Arts & Culture

  The KPAC series of more than a decade ago, "The Art of American Popular Song," followed a blueprint laid out by the composer and writer Alec Wilder. His book, American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, begins with six chapters which describe the work of the essential creators of The Great American Songbook: Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, and Harold Arlen.

For thousands of years, cultures and civilizations have incorporated myth into their way of understanding life. Myths explain natural phenomena, teach morals, and symbolize spiritual truths; they chart the path of heroes and help to provide meaning for our own personal journey. Each generation of artists create their own renditions, and the Chamber Orchestra of San Antonio shared some by Gluck, Beethoven, and Mozart at their season finale this month (May 13) at the Tobin Center’s Carlos Alvarez Studio Theatre.

As far back as the 1880s, there have been reports of mysterious glowing orbs dancing just above the horizon in far west Texas, just outside the town of Marfa. Explanations of the phenomena have ranged from campfires, to ball lightning, to automobile headlights. Regardless of their origin, the Marfa lights have inspired countless travelers, artists and writers, and now you can add a classical composer to that list.