Charles Ford

Strings and Keyboard

Making Musical Instruments

Music, Sexuality and the Enlightenment explains how Mozart's music for Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte 'sounds' the intentions of Da Ponte's characters and their relationships with one another. Mozart, by way of the infinitely generative and beautiful logic of the sonata principle, did not merely interpret Da Ponte's characterizations but lent them temporal, musical forms. Charles Ford's analytic interpretation of these musical forms concerns processes and structures in detail and at medium- to long-term levels. He addresses the music of a wide range of arias and ensembles, and develops original ways to interpret the two largely overlooked operatic genres of secco recitative and finales. Moreover, Ford presents a new method by which to relate musical details directly to philosophical concepts, and thereby, the music of the operas to the inwardly contradictory thinking of the European Enlightenment. This involves close readings of late eighteenth-century understandings of 'man' and nature, self and other, morality and transgression, and gendered identities and sexuality, with particular reference to contemporary writers, especially Goethe, Kant, Laclos, Rousseau, Sade, Schiller, Sterne and Wollstonecraft. The concluding discussion of the implied futures of the operas argues that their divided sexualities, which are those of the Enlightenment as a whole, have come to form our own unquestioned assumptions about gender differences and sexuality. This, along with the elegant and eloquent precision of Mozart's music, is why Figaro, Giovanni and Così still maintain their vital immediacy for audiences today.

Music, Sexuality and the Enlightenment in Mozart's Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte

In Hidden Fields, choices are further examined with respect to various themes. Charles Ford introduces another concept about choices; there are internal choices, and external ones. Now, in the general sense choices are seen as external state-of-affairs and are associated with our bodies, such as an individual act or behavior, so one sees the manifested action. The internal choices stem from our various selves, choices that are made by our souls and spirits, and our feeling and reasoning, respectively. The individual has to think or feel before he/she acts. Charles believes ultimately both internal and external choices need to be in harmony with each other, so better choices can be seen in an individual life. Charles continues to write and strives for excellence in all his poems. He invites the readers into his presence to share and exchange of thoughts and views about life experiences. All readers can be at home with him from simple to complex truths and philosophies about life. Charles wants the readers to discover something about their selves as they read his poems for as human beings we are more similar than difference in our choices. It does not matter what race, culture, or sex differences we have. We are still human being; for we all think, sleep, and dream. And can truly make better choices. Charles hopes all readers can clearly see this in his poems.

Book 2: New and Collected Poems 1982-2006

Hidden Fields

René Jeanne

Dictionnaire du cinéma universel

Tarnya Cooper

27.1.-13.3.1992, The Strang Print Room, University College, London

The Strang Print Room and Its Donors

Histoire du Western

1882 - 1942

Germaine Dulac

Robert Hammond

When the Lumière brothers introduced the motion picture in 1895, Poland was a divided and suffering nation—yet Polish artists found their way into the new world of cinema. Boleslaw Matuszewski created his first documentary films in 1896, and Poland’s first movie house was established in 1908. Despite war and repression, Polish cinema continued to grow and to reach for artistic heights. The twentieth century closed with new challenges, but a new generation of Polish filmmakers stood ready to meet them. Here is a complete history of the Polish cinema through the end of the twentieth century, with special attention to political and economic contexts.

A Twentieth Century History

Polish Film

Hollywood story

Jonathan Swift

The Letters of Jonathan Swift to Charles Ford

Histoire encyclopédique du cinéma: Cinéma d'aujourd'hui (1945-1955)

Charles Ford

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