'The Classical Style' reading group, week six

Joseph Haydn in England in 1791 (John Hoppner painting)

The Classical Style: Part II – THE CLASSICAL STYLE 

1.The Coherence of the Musical Language 

By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger

This chapter title makes think of how Aristotle and Aquinas’s ideas of coherence influenced Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 

Foreshadowing: In the last chapter of this book Rosen discusses a piece by Schumann that alludes to the final song in Beethoven’s “An Die Ferne Geliebte”, “Nimm sie hin denn, diese Lieder”. I plan to listen to his song a few times a week for the next hundred days so that I can hopefully recognize the allusion when we reach the final chapter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsgS3I1NORY&list=RDRsgS3I1NORY&start_radio=1 

For anyone struggling a bit with this text, I suspect it will get easier when we get to the Haydn chapters. In these early chapters, Rosen deals with a wide variety of music from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries discussing topics like ”The Coherence of the Style”. When he focuses on one set of pieces by one composer, I think things will make more sense. I think books like this reward rereading because they cover such large topics, and I think Rosen covers them very well.  

Pg. 68: Rosen says of the classical style that “a single movement longer than twenty minutes is beyond its reach,” but the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony tends to run over 24 minutes. 

July 4, 2026, marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Pg. 94 mentions “the ferment that followed the American Revolution.” I feel this book suits the troubled times of 2026, I feel grateful for the people reading along with us. 

An Australian history on conspiracy theory -- and Carl Oglesby

 Perhaps this might be of interest to Illuminatus! fans? Jesse Walker, an expert on the subject himself, pens a review of The Hidden History of Conspiracy Theory by Andrew McKenzie-McHarg. declaring the book " the most original study of the subject to come along in years."

McKenzie-McHarg, an Austalian historian, researches the history of the term "conspiracy theory" and related terms. But Jesse adds, "But this book is also about what we mean by such terms, and how those different meanings have intersected with one another."

As Jesse writes, McKenzie-McHarg finds an actual Illuminati double agent. "Convinced that the secret society was still active in the 1790s—or, at the very least, convinced that it was useful to have people believe the Illuminati were still active—Grolman decided to form a secret 'counter-association' against that 'devilish union.' "

The book also has a chapter  on Carl Oglesby, the historian discussed by Robert Anton Wilson who discussed recent American history as a battle between competing conspiracies, the Yankees and the Cowboys. 

More here. 

And I have a bonus link:  LitHub has just published McKenzie-McHarg's chapter on Carl Oglesby from the book! Or at least an article adapted from the book. So if  you've read what RAW wrote about Oglesby, you can read an interesting article. Carl Oglesby's son pops  up in the comments. 

Jesse's own book, The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory, remains available. 

Mr. McKenzie-McHarg's internet biographies are (perhaps appropriately)  confusing, but the just-published Lit Hub article says he is at the "Bibliotheca Hertziana–Max Planck Institute for Art History in Rome." 

Footnote: Jesse Walker says the LitHub piece is "was based on the chapter but is far from the whole thing."

Alan Moore and Steve Moore on 'Illuminatus!'

I recently finished reading The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic by Alan Moore and Steve Moore. It's a kind of compendium on magic, with chapters on Kabbalah, the tarot, "Lives of the Great Enchanters," and so on. It is so  copiously illustrated it seems almost like an art book. The list price is $50, but it's currently half that at Amazon.  

I might do 1-2 other blog posts on the book, but for now, I wanted to note what the book says about Illuminatus!

An essay toward the back of the book, "The Soul," describes how in 1994  or 1995 (page 302), Steve Moore introduced Alan Moore to Illuminatus!, "offering the younger Moore a toehold on a field about which he had previously entertained strong doubts."

On page 300, the book says, "The significance of Shea and Wilson's book to the development of magic thought lies in its presentation of a new way of regarding occult ideas, an approach which embraced contemporary knowledge and which did without the humourless and ritual-bound mental encumbrances of the traditional occult societies. Essentially, the trilogy afforded rational and reasonable people a way to engage with magical ideas that did not entail blind belief or the restricting dogmas of religion, nor subservience to the doctrines of a questionable living or dead guru. In Illuminatus! and in Wilson's subsequent essays and fictions, a window was opened onto magic through which a great number of sensibly sceptical, discriminating and creative people gained their entry to a conceptual landscape which stretched far beyond the necessarily dogmatic confines of religious or even scientific thinking. In this way was magic greatly enriched and extended."  

A 'new' Orson Welles movie?

Orson Welles working on "The Magnificent Ambersons" in 1942 (public domain photo). 

 Orson Welles died in 1985, but one more of his movies may be on the way. 

"The Spanish, French, and Italian film archives and the Filmmuseum Münchner are promoting the reconstruction of Don Quixote, the film adaptation of Cervantes' novel that Orson Welles began in 1957 and left unfinished upon his death in 1985."

More here. Via Tyler Cowen's often-interesting blog 

RAW ebook is cheap again

 

Everything Is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults, and Cover-ups by Robert Anton Wilson is on sale again as a $3 ebook on Amazon.  Note that you can use the Kindle app to read it on your smartphone -- you don't have to have a Kindle. 

A German radio documentary on RAW

Back in 2016, I mentioned that German public radio was working on a documentary piece on Robert Anton Wilson. I never found out about the final product. 

The documentary is available  on the Internet Archive.

I heard about it from Rasa, who writes, "It’s available to listen to at the Internet Archive, and what made me think of it was that Max created segments of a radio play version of Masks of the Illuminati. It’s all in German, but I found the production quite good. At about 1:50 into the broadcast, they cut to an audio play version of a scene from Masks of the Illuminati. During the doc they go back to the play a few times. I like the ambient sound and the voice actors."

New Hilaritas podcast: Flatley on 'The Occult Timothy Leary'

Mike Gathers, interviewed for the the new book The Occult Timothy Leary: The Tarot, Magickal States, and Post-Terrestrial Evolution, in turn interviews the author, Joseph L. Flatley, for the latest Hilaritas Press podcast. Links available at the official website, and you should be able to find the podcast at many of the usual places and apps. 

'The Classical Style' reading group, Week Five

 Domenico Scarlatti

 3. The Origins of the Style 

By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger

Pg. 47 –  Johann Sebastian Bach: born March 31, 1685, died July 28, 1750.  

George Frideric Handel: born March 5, 1685, died April 13, 1759.  

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti: born October 26, 1685, died July 23, 1757. 

Haydn composed his Op. 33 String Quartets in 1781.  

This chapter outlines the musical world of Robert Anton Wilson’s The Earth Will Shake and The Widow’s Son: continuing influence of Scarlatti, Bach, and Handel; a very young Mozart; and Haydn toiling away in relative obscurity in Esterhazy in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  

Rosen writes: 

The idea of a Form striving to define itself, to become flesh in all these different ways, is attractive, but even as a metaphor it sets a trap. It leads one to assume that there was such a thing as ‘sonata form’ in the late eighteenth century, and that the composers knew what it was, whereas  nothing we know about the situation would lead us to suppose anything of the kind. The feeling for any form, even the minuet, was much more fluid. 

                                                - pg. 52 

This passage helps to address Oz Fritz’s comment, “I don't know why Rosen calls the sonata a texture and not a form. Perhaps he will explain that as we move along.” 

(It does bother me that Rosen always uses male pronouns when refering to generic composers or artists.) 

    In Sonata Forms Rosen writes: 

    In the eighteenth century, consequently, there was no notion of an isolated  sonata form as such: all that existed was a gradually evolving conception of     the composition of instrumental music – a pure instrumental style untroubled  by the exigencies of concerto, dance music, or opera overture, unhampered  by the old-fashioned procedures of fugue and variations. It is significant that     eighteenth-century accounts of sonata form are all description of     instrumental compostion in general. 

- pg. 14-15 

Hilaritas Press news -- from John Higgs!

 

The latest John Higgs newsletter has a scoop about my favorite small press:

"I’ve always loved The Trials of Arthur, C.J. Stone’s 2003 account of the biker who believes he is King Arthur. It’s a funny but profound account of his journey from squaddie to environmental campaigner, and it’s about to be republished by the good people over at Hilaritas Press. Give it a try, you won’t regret it."

I've provide full coverage when Hilaritas puts it out.

See John's newsletter for more news. There's still time to get his book of short pieces if you sign up for the paid version of his newsletter, and he appears in a new podcast episode with "lots of talk about David Lynch and Robert Anton Wilson."

Gerry Fialka interviews me

 I appeared yesterday on Gerry Fialka's interview show on YouTube, "I'm Probably Wrong About Everything." I was on for about 90 minutes. We talked quite a bit about Frank Zappa, I got to talk about my Robert Shea book, and we covered many other topics. When I admitted I collect radios, Gerry told me he dumpster dives for radios and explained which ones he prefers! 

Many members of the "RAW community" have appeared on Gerry's show, among them, Oz Fritz in 2024,  Eric Wagner two months ago, and also last year, with Bobby Campbell in 2021,  Peter Quadrino in 2016, Gerry asked me for some interview suggestions and I gave him some names. UPDATE: Here is an interview with Mike Gathers.  And here is the Steve "Fly" Pratt interview. 

Gerry Fialka is an experimental filmmaker and writer, has interviewed hundreds of people, and worked for Frank Zappa for ten years. Here is the official website. He led a book group that spent 28 years reading Finnegans Wake.  (From the Guardian article in the last link: "My phone interview with him [Fialka] lasted one hour and eight minutes, and its zigs, zags and sheer velocity were unmatched in my nearly 20-year journalism career. Was I writing about Finnegans Wake, or was I suddenly inside it?"

Music trivia note: You may have heard of the musical artist Stormin' Norman and Suzy. The "Suzy" is Suzy Williams, who is married to Mr. Fialka. 

'The Occult Timothy Leary': Two new reviews

 

Michael Johnson and Oz Fritz have both posted new reviews of The Occult Timothy Leary, the new book by Joseph L. Flatley that I've written about on this blog.

Both of them give the book and close reading, and both recommend it. In his review at his Substack newsletter, Michael writes, "Joseph L. Flatley’s invigorating research and lucid style in The Occult Timothy Leary has much to recommend it, beyond my own elaborations and predilections."

On his blog, Oz writes, "All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and commend the author, a true Evolutionary Agent, for all the hard work and time he devoted to help bring the work of Timothy Leary to a wider and perhaps younger audience."

I agree with Brian's comment to Michael's review that Michael has "a fantastic reviewing style that would fit easily into a scholarly journal or a 'serious' newspaper such as The Guardian, but with a more knowledgeable and insightful take than one usually finds in such reviews."

Oz's review is full of fascinating details. He argues to my satisfaction that Gurdjieff also was a big influence on Leary, and points us to a movie about Leary, "Timothy Leary's Dead,"  currently available free on Tubi. 

In the comments to Michael's review, Oz modestly writes that Michael's review is "much better." While I also  have pointed out that Michael is good with book reviews (see my comment here), I think both reviews are very good, I disagree with Oz, you should read both.

If you missed it, I posted an interview with Flatley. 

Proud Miskatonic University alums

 The above is Gerry Fialka's recent interview of Eric Wagner. I watched the whole thing a few days ago, quite entertaining. As I was watching it, I noticed that Eric was wearing a t-shirt for Miskatonic University, although if Gerry spotted that, he didn't mention it. 

Miskatonic University, located in Arkham, Massachusetts, is featured in the work of H.P. Lovecraft. And as Illuminatus! makes use of Lovecraft's "Cthulhu mythos," there are references to the school in the text. "Miskatonic University, in Arkham, Massachusetts, is not a well-known campus by any means, and the few scholarly visitors who come there are an odd lot, drawn usually by the strange collection of occult books given to the Miskatonic Library by the late Dr. Henry Armitage."

I couldn't see Eric's shirt well enough to see what it depicted, but for many years, there have been quite realistic MU sweatshirts and t-shirts that look like the merch put out by more ordinary schools. 

When I went to the University of Oklahoma in the 1970s, an old friend of mine, once quite active in science fiction fandom but now gafiated, would wear an authentic-looking Miskanonic University sweatshirt around campus. When he showed up one day to economics class wearing it, there was a dialogue along these lines:

Professor: Miskatonic University? Where is that?

Old friend: It's a small liberal arts school in Massachusetts.

Professor: Huh, I thought I knew the name of just about every college in the U.S.

I should mention that when I texted my friend a couple of days ago to remind him of the incident, he had forgotten it. But I remember him quite well describing it at the time. 

Wednesday links

Art from the second link. 

 Prop Anon Bloomsday post. "In Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson I argue that Wilson presaged the future epistemic confusion of our current algorithmic maelstrom. However, Wilson would counter such an audacious, yet accurate, claim that James Joyce was the guy. He was the one who saw where it was going and then went blind." Scroll down on the piece for other links and articles. 

Part Two of the new RAW Semantics piece on "Right Men, Natural Law & Platonic Free Markets" that I blogged about a few days ago.

The Billionaire-Fueled Lobbying Group Behind the State Bills to Ban Basic Income Experiments. A link pointed out by Brian from RAW Semantics, who writes, "Some US libertarians are pro-UBI, but many seem hostile. FGA, a billionaire-funded group behind bills to ban Basic Income pilots, has a lot of donors (incl. usual Scaife, Koch, etc - small sum from Koch. Cato's Robert Levy served on FGA board)." 

Cat interrupts sad scene in "Romeo and Juliet" ballet. 

Leaders and followers. Includes reference to Aleister Crowley. "A decisive moment for these movements comes when the Teacher dies. While the truth of the teachings is the ultimate proof of longevity of any school of thought, efficient organization, as in the case of Scientology, may also hold a key." Via Jesse Walker.

A joke at the old RAWilson.com site.