Search - List of Books by Richard Morris
"Catholic liturgical music, it would seem, is everywhere but in the Catholic Church itself." -- Richard Morris
Richard Ward Morris (1939–August 28, 2003), was an American author, editor, and poet.
He received his master's in physics from the University of New Mexico and his doctorate in physics from the University of Nevada, then moved to San Francisco, where he started the little magazine Camels Coming. In 1968, he started and became the executive director of the Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Publishers (COSMEP). His COSMEP newsletter guided classic little magazines and underground hippie tabloids right through the Vietnam War into the Ronald Reagan era. He published as well poetry, fiction and drama; his selected poetry, Assyrians, was published by The Smith in 1991.
Beginning in 1979, Morris became known to the wider world as the author of a series of mainstream science books. These texts were translated and published to good sales in dozens of countries. He still continued publishing small-press collections of poetry and drama, which were read mostly by his friends and peers.
He published more than 20 books in his lifetime, many of which were written to "explain the intricacies of science to the general public". His literary style and narrative talents made easy reading for otherwise heady and intellectual topics, bringing sometimes abstract scientific ideas to a level the common person could understand.
His final work, The Last Sorcerers: The Path from Alchemy to the Periodic Table, was published posthumously in 2003.
"All you hear Catholics turning out these days are pop versions of the old Protestant anthems.""And this speaks to the larger problem that no one wants to talk about: the restoration of the Roman rite is a precondition for a long-term fix for the problem.""As for sacred polyphony, there is no reason to be afraid of it.""At St. Francis de Sales in Atlanta, we do not have an organ. We do not have rehearsals during the week. We do not have a professional choir.""But nowadays hymns are the norm, because people don't have much else to sing.""Even Catholic parishes today are not wanting for talent. But no serious singer or organist will get anywhere near the typical music program, at least if he wants to retain his self-respect.""For two thousand years, the Church has guided the development of music, carefully legislating to fuse artistic talent and aesthetic beauty with the demands of the Faith.""Inaudible prayers, particularly of the Canon, which at first don't seem to have anything to do with music, end up being a very important part of the aesthetic of the traditional structure of the Mass.""Ironically, we live in times that are awash in authentic sacred music.""It bothers me when I hear it in a car commercial or some such. But for the most part, it's better than seeing sacred music relegated to the scrap heap.""It would be difficult to discover the truth about the universe if we refused to consider anything that might be true.""Music had always been the handmaid of the Roman liturgy.""Never have so many recordings of the great Masses and motets been in wider circulation.""Once the Mass is restored to its rightful place, we will again see choirs being developed.""Participation is easily obtained with Latin chant.""Record stores have whole sections devoted to the chant.""The democratic and pedestrian character of the new Mass itself seems to invite the ditties that pass for hymns these days.""The pastor of a parish will typically have no education in the chant or in music, and he will hire the first music director who walks through the door.""The tunes, rhythms, and messages are drawn mainly from secular culture.""Then suddenly the Roman liturgy disappeared as we knew it.""There's nothing stupider than bursting into song for seven seconds and then falling silent again.""Thus the slogan should be reversed: Catholics taught the world what music is supposed to sound like, and, more importantly, what it is supposed to mean.""When the truth is that there would be no great Western music, and certainly no decent choral repertoire, without the Catholic faith.""You can count on one hand the number of Novus Ordo churches in this country that feature a fully Catholic music program of any quality, consistent with the Roman rite tradition.""You can read about it all you want, but there is no substitute for just doing it."
- The Last Sorcerers: The Path from Alchemy to the Periodic Table (2003)
- The Big Questions: Probing the Promise and Limits of Science (2002)
- The Evolutionists: The Struggle for Darwin's Soul (2002)
- The Universe, the Eleventh Dimension, and Everything: What We Know and How We Know It (1999)
- Achilles in the Quantum Universe: the Definitive History of Infinity (1997)
- Cosmic Questions: Galactic Halos, Cold Dark Matter and the End of Time (Wiley Popular Science) (1995)
- The Edges of Science: Crossing the Boundary from Physics to Metaphysics (1990)
- The Nature of Reality: The Universe After Einstein (1988)
- Time's Arrows: Scientific Attitudes Toward Time (1986)
- Dismantling the Universe: The Nature of Scientific Discovery (1984)
- Evolution and Human Nature (1983)
- The Fate of the Universe (1982)
- The End of the World (1980)
- Light: From Genesis to Modern Physics (1979)
Total Books: 257