Mark Twain on party over country

When the doctrine of allegiance to party can utterly up-end a man's moral constitution and make a temporary fool of him besides, what excuse are you going to offer for preaching it, teaching it, extending it, perpetuating it? say, the best good of the country demands allegiance to party?  Shall you say, the best good of the country demands allegiance to party? Shall you also say it demands that a man kick his truth and his conscience into the gutter and become a mouthing lunatic, besides? 

~ Mark Twain (1835-1910) ("Consistency," a paper read at Hartford, Connecticut in 1884)  

Composer Dimitri Shostakovich was born September 25, 1906: some quotes, history, and music

I always try to make myself as widely understood as possible; and if I don't succeed, I consider it my own fault.

~ Dmitri Shostakovich (quoted in Machlis, Introduction to Contemporary Music)

The composer apparently does not set himself the task of listening to the desires and expectations of the Soviet public. He scrambles sounds to make them interesting to formalist elements who have lost all taste... The power of good music to affect the masses has been sacrificed to a petty-bourgeois, "formalist" attempt to create originality through cheap clowning. It is a game of clever ingenuity that may end very badly.*

~ Pravda (on the Shostakovich opera Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk, "Muddle Instead of Music," January 1936)

Shostakovich told me: "I finished the Fifth Symphony in the major and fortissimo... It would be interesting to know what would have been said if I finished it pianissimo and in the minor." Only later did I understand the full significance of these words, when I heard the Fourth Symphony, which does finish in the minor and pianissimo. But in 1937, nobody knew the Fourth Symphony.**

~ Boris Khaikin (1904-1978) (Discourses on Conducting)

The cover of a 1942 issue of Time Magazine with the
caption "Fireman Shostakovich: 'Amid bombs burning
 in Leningrad, he heard the chords of victory.' Refers to
the Battle of Leningrad in which he served
 as a volunteer in the anti-fire brigades

There may be few notes, but there's lots of music.

~ Shostakovich (on his film music for King Lear; quoted in Wilson, Shostakovich, A Life Remembered)

Particularly during the Cold War, Shostakovich was anathema to many Western critics:

The Fifth Symphony of Shostakovich always has been singularly irritating to this chronicler... Whenever I hear one of his marches, my imagination fastens upon a picture of the parades in Red Square and the banners of Uncle Joe, and my irritation becomes powerful.

~ Cyrus Durgin (? - 1962) (Boston Globe, 25 October 1952)

To anyone who knew his music, a first encounter with Dmitri Shostakovich could not fail to be startling. In contrast to the elemental force, bombast, grandeur of his works, he was a chétif*** figure, the perennial student, unassertive and shy, who looked as though all the music could be wrung out of him in a couple of song cycles.

~ Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) (Unfinished Journey)

September 25 is the anniversary of the birth of Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (wiki) (1906-1975), considered by some as the greatest symphonist of the 20th century. Born in St. Petersburg, Shostakovich was an early piano prodigy and studied composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory during the early Soviet era.

At first recognized internationally as an exemplar of the best of Soviet musicianship, he ran afoul of the regime with his modernistic opera, Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk, which so outraged Stalin that he is said to have had a personal hand in writing the infamous Pravda editorial, "Muddle Instead of Music" that literally put the composer's life in jeopardy during the "Great Purge" of the late 1930s. 

Shostakovich somehow survived, even though he was recurrently criticized by the regime for his “modernist” tendencies. During his subsequent tumultuous career, he produced an enormous oeuvre: 15 symphonies, concertos, a great quantity of chamber music, song cycles, piano music, and several operas. Generally considered a serious - almost tragic - composer, Shostakovich nonetheless wrote a large amount of “light” music, including even a stage work – Moscow Cheryomushki (1959) – that might be described as a Russian musical comedy.

For newcomers to the music of Shostakovich, I would recommend his 4th, 5th, and 10th symphonies, the two piano concertos, the "autobiographical" 8th strinq quartet, his several "jazz" and "ballet" suites compiled from light works of the 1930s, and his film score for The Gadfly, whose "Romance" was used to great effect as the principal theme of the TV series, "Riley, Ace of Spies."

During the last two decades, there has been a raging musicological debate about whether the music of Shostakovich reveals him as a loyal Soviet citizen or a closet dissident whose works portray a tormented man. No one really knows. He was clearly a quirky guy. In contradiction to the opening quotation above, he noted late in life,

"I've said what I said. Either you have it in you to understand, or if not, then it would be fruitless to try to explain anyway."

* N.B. In the first year of the Great Purge, this last sentence was a terrifying threat.

** After the uproar caused by Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk, Shostakovich "redeemed" himself with his Fifth Symphony (1937), designated "A Soviet Artist's Response to Just Criticism," still one of his most successful and popular works. However, his iconoclastic Fourth Symphony, which had been in rehearsal at the time of the debacle, was withdrawn and did not emerge again until 1961. It is now considered one of the master's most original works and a fascinating indicator of "the road not taken." By the way, Boris Khaikin was a Soviet-Jewish conductor.

*** Chétif - a French word meaning "puny."

Here is the romance from The Gadfly:



More typical of Shostakovich is the opening of his 4th symphony:

Parts of the text above are adapted from the late, great Ed Whitman's Quotation of the Day. In addition to being my partner, my best friend, and Grandpa to the many kids who call me Grandma, Ed is also the author of Hunters and Killers: Volume 1: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1776 to 1943 and Hunters and Killers: Volume 2: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1943. Fair winds and following seas, Sailor. I miss you.

George Gershwin was born on September 26, 1898 - some quotes, history, and an old video

Today, a great American composer:

The composer does not sit around and wait for an inspiration to walk up and introduce itself ... Making music is actually little else than a matter of invention aided and abetted by emotion. In composing we combine what we know of music with what we feel.

- George Gershwin (quoted in Goldberg, Tin Pan Alley)

Not many composers have ideas. Far more of them know how to use strange instruments which do not require ideas.

- Gershwin (The Composer in the Machine Age (1933))

My people are American, my time is today ... music must repeat the thought and aspirations of the times.

- Gershwin (quoted in Armitage, Accent on America)

Many musicians do not consider George Gershwin a serious composer. But they should understand that, serious or not, he is a composer - that is, a man who lives in music and expresses everything, serious or not, sound or superficial, by means of music, because it is his native language.

- Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) (quoted in Kimball and Simon, The Gershwins)

Today is the anniversary of the birth of American composer George Gershwin (wiki) (1898-1937), born Jacob Gershowitz in Brooklyn to Jewish parents of Russian/Ukrainian descent. Gershwin started piano lessons at an early age, left school at 15, first worked as a "song plugger" on Tin Pan Alley, and published his own first song in 1916. Later, while working as a piano-roll arranger, he began a series of Broadway collaborations, leading to his first show with brother Ira Gershwin (1896-1983), Lady Be Good (1924). This was followed by (among others) Oh, Kay! (1926), Funny Face (1927), Strike Up the Band (1927), Show Girl (1929), and Girl Crazy (1930). In 1924, Gershwin also wrote his quasi-classical Rhapsody in Blue for Paul Whiteman's band, and it has remained his most popular work in that vein. That same year, he traveled to Paris, hoping to study composition with Nadia Boulanger or Maurice Ravel - they demurred - but while there he did compose another of his well-known semi-classical works, An American in Paris. Following a brief Hollywood stint, Gershwin wrote his most ambitious work, the "folk opera" Porgy and Bess (1935), based on a novel by DuBose Heyward, and it has been an American classic ever since.* Gershwin's shows became the source of countless popular hits, including "I Got Rhythm," "Strike Up the Band," "Swanee," "Summertime," and "Someone," and his classical compositions raise intriguing questions about "what might have been" had he not been felled by a brain tumor in 1937. On his death, American novelist John O'Hara (1905-1970) wrote,

"George died on July 11, 1937, but I don't have to believe it if I don't want to."

Mark Steyn has an excellent post on Summertime here - very informative and highly recommended!

* N.B. Of Porgy and Bess, American composer Virgil Thomson 1896-1989) wrote,

"Porgy is ... an interesting example of what can be done by talent in spite of a bad set-up. With a libretto that should never have been accepted on a subject that should never have been chosen, a man who should never have attempted it has written a work that has a considerable power."

Rare old footage (I don 't know when this was recorded, but he died in 1937, so a while before that...) of Gershwin himself playing I Got Rhythm:

Ground chicken satay

Speedy Satay Chicken

Author: Nicole Servings: 4 servings Calories: 641kcal

This Speedy Satay Chicken recipe is a quick, minced (ground) chicken dinner ready in under 20 minutes. Juicy chicken is simmered in a creamy coconut peanut sauce that coats every piece, perfect served over rice with fresh toppings. An easy weeknight, family-friendly dinner that delivers takeaway-style flavour with minimal effort.

Prep Time

5minutes mins

Cook Time

10minutes mins

Total Time

15minutes mins

Ingredients

Satay Sauce

400 ml coconut milk

125 ml chicken stock

90 g natural smooth peanut butter

1 tbsp kecap manis (see note 1)

1 tsp dark soy sauce

Chicken 

2 tbsp light olive oil or any neutral oil of choice

1 brown onion, finely diced

1 tbsp freshly minced garlic

500 g minced (ground) chicken (can be substituted with turkey mince or pork mince)

2 tbsp water, if needed

1 tbsp mild curry powder

½ tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp white sugar

½ tsp sea salt flakes, plus extra to taste

To Serve 

Steamed jasmine rice or microwave rice

2 Lebanese (short/Persian) cucumbers, sliced

¼ red onion, sliced

40 g crushed peanuts

¼ bunch fresh coriander (cilantro), leaves picked

Lime wedges

Chilli oil (optional)

Instructions

Make the satay sauce – Place all the sauce ingredients in a jug and whisk until smooth. Set aside.

Cook the chicken – Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium–high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for 1–2 minutes. Add the chicken mince and cook, breaking it up as you go, for 3–4 minutes. Break the chicken up just enough – don’t over-stir. You want juicy, chunky pieces.

Add the spices – Add the water to the pan to deglaze and scrape up any stuck-on bits if needed, followed immediately by the curry powder, turmeric, paprika, sugar and sea salt flakes.

Add the satay sauce – Add the satay sauce and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 3–4 minutes, stirring, until the sauce thickens and becomes glossy and creamy.

Finish and serve – Turn off the heat, season with extra salt to taste. Spoon the chicken over hot rice and serve with cucumber, red onion, crushed peanuts, coriander, a squeeze of lime juice (essential) and a drizzle of chilli oil, if using.

Notes

Note 1 – To make your own kecap manis Combine equal parts soy sauce or tamari with sugar and either simmer gently in a small saucepan on the stovetop for 2 minutes, or microwave in a microwave-safe container in 30-second bursts, until thickened.

Make Ahead

See leftover instructions below.

Leftovers

Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw completely overnight in the fridge prior to reheating.

Recipe by Simple Home Edit

https://simplehomeedit.com/recipe/speedy-satay-chicken/ - March 4, 2026

August 24: the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and destruction of Pompeii in A.D. 79

Plaster casts of people who died (buried by ashfall) in

Pompeii during the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius

He [Pliny the Elder] was at Misenum* in his capacity as commander of the fleet on the 24th of August, when between two or three in the afternoon my mother drew his attention to a cloud of unusual size and appearance. He had had a sunbath, then a cold bath, and was reclining after dinner with his books. He called for his shoes and climbed up to where he could get the best view of the phenomenon. The cloud was rising from a mountain - at such a distance we couldn't tell which - but afterwards learned that it was Vesuvius. I can best describe its shape by likening it to a pine tree. 

Vesuvius viewed from the ruins of Pompeii

It rose into the sky on a very long "trunk" from which spread some "branches." I imagine it had been raised by a sudden blast, which then weakened, leaving the cloud unsupported so that its own weight caused it to spread sideways. Some of the cloud was white, in other parts there were dark patches of dirt and ash. The sight of it made the scientist in my uncle determined to see it from closer at hand.

~ Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (Pliny the Younger (wiki)) (letter to Tacitus, ca A.D. 95, describing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the death of Pliny the Elder (wiki)) 

Natura vero nihil hominibus brevitate vitae preaestitit melius.

~ Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder) (Historia naturalis, VII, 50, 168)  

(Nature has granted man no better gift than the shortness of life.)

Today is the anniversary of the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 and the death of Pliny the Elder (born A.D. 23) in that event. The eruption, which followed several years of precursor ground movements, buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and is thought to have killed as many as 15,000 people. 

A view of Naples at the height of the eruption of Mount 

Vesuvius in 1944. Photo by Melvin C. Shaffer

Subsequent major eruptions occurred in 1631, 1906, and 1944, the last just after the Allies had taken the city of Naples in World War II. Pliny the Elder is remembered primarily for his "Natural History," a comprehensive compendium of ancient knowledge of the natural world. His scientific curiosity led him to take ship across the Bay of Naples to see the Vesuvius eruption at close quarters, and he was killed there by ash and poisonous fumes from the volcano. The account of his nephew and adopted son, Pliny the Younger (A.D. 61-ca. 114), is the only eyewitness description we have of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and it goes on to provide further detail about on-site conditions near the disaster and his own experiences farther afield. 

* N.B. Misenum (near modern-day Bacoli) was on the opposite shore of the Bay of Naples from Mount Vesuvius. During ancient times, it was Rome's principal naval base on the west coast of Italy. 

Here's a brief re-enactment:

And a newsreel about the eruption in 1944:

Recommended reading:

I first read Pliny the Younger's account of  the eruption in the excellent Eyewitness to History, a book that I've also given to several kids and grandkids. 

The thoroughly engaging novel Pompeii by Robert Harris is the story of a Roman engineer trying to repair an aqueduct in the lead-up to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Full of interesting technical and historical detail.