after he quotes Timothy Leary:

"The only intelligent way
to discuss politics
is on all fours."

Lots of relevant stuff throughout."

Possibly related: In a recent Substack newsletter, Scott Sumner reviews Richard Hanania's new book Kakistocracy: Why Populism Ends in Disaster and then suggests:

"So how depressed should we be by the rise of anti-elite populism? Consider these three claims:

1. Politics is getting worse.

2. Voters are becoming less well informed.

3. The world is getting better.

Are all three claims true? I believe the answer is yes. There’s more to life than politics." (More at the link.)

Also possibly related: A Fareed Zakaria piece in the Washington Post, "A revolution is unfolding. Voters everywhere are furious." He suggests this is what's going on: "The larger explanation is that we are living through one of history’s great technological revolutions. And these transformations always produce deep anxiety and fear."

He adds, "The last technological transformation on this scale came between roughly 1880 and 1920. Electricity, the telephone, railroads, the automobile and movies overturned entire industries and ways of life. Millions left farms for cities. Global trade disrupted local economies. New fortunes appeared overnight, while old occupations disappeared. In this turmoil, frustration and anger found political pathways. The left turned to communism, the right to fascism. What followed were new mass movements, cultural upheavals and world war." (The claim that technological changes helped give rise to the right wing populism of Trump, Bolsonaro, etc. also is a key claim of Hanania's book.)

I found the piece via Tyler Cowen, who writes, "You can be a victim of these processes, or keep your wits about you.  The choice is yours."

A copy of 'Neurologic' for you

Timothy Leary in 1970 (public  domain photo). 

 I recently wrote a blog post in which I asked Mike Gathers and Joseph L. Flatley which Timothy Leary title to read to get Leary's take on the Eight Circuit model, and I got two recommendations. Lenny suggest Neuropolitique, which is in print and remains available from New Falcon. Mike Gathers suggested Neurologic and suggested a couple of links where it can be downloaded. 

Mike has now made a link available for a cleaned-up version of Neurologic. It is a PDF file and you can download it here. I have myself downloaded a copy. 

I thought it might be helpful to have an epub version, as that's the standard platform used by ebook readers and apps across platforms, so I tried to convert Mike's PDF file, but the book reader on my smartphone would not recognize it as a legitimate file. Has anyone else tried to do that? 

Scott Alexander on an interesting magic mushroom

 

Lanmaoa asiatica. Creative Commons photo, source. 

[Given that many of you are interested in psychedelic mushrooms, I thought I would share an excerpt  from Scott Alexander's recent Substack issue, "Links For July 2026 (Part 1)."  Each link has a few sentences with the link. Here is what Scott posted about an edible mushroom, Lanmaoa asiatica. A lot of the other links are pretty interesting, too, so check them out -- The Management.]

Overdoses of the edible mushroom Lanmaoa asiatica have only two side effects: stomach upset, and seeing hallucinatory gnomes and elves for the next ~week. As far as anyone can tell, the mushroom isn’t psychoactive in any way besides the gnome hallucinations (ie users are still completely lucid, and understand that what they’re seeing isn’t real). It’s not culture-bound or placebo, because the mushroom grows in China (Yunnan) and the Philippines, and both places have independently noticed this, apparently without any contact or discussion with one another. I went down this rabbit hole a little; answers to some obvious questions:

• We have no idea what chemical is involved; state-of-the-art in analyzing the mushroom’s pharmacology is this extremely boring and result-free paper.

• There’s no way to get this mushroom outside of China or the Philippines; all attempts to turn up online vendors have failed.

• Even within those places, it’s not really distinguished from several other similar-looking mushrooms, and your chances of locating it without being a Chinese-speaking mushroom expert are low.

• There is no good information about what constitutes a normal dose, what constitutes a hallucinogenic overdose, and whether there is some even worse level of overdose that will actually hurt you (nobody has described the latter, and it seems unlikely within the bounds of normal Chinese cooking failures, but it might be a different situation if a Westerner who knew nothing about this mushroom took a random amount trying to overdose on purpose).

• The elves and gnomes are described as “mischievous” and are capable of interacting with objects in the environment, eg climbing tables.

• The hallucinations seem similar to other gnomeogenic conditions like Charles Bonnet syndrome, but it’s unclear why this should be true, since the latter usually involves visual injury rather than psychoactive chemicals.

'The Classical Style' reading group, week ten

Ludwig van Beethoven, about the time the Hammerklavier was written. (Source). 

Part IV  SERIOUS OPERA 

By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger

On page 180 Rosen writes, “Tovey has remarked that Beethoven was not insufficiently dramatic but rather too dramatic for the stage: his music compresses into ten minutes the complexity of a three-act opera." This reminds of the equation Pound quotes “Dictung = condensare”, which Basil Bunting found in a German/Italian dictionary, poetry = condensation. Pound thought a short poem could compress the action of a novel. One can see this in something like Robert Browning’s “Fra Lippo Lippi”.  

I find it interesting that The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and The Magic Flute have remained in the repertoire continuously since their premieres, never needed to get revived. Some of Shakespeare’s contemporaries criticized his blending of genres: his comedies contained serious depths and his tragedies contained farcical humor. I found it odd that the 2006 Will Ferrell film Stranger than Fiction insisted on a rather narrow separation of tragedy from comedy. I like how Rosen shows how Mozart took elements of opera seria and incorporated them into the opera buffa traditions to create his masterpieces.  

This chapter serves as a transition from the world of Haydn to the world of Mozart, with a preview of the world of Beethoven. Rosen sees them all working within the world of the classical style, with Beethoven stretching that style into undreamt of territories. In some ways I see this study group as part of our upcoming Schroedinger’s Cat study group. A character in that novel invites a number of concert pianists to a party so she can talk with them about Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata. I like to think of Charles Rosen attending that party and sharing some of the ideas in this book with the host and the other guests, listening the other pianists' notions about the Hammerklavier and having spirited discussions with them.

Joseph L. Flatley's Maybe Day essay

 

Joseph Flatley (illustration "borrowed" from his newsletter). 

Joseph L. Flatley has a new Substack newsletter up, "Sirius, Osiris, and Isis — oh my!," which discusses Maybe Day, Robert Anton Wilson and his own recent experiences with a dream journal and a Crowleyan rite he performed that produced some interesting synchronicities. It's well worth a read.

Lenny also has a new book out, The Occult Timothy Leary: The Tarot, Magical States, and Post-Terrestrial Evolution. You can read my interview with him.  Oz Fritz wrote a review. Michael Johnson wrote one, too. 

The one-day Bobby Campbell art show

I was unfortunately not able to hit the road to view the pop up exhibition of Bobby Campbell art at the Create Magic Art Shop in Wilmington, Delaware. Bobby has now posted photos on Bluesky to show what it was like, and I reproduce them here. For prints and comics, see Bobby's Weirdoverse Gift Shop. 

Hilaritas Press releases new edition of 'The Trials of Arthur'

Yesterday, amid all of the other Maybe Day excitement, Hilaritas Press released a new edition of The Trials of Arthur: The Biker Who Would Be King by C.J. Stone and Arthur Pendragon. Above is the podcast, also released yesterday, of Mike Gathers interviewing Arthur. 

"Hilaritas Press was contacted by the authors of this astounding book to see if we would republish the book, with additional material and color photographs throughout. After reading the book, we were enthusiastic," Rasa explains.

A blurb explains, "Raised Druid King of Britain by five Druid orders on the King’s Stone in Kingston upon Thames in 1998 (where seven English monarchs had previously been crowned), this is the real life story of an outlaw biker who changed his name to Arthur Pendragon, became a Druid, then a King, who took on the British establishment and won!"

The author,  Christopher James Stone, has a new essay up, "Myth, Maybe and the Matter of Britain," that explains the book. 

Happy Maybe Day!

 

Bobby's full list of contributions is here. 

Check out the streaming live broadcast. You can see the playlist. 

My contributions are "Reading about Robert Anton Wilson: Biographies, criticism and more" and "Robert Shea: A reader's guide." 

News: 'Chapel Perilous' audiobook, Boing Boing covers the lost Leary-RAW book

In his Substack newsletter, Gabriel Kennedy/Prop Anon announces a Kickstarter campaign will begin soon for an audiobook of his RAW bio, Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson. He built his  own recording studio and saw his computer die when he started recording, but it's on the way. Details here. And as for the Kickstarter, here is the link.

Meanwhile, the folks at Boing Boing, specifically Ellsworth Toohey, have taken note of Bobby Campbell's recovery of the lost Timothy Leary-Robert Anton Wilson book, The Periodic Table of Energy. It is good to see the publicity, although a brief mention that Maybe Day is tomorrow and that Bobby is organizing the celebration would have been nice. Here is my coverage of the book.  And you can also get Bobby's original announcement.