Saturday, July 20, 2019
The Assault on Beauty and Greatness
A friend recently sent me a link to an article entitled, “It’s time to let Classical Music Die” — seriously. The article was clogged with the usual stream of university Post Modern leftism. The jargon was so cliche' that I first wondered it was a cultural conservative who wrote the piece as a mocking joke, like a Monty Python movie (“We’re not the People’s Front of Judaea, we’re the Judaean People’s Front...”).
To the writer, the beauty and greatness of classical music (with its origins in European civilization) was somehow just another example of the “oppression” brought to the world by a geographical area occupied primarily by people with light skin.
I remember once attending a concert where a Beethoven piano concerto was performed. The pianist came on to the stage and clearly shocked a few in the audience. He was a black guy with dreadlocks. I thought it was great. Why shouldn’t anyone with skill, from any background perform the great music of the world’s cultural heritage? (He performed the work flawlessly). Now one might accuse him of “cultural appropriation” as if certain styles of music only “belong” to people of certain genetic characteristics. But even that stance is complicated by reality. There were no “blue notes” in Europe two-hundred years ago. Likewise there were no saxophones in Africa (deal with that conundrum, PC clown).
My background is distinctly blue collar. I wasn’t raised on culture and fine art. As much as I love music, I still can’t play an instrument. My exposure to and appreciation for classical music was an endeavor I took upon myself as a pre-teen. I began by listening to simple movie soundtracks, specifically, the early James Bond films brilliantly scored by John Barry. Later, upon hearing simple pieces like the” Grand Canyon Suite” I realized the similarity of quality and dove deeper into the classical repertoire. It takes patience to really understand great music. You can’t just play an hour long Bruckner symphony and expect to “get” it anymore than a person accustomed to comic books can quickly appreciate the complexities of a great novel. That’s not to say that comics are bad, and there is no reason to insist that novels are “better” but...they are. If one seeks to fathom subtleties of feeling and complexity of human creativity, you won’t find it in comic books, pop tunes, or political grievance dissertations. To some degree, greatness is debatable but honest humans instinctively know that a mountain vista is a superior thing to behold when compared to a plastic flamingo in a trailer park. One could call that “elitist.” Okay, it’s elitist to recognize greatness. So, how do we describe those unwilling to recognize greatness? Do we praise them for wanting to “Let [Greatness] Die”?
The writer of this boiler plate Marxist screed strongly suggests that he is a “person of color.” We later find that his claim in the oppression olympics is that he’s half Lebanese. How ironic. I’m half Lebanese! Does this now mean that I’m a bonafide “[dude]of color.” The other half of my lineage may be related to Elizabeth Warren so maybe I can cash in on some reservation’s casino receipts too!
He also notes that he is gay which makes one wonder why he would favor the “death” of great works by Schubert, Copeland, or Bernstein.
The polemic begins with what the writer thinks is a profound analogy, a person in an abusive relationship who is apparently not able to see their predicament. This is where the socialist in shining armor comes in to liberate the victim from their own lack of [class consciousness?]. We need a Jacobin to roll in and “liberate” us, like Soviet tanks did in Hungary in 1956. Thank god there are half Lebanese (persons of color) socialists who think they suffered under Jim Crow to save me from the abuse of beautiful and refined sublimity. If I had only known, I would have restricted my musical tastes to Soviet Marching band music.
There was a point when, in the former Soviet Union, they actually tried to eliminate conductors since the implication was notably inegalitarian. They apparently didn’t have the sense to realize that their entire society was compelled to obey an inegalitarian state authority (at least an orchestra member is assumed to be free to chose his or her role).
The great Russian composer, Shostakovich was close to being sent to the gulag to god knows what end for the crime of writing music a bit too out of sync with the sentiments of “the people” (the state).
Although the article in question is full of the usual jargon of the left regarding oppressors and oppressed, like most diatribes in contemporary left-land, its overriding points revolve around racial grievance.
As it turns out, “Classical” music originated on the European subcontinent. The native people who live there are light skinned. Presto! Classical music is racist and “oppressive.” It’s so simple. Why didn’t we see it before?
Dennis Prager, conservative commentator and classical conductor in his own right, once noted that one can find concert halls around the world with performers from around the world performing the great works of Beethoven and Brahms et. al. One typically does not find traditional Indonesian music performed with the same wide-spread enthusiasm. That’s not to say that the music from Indonesia is bad or not worth appreciating. It does recognize that there are levels of quality and greatness in all of human endeavor. When we think of greatness in the history of painting we often note a genre of art originating in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries — the Renaissance. We don’t make this appraisal because we’ve judged the skin color of those who embodied that era of art history. We do so because it is great art born of a time and place. We now all can claim it as part of humankind’s heritage. We don’t make the same claim of greatness to the art of Milwaukee, circa 1980. Not because we hold an oppressive prejudice against the inhabitants of Milwaukee. We instinctively recognize hierarchies of quality. Even in sub genres of music like “rock” few would claim that the catchy tune of the week (Justine Bieber?) is on the same level of greatness as the Beatles or Pink Floyd. Incidentally, the Beatles and Pink Floyd are typically referred to as “classic” rock for a reason.
The unfortunate reality in all of this is that academia has mass produced a generation of milquetoast thugs unable to discern greatness or be able to strive for excellence in their own lives. Those who restrict their view of the profound and beautiful for the sake of some dusty ideological dogma are clearly missing something. Where it becomes problematical is when they demand that we share in their bitter resentments.
It used to be that a liberal arts education endowed one with a rich overview of the best that civilization has passed down to us. It’s a good thing that curricula has become more inclusive and that great works by previously marginalized groups have joined the canon of what is great in human culture but...the stupid assault on the common sense perception of greatness serves no one. Would anyone really claim that a mud hut is a superior expression of human architectural skill when compared to a Gothic cathedral? Many today would, but these are the same people who would seize our property, destroy our economies, and impose obedience because Karl Marx and others told them to do so.
There’s a lot of stupid stuff going on in Jacobin circles these days but none of it changes the fact that some great art has been left as a legacy to all humanity. It’s not going to “die” because of the stale gripes of the true smug elitists of our time who are the real oppressors of all that is good in humanity.
