• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

  • Our Team
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
    • Saint Antoine Daniel KYRIALE
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

Benjamin Franklin Composed A String Quartet

Jeff Ostrowski · July 14, 2014

ENJAMIN FRANKLIN was a true polymath. For example, below is a string quartet he composed. (I know some modern musicologists question whether he actually composed it, but don’t get me started on this topic!)

I WON’T BE MENTIONING Franklin’s many talents: anyone who wants to can Google his name. However, I do think it’s a shame our culture no longer understands the concept of «Renaissance man». In other words, earlier cultures worked harder at developing “the whole man” than we do. People learned about poetry, sight-reading music, and so forth, even though this had no “concrete value” in terms of making money.

Over the past few months, I’ve been to several wedding receptions and social gatherings. Invariably, the Disc jockey has blasted the music at an ear-splitting volume: so loud! So loud! Prolonged listening to loud music damages one’s hearing, and such hearing loss is irreparable. This is a fact, whether we like it or not. How long will our culture tolerate such things? For what reason must the music be blasted at such a deafening volume? What can be done?

I’m afraid I don’t have an easy solution for this, except to say that we must reclaim our culture. We must show our children the beauties of great music: Bach, Chopin, Marenzio, and so on. We can also allow our children to appreciate “light” music, but not when it’s played at such an ear-splitting volume. I have a feeling the music is blasted so loud because so few people know how to engage in proper conversation…

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Benjamin Franklin String Quartet Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

The People’s Hymnal suffers from a too literal and awkward translation. And even in the lovely Slovak “Memorare” in The Saint Gregory Hymnal we are still asked to sing “that anyone who sought thee, or made to thee his moan.” Why not “groan” or “bone” or even “phone?” The only thing necessary, it seems, is that it rhyme with “known.”

— Mons. Francis P. Schmitt (1958)

Recent Posts

  • Vespers for Easter Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
  • Hidden Gem: Ave Regina Caelorum (Steven Talley)
  • Four (4) Shimmery Hymns for Lent & Passiontide
  • “Go!” • The Word That Changed My Life Forever
  • Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2023 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.