Subscribe to The New Criterion’s podcast series via Apple or Google.

In honor of Independence Day, Jay does an all American program: ending with “Plenty Good Room,” the spiritual. He begins with some ballet, cowboy style: “Hoe Down” (Copland). Along the way, we have songs, piano pieces, an aria, some bluegrass—Happy Fourth, to all.

Copland, “Hoe-Down,” from “Rodeo”

MacDowell, “By a Meadow Brook,” from “Woodland Sketches”

Beach, “Ah, Love, but a Day”

Wheeler, Scott, “Isolation Rag”

Hoiby, “Lady of the Harbor”

Meyer, Edgar, et al. (?), “Death by Triple Fiddle”

Floyd, “Ain’t It a Pretty Night?” from “Susannah”

Gershwin-Heifetz, Prelude in C-sharp Minor

Trad., “Plenty Good Room”

Subscribe to The New Criterion’s podcast series via Apple or Google.

This episode begins with a shout—“a shout of joy on the organ,” Jay says. It also has a poem, written and recited by Langston Hughes. And a song, setting that same poem. The episode includes a little Broadway—and other curiosities, finds, and wonders. Enjoy “music for a while.”

Hughes-Manz, “God of Grace and God of Glory”

Langston Hughes, “I, Too”

Margaret Bonds, “I, Too”

Frederic Rzewski, “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!”

Coleman-Stewart, “Thank God I’m Old”

Herbert Murrill, “Carillon”

Handel, “O Lord, whose mercies numberless,” from Saul

Trad., arr. Bonds, “This Little Light o’ Mine”

Subscribe to The New Criterion’s podcast series via Apple or Google.

In a new podcast from The New Criterion, Eric Gibson and James Panero discuss sculpture in exile and culture under siege.

Eric Gibson’s book The Necessity of Sculpture: Selected Essays and Criticism, 1985–2019 can be found here.

Subscribe to The New Criterion’s podcast series via Apple or Google.

“Got a real smorgasbord for you,” says Jay—“even more than usual. An almost wacky variety.” He begins with Rachmaninoff, turns to Satie, then to a classic American song, then to Satie again, then to Penderecki, and on to Fauré and Busoni (no, not Bach-Busoni). Some interesting issues, points, personalities, and, of course, music.

Tracks played:

Rachmaninoff, “Spring Waters”

Satie, “Vexations”

Androzzo, Alma Bazel, “If I Can Help Somebody”

Satie, “Gymnopédie”

Penderecki, “La Follia”

Fauré, “Le secret”

Busoni, “Berceuse”