Oscar Wilde and Van Morrison: The Dialogue Between Music and Literature This essay aims to explore an interdisciplinary dialogue between two fundamental figures of Irish art and culture: Oscar Wilde, the celebrated writer, playwright, and aesthetic icon of the late nineteenth century, and Van Morrison, the visionary and mystical singer-songwriter who has carved a profound legacy in contemporary music. At first glance, the distance between them may seem insurmountable—different eras, different languages, artistic forms apparently as distant as written word and popular music. Yet, by delving into the details of their works, surprising thematic, poetic, and spiritual convergences emerge. Through an analysis intertwining literature, theater, music, and performative art, this essay aims to show how Wilde and Morrison embody two complementary approaches in the pursuit of beauty, truth, and expressive authenticity. By highlighting the mystical and romantic dimension that runs through both...

Oscar Wilde e Van Morrison: il dialogo tra la musica e la letteratura Questo saggio nasce dall’intento di esplorare un dialogo interdisciplinare tra due figure fondamentali dell’arte e della cultura irlandese: Oscar Wilde, il celebre scrittore, drammaturgo e simbolo estetico della fine Ottocento, e Van Morrison, il cantautore visionario e mistico che ha tracciato un solco profondo nella musica contemporanea. A prima vista, la distanza tra i due potrebbe sembrare incolmabile: epoche diverse, linguaggi differenti, forme artistiche apparentemente distanti come la parola scritta e la musica popolare. Eppure, scendendo nel dettaglio dei loro lavori, emergono sorprendenti convergenze tematiche, poetiche e spirituali. Attraverso un’analisi che intreccia letteratura, teatro, musica e arte performativa, questo saggio intende mostrare come Wilde e Morrison incarnino due approcci complementari alla ricerca della bellezza, della verità e dell’autenticità espressiva. Mettendo in luce la dimension...

A Sense of Wonder (Recensione retrospettiva) Un capitolo luminoso, tra poesia, preghiera e paesaggi dell’anima.  Diceva William Butler Yeats: «Correggendo le mie opere, correggo me stesso». E forse è proprio questo il respiro profondo che attraversa A Sense of Wonder, quindicesimo album in studio di Van Morrison, pubblicato nel 1984: un’opera che guarda indietro senza nostalgia e in avanti senza fretta, scegliendo come bussola il mistero, la gratitudine e una mistica radicata nella terra. Siamo nel cuore degli anni Ottanta, un’epoca in cui la musica pop cominciava a perdere il senso dell’attesa e della profondità. Van Morrison sceglie invece la strada opposta: quella dell’interiorità. Con A Sense of Wonder si chiude idealmente il ciclo dei dischi Warner Bros. (da Into the Music a Inarticulate Speech of the Heart) e se ne apre un altro, più maturo e meditativo. Come ha scritto Rolling Stone USA, si tratta di «un grande atto di sintesi e panoramica, che afferma il senso del luogo e d...

A Mystical Journey Between Celtic Swing and New Age Released in March 1983, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart is Van Morrison’s fourteenth studio album and his last for Warner Bros. Recorded across London, California, and Dublin, the album marks a turning point in the Irish singer-songwriter’s career, both stylistically and spiritually. Unlike previous works, Morrison increasingly relies on instrumental music, using harmonies, wind instruments, and synths to express what words can no longer convey. Four of the eleven tracks are fully instrumental, while the rest alternate between spoken word, soul inflections, and jazz improvisations. The album title itself suggests that one can speak without articulation, communicate without enunciation, as if music could say the unsayable. One of the most curious and debated details is a cryptic credit thanking L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology’s founder and charismatic leader. While the reason for this dedication remains unclear, it reflects Morrison’s int...

In the twilight of his eighty years, Van Morrison, illustrious son of Belfast, carves an ode that resounds like an ancient psalm, a gospel steeped in blues, jazz, soul, and Celtic folk. It is a return, but not one born of nostalgia, certainly an act of faith capable of bringing together Ray Charles, Doc Pomus, and James Brown, but above all able to rediscover the way home—the path of the boy wandering through his hometown with a guitar and a heart full of songs. Well, after years of turnings, digressions, and returns to the roots, covers and Covid-19 albums, Van Morrison returns to the glories of the Seventies and Eighties. He does so with what will probably be remembered as his best album since The Healing Game and Hymns to the Silence, but with a compactness and inspiration that lead us into the period following Common One, Beautiful Vision, and Inarticulate Speech of the Heart. We find ourselves in the territory of A Sense of Wonder, Poetic Champions Compose, and Avalon Sunset. We a...

Nel crepuscolo dei suoi ottant’anni, Van Morrison, illustre figlio di Belfast, scolpisce un’ode che rimbomba come un salmo antico, un vangelo intriso di blues, jazz, soul e folk celtico. È un ritorno, ma non di nostalgia, certamente un atto di fede capace di mettere assieme Ray Charles, Doc Pomus e James Brown, ma soprattutto in grado di ritrovare la strada di casa, quella del ragazzo che si aggira per la sua città natale con una chitarra e un cuore pieno di canzoni. Così, dopo anni di svolte, divagazioni e ritorni alle radici, cover e dischi sul Covid-19, Van Morrison torna ai fasti anni Settanta e Ottanta. Lo fa con quello che probabilmente sarà ricordato come il suo miglior disco dai tempi di The Healing Game e Hymns to the Silence, ma con una compattezza e un' ispirazione che ci conduce al periodo successivo rispetto a Common One, Beautiful Vision e Inarticulate Speech of the Heart. Siamo dalle parti di A Sense of Wonder, Poetic Champions Compose e di Avalon Sunset. Siamo per...

12 giugno 2025 In anteprima grazie a un amico speciale ho il privilegio di ascoltare questo magnifico nuovo lavoro di Van Morrison. Ci siamo messi alle spalle un periodo no e la musica ci darà la giusta vibrazione, quella scossa di cui necessitiamo. Non so se riesco a spiegare il legame, questa forte connessione che sento da qualche anno a questa parte per il grande irlandese. Questo disco si capiva subito, fin dal titolo e dall'artwork che sarebbe stato speciale. Per motivi anche abbastanza casuali, se vogliamo. Ma tant'è. Si parte alla grande con il brano Down to Joy che ci fa ripensare a quel periodo difficile, da cui siamo usciti in qualche modo, in ogni modo. Ed è dolce e piacevole ricordare il bel film Belfast di Branagh, di cui faceva parte il brano, con la magnifica sequenza iniziale. Si passa a "If It Wasn't for Ray" un altro pezzo vivace, dove la presenza dell'organo Hammond, delle percussioni, dei fiati e dei cori, la fanno da padrone. Brano agile...

Getting under the skin of Van Morrison’s Saint Dominic’s Preview Summer 2002. To overcome a romantic disappointment I took refuge in music. Just for a change. I frequently listened to artists like Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, The Band, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger. Some months earlier though a friend had burned me two CDs: Astral Weeks and Moondance, and in the month of May I had bought my first Van Morrison record, recently released: Down the Road. In that period, besides listening to loads of records and cassette tapes, I had discovered two authors like Saul Bellow and Henry Miller. At the cinema a certain Peter Jackson was going strong and we were all disoriented because of Islamic terrorism. But that is definitely another matter, which here I don't have the time to deal with properly. I make this premise because the listener who was about to know and discover this record was a young dreamer, a bit unripe, maybe even a little romantic, but certainly not unfamiliar with books, ci...

No Guru, No Method, No Teacher: the story of a masterpiece “In popular song, no one has ever fulfilled the visionary ambitions of William Blake like Van Morrison.” (Nick Coleman) Van Morrison’s No Guru, No Method, No Teacher is his sixteenth studio album, released on July 1st, 1986. Nearly four decades have passed since then, and yet the record resists the passage of time with disarming ease. This is not a nostalgic nod to numbers and anniversaries, but rather a sincere astonishment at how current and vital the album still sounds. Morrison, acting as producer, arranger, and performer, took full command in this phase of his career, offering one of the most complete examples of how to craft a record and shape a distinctive sound. What today we might call an "upgrade"—a qualitative leap that doesn’t make earlier works feel dated, but does reveal new compositional and sonic peaks thanks to both the technology of the time and the cohesion of the musicians involved. We are dealing...

A luminous chapter, between poetry, prayer and landscapes of the soul William Butler Yeats once said: “By correcting my work, I correct myself.” And perhaps this is the deep breath that runs through A Sense of Wonder , Van Morrison’s fifteenth studio album, released in 1984: a work that looks back without nostalgia and forward without haste, choosing as its compass mystery, gratitude, and a mysticism rooted in the earth. We are in the heart of the 1980s, a time when pop music was beginning to lose its sense of anticipation and depth. Van Morrison, on the other hand, chooses the opposite path: the path of interiority. With A Sense of Wonder , he ideally closes the cycle of the Warner Bros. albums (from Into the Music to Inarticulate Speech of the Heart ) and opens another, more mature and meditative. As Rolling Stone USA wrote, it is “a grand act of synthesis and overview, affirming the artist’s sense of place and self in terms of his Celtic roots.” Indeed, the album immediately p...