Ah, marvelous, marvelous! Elliott is, as ever, witty, charming, elegant, urbane, and fascinating. I was lucky to have him in class, for a preceptorial on T. S. Eliot, and still have the paper I wrote for it and his comments on it. I also remember vividly his playing of the piano at waltz parties. And, of course, his wonderful, gorgeous paintings. What an honor to have known him.
I remember all the wit and erudition, but this humility? He's wrong: He was NOT a "mediocre" tutor. He was one of the best, and I still lean on things he taught us, after 35 years.
This is wonderful! Mr Zuckerman has hardly aged since that sophomore music class of 1969 wherein we "read" - slowly - Bach's Matthew Passion. Between that diminished seventh somewhere, the lowest note of the piece at the word "Tod" (death) and the progression of harmonic complications in the chorales, it was an oasis of decent thinking in an otherwise difficult year. There is so much here. I wondered here if Wagner acted so evil - and he was evil - so that people would ignore him in lieu of the music. It is still all too difficult for me to get into this music, for all the right - and wrong - reasons. Having in the past year or so read a good bit of Arendt, Mr Zuckerman was a tad unfair to her legacy even if her legs were as outstanding as he - and others - have noted. But he did meet and know her in the flesh, so to speak. And there is so much to agree with here! Between Mr Klein, Mortimer (hooray for Elliot - he pegged him!), Mr Littleton, Mr Milner, Mr Doskow, Eva Brann, and all those others who endured me; the College, which has turned out to be a continuing life long effort, as I was so young and ill equipped when there, has been the most worthwhile experience of my life.
