I came across this gem in my google feed last night:
https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/its-time-to-let-classical-music-die/
https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/its-time-to-let-classical-music-die/
"Western classical music is not about culture. It's about whiteness. It's a combination of European traditions which serve the specious belief that whiteness has a culture-one that is superior to all others. Its main purpose is to be a cultural anchor for the myth of white supremacy. In that regard, people of color can never truly be pioneers of Western classical music. The best we can be are exotic guests: entertainment for the white audiences and an example of how Western classical music is more elite than the cultures of people of color."
Hmmm this was fairly...Moderate? But it seems you adopted that ''radical, misanthropic stance'' in the meantime...If those things are true, then they are subconscious, and not overtly intentional. While the part about Western culture being "superior to all others," that attitude may well be true, even consciously, but the racist baggage that goes along with it is a largely subconscious part of the overall cultural outlook of the times.
It is true that Western Man has led Mankind for many centuries, unless we adopt a radical 'misanthropic' stance which sees civilized Western culture as the destroyer of the planet, threatening to destroy us all with H-bombs, and sees more 'primitive' cultures like the Hawaiians as being "superior" in their harmony with the environment.
Well, the fact is, music reflects the culture which created it. Western culture gave us the Enlightenment, and basically, it all comes from the Greeks. What did the Mayans do? They invented the calendar, and star-gazed, and gave us corn.Music is music, I find it absurd to think that classical music itself is inherently racist. But it has come from a culture which has racism woven into it's fabric. It can't escape that association and it can become a symbol for racism. Trump itself argued in a 2017 speech in Warsaw that western culture is superior because (among other things) "we write symphonies." This was given as a justification for exclusion of refugees, a clear white-supremacist dog whistle.
It applies to music theory, and the way it's taught.There is no such thing as 'whiteness' in this context, that's a political term that applies strongly to present day US rather than to historical art.
Hey hey, ho ho,That style of cultural criticism, while important in a lot of ways, can sometimes be taken to extremes. Also, it's pretty easy to find any opinion you want on internet. All Western art forms with old traditions can be criticized this way. Hardly radical.
I question whether the music is only about power and whiteness rather than profound self-expression and giving voice to the culture one is born in, at least as a starting point. That's like saying jazz is only about blackness... Well, its roots are in black culture but its message is universal.I came across this gem in my google feed last night:
https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/its-time-to-let-classical-music-die/
I'm suddenly reminded of this:It's like saying that Chinese opera is inherently racist.
And this label helps us...how? It's as useful a statement as decrying CM for being racist.I see the article in the OP as extreme Leftist propaganda. There is a reason it is called "Western" Classical. And the music since the Renaissance was technically more advanced than in other cultures.
An outstanding post, vtpoet!It was tempted to leave a comment at the original link, but the article is less about music than the author's own profound racism. His viewpoint is a prime example of what Jordan Peterson would call "Cultural Marxism". By this, Peterson refers to a tendency among the "Left", by individuals self identified as such, to fit subjects into the "Marxist", as Peterson calls it, narrative of the oppressor and oppressed. This is a bad faith and destructive narrative in that anyone who disagrees with this premise is, by definition, the oppressor. In that sense, and you can see it in the comment section of the linked article, anyone who defends classical music, or disagrees with the OP, must be white, a racist, and/or benefiting from classical music's oppression. The argument is dangerous and insidious in that it's effectively a totalitarian argument. The only acceptable outcome, as the author makes clear, is the death of classical music. It's a zero sum game. If you define yourself as the oppressed and a given art form as oppressing you (and identify it with a given skin color), then there is no compromise. Again, the oppressor must die. So, to me, the article is less about classical music and more about an individual's rationalization for "benevolent" totalitarianism. It's about power.
Starting at 3:40, Peterson discusses what, I think, is directly applicable to the essay:
I know there are all kinds of arguments over Peterson's equation of post-modernism with cultural Marxism and whether Cultural Marxism is actually a thing, but insofar as Cultural Marxism is understood as referring to an argument that breaks down any given subject into the narrative of the oppressed and oppressor, and group identities, then it's a useful description.
Meaning--political or otherwise--is not "inherent" in music; it's constructed, and through processes of socialization we understand music semiotically, a system of meanings/signs/codes common to those who create it and to those to whom it is meant to communicate.Because music is so abstract and accesses our limbic systems so directly, I don't see why any political stance is "inherent" to it.