[Caroline]

Google has been throwing this article in my face all day, so I clicked on it. . . I'm sorry I did.

https://slate.com/culture/2020/10/fullname-famous-composers-racism-sexism.html

Seriously, why are there so many of these recently? Who comes up with these stupid articles? People must have too much time on their hands because of covid. This stuff kills brain cells.

Just noticed the author called Beethoven "Ludwig Beethoven" at the end. For real...

I skimmed this article (and a few other trashy pieces I've encountered) and I wonder if it is part of the cancel culture and rewrite history effort.

Concluding sentence at the end of the article linked above:
"This collision between increasing diversity and the mononyms of music history [i.e., Bach, Beethove, Mozart] has created a hierarchical system that, whether or not you find it useful, can now only be seen as outdated and harmful."

 

[Caroline]

Yawn.

.......................................

I just scanned the first of the articles from ClassicFM.

Even though I had the unpleasant and unfortunate prognostication by various and sundry individuals (maybe they consider themselves 'journalists' but more like social engineers?) that classical music is 'racist' - I was wasn't ready for the tripe from ClassicFM. From the close of https://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/composer-cancelled-fifth-symphony-elitist-vox-debate/

"The podcast ends with the line "Maybe it's time we break up with Beethoven once and for all…".
Breaking up with LVB, the Romantic so beloved for writing the unofficial anthem to the fall of the Berlin Wall and whose Ninth Symphony dreamed that 'all mankind will become brothers', seems a bit extreme.

But as such a giant of the music world, there's absolutely no reason we can't have a debate about his impact on it."

Time to stop listening to their station. I wonder what other music lovers think about this and would do about it.

 

[Caroline]

.. trying to simply stir up a renewed interest in Classical Music. THAT is ONE article, and certainly NOT representative of CLASSICFM on the whole....

As for "Maybe it's time we break up with Beethoven once and for all…", only some sort of extremist would seriously suggest blacklisting Beethoven...

If this article is generating interest in classical music or Beethoven, I wonder with what impact. The focus of the article seems to be on asking whether Beethoven (and classical music) are relevant in today's 'culture' - or telling the reader what to think.

(repeated) "This collision between increasing diversity and the mononyms of music history [i.e., Bach, Beethoven, Mozart] has created a hierarchical system that, whether or not you find it useful, can now only be seen as outdated and harmful."

 

[Caroline]

While this is just one article and one person's opinion, what worries me is that these kinds of articles seem to be becoming more common, which is why I started this thread. And while it doesn't mean that these articles can really represent a cross section of society, I doubt they will be of any help for keeping classical music alive and well among the younger audiences and posterity. Plus, they are just so stupid that it's irritating to know that some people actually write this stuff.

This article seems to follow standard operating procedure:
- Notice a fact (some composers are referred to only by a single name, some aren't)
- Fail to spot something obvious (we do this all the time, everywhere, and it's nothing to do with racism or sexism)
- Bring racism into it
- Might as well bring sexism into it too, just to look like we're not just obsessed with race
- Hey presto! It's now problematic
- Come up with an asinine solution

Adriesba summed it up well. These articles seem to have increased in frequency over the past few months and regardless of how many voices there are - they are becoming louder (or so it seems - or maybe they get more coverage). It is no secret that there have been questions about 'is classical music dying' - but not IMO in conjunction with current philosophies.

Nereffid's comments also fit in with the bias in the article.

 

[Caroline]

Hi Victor - what was it you found offensive - ClassicFM's error or somethign I said? Beethoven was classical - and paved the way to the romantic period - and revisited the style of his predecessors in his last compositions. That being said, other sources have also (wrongly) designated him as a romantic.

 

[Caroline]

They have tended to fall into this lately. They lent credence to the Beethoven is black theory (which is only slightly more credible than Qanon) https://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/was-black-twitter-debates-african-heritage/ then also wrote about the very vox article in the op https://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/news/twitter-debates-slate-article-fullnaming-composers/. As a university student, this stuff is everywhere now; I mean some of my professors have stickers on their doors saying that their offices are intellectual safe spaces.

It's a sad thing that universities (from Latin universitatem, "the whole, aggregate," nurture and advocate for facts or their choosing and discourage opposing ones. Disappointing that college professors offices are labeled as 'safe spaces' in universities. Aren't all spaces safe? What an indictment of US universities - and students pay for this.

Beethoven required that his biography 'should there be interest' should be written 'in truth'. The race question for him has been debunked, although race would not change his music, its significance and beauty, or the interesting character he was.