Music and Romanitas

What Are We Teaching Music For?

Peter Wei | Ecumene | 7th September 2026 | U

Most parents who put children in music lessons are not seeking for them to become virtuoso performers. And yet that is how music education is structured today. What if it had a different ideal: that of the talented amateur? Before recorded music, homes that wanted music had to make it themselves. The 18C sophisticate was expected to play with friends, not perform a difficult piece flawlessly before an audience (1,600 words)

Puzzle: Play Nomido, the Browser’s daily word game.

The End Of Romanitas

Mathew Lyons | Engelsberg Ideas | 7th September 2026 | U

The centuries after Roman power fell in Britain tell a story that echoes throughout British history: “the insular against the incomer”. Britishness and Englishness were sometimes competing, sometimes porous identities. Surveys today report ethnic minorities are more comfortable identifying as British. “Might Britishness become a subaltern identity again, cleaving away from English hegemony?” (3,100 words)