Classical Music’s Suicide Pact (Part 1)
City Journal,
by
Heather Mac Donald
Original Article
Posted By: Judy W.,
8/4/2021 6:38:02 AM
Classical music is under racial attack. Orchestras and opera companies are said to discriminate against black musicians and composers. The canonical repertoire—the product of a centuries-long tradition of musical expression—is allegedly a function of white supremacy.
Not one leader in the field has defended Western art music against these charges. Their silence is emblematic. Other supposed guardians of Western civilization, whether museum directors, humanities professors, or scientists, have gone AWOL in the face of similar claims, lest they themselves be denounced as racist.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
WhamDBambam 8/4/2021 6:42:31 AM (No. 867545)
Can't wait for the modern rendition of Dance of the Sugar-Plum Zulus.
30 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Highlander 8/4/2021 6:58:17 AM (No. 867558)
Hey! You jerk reverse-racist jackholes! Stay Offen my Bach!! Of course classical music is superior! It’s genius music! I’m not giving up my Beethoven! GTH!
39 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
DW626 8/4/2021 7:09:33 AM (No. 867568)
Every. Single. Thing. the progressives get their hands on they destroy.
Every. Single. Thing.
59 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
skacmar 8/4/2021 7:22:15 AM (No. 867579)
Instead of of condemning composers like Beethoven, Bach, and Handel; why don't they name some Black classical composers from the same time period. There are probably very few to none! Stop complaining about something that might not exist. Produce these great Black composers of the past , start playing their music along with the others if it is as good. Otherwise, you have nothing to complain about. As for contemporary Black composers; they have just as much chance as any other composer a making it big .
26 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
downnout 8/4/2021 7:32:20 AM (No. 867593)
Nothing is sacred anymore.
18 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Clinger 8/4/2021 8:09:35 AM (No. 867631)
Sorry, all cultures/societies are not good at the same things in the same proportions. Get over it. How about Rock and Roll? Compare England, the US, Canada and Australia to France and Germany. Germany in particular where their appreciation for rock helped launch the genera but they don't really produce it. But Beethoven for cripes sake, magnificent.
20 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Strike3 8/4/2021 8:12:31 AM (No. 867632)
Classical music is one of the few loves of my life and these culture-cancelling knuckle-draggers will not be able to touch it in any meaningful way. There was a brief spurt of actual negro-created music in the 50s and 60s and I still like the old "soul music" but it quickly devolved into rap crap and it has gotten even worse in modern times. Try as they might, these racist people will never develop class. At the time most classical masterpieces were written, they were nowhere to be found in society outside of Africa, if one can call tribal existence society.
19 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
raspberry 8/4/2021 8:17:19 AM (No. 867636)
Maybe these people just don't know what good music is. Anyway, diversity in orchestras will not make them better.
Diversity as such never has, has it.
14 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
bad-hair 8/4/2021 8:22:04 AM (No. 867642)
LMAO #1
I have several (4) Holy Grail piano pieces that I hope to play properly all the way through before I die.
One is Schubert's 4th Impromptu. Another one is Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag. Guess I'm a racist for putting Schubert at the top of the list.
13 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
bad-hair 8/4/2021 8:30:43 AM (No. 867649)
PS ... Tell it to Mahalia Jackson (google it snowflakes), Sonny Terry (google it snowflakes), or maybe Stevie Ray Vaughn. Racist music my azz.
3 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Blue-Z-Anna 8/4/2021 9:02:36 AM (No. 867689)
I can forgive musicians and actors for living in fantasy land. But the whoring out of Science is a civilization killer.
7 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
montwoodcliff 8/4/2021 9:08:56 AM (No. 867693)
Black kids today are into Rap, not classical music. And Rap isn't music, in my opinion. I swear, these bleeding hearts in the music world get emotional about racism to show how virtuous they are. And when blacks fail, they come up with the race angle. It happens every time.
11 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
bigfatslob 8/4/2021 9:25:22 AM (No. 867709)
Because I choose one music over some clown beat noise I'm racist? I'll keep the classical then prove there are black composers who could qualify but don't align this with ghetto rappers and say the field doesn't allow them in. They don't belong together to begin with. You can keep P Diddy and I remain racist and keep Mozart you dumb jackasses.
10 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Jesuslover54 8/4/2021 9:28:32 AM (No. 867712)
FTA: "But colorblindness is now regarded as discriminatory, since it favors merit over race."
So, since there seems to be no rational solution, let's just all sing "Ol' man river' while we hand over reparations, performance, meritorious or not, not required.
5 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
sciteach 8/4/2021 9:42:03 AM (No. 867729)
Get a load of this "beauty". Imagine sitting there for two hours watching this? BTW: I notice no black dancers. What gives?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChOnhxe-Vm0
2 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
privateer 8/4/2021 10:15:48 AM (No. 867765)
The Art World's response to this issue is identical to that of a pencil-neck geek when confronted by a powerful, armed black mugger. Here is my wallet...please don't hurt me!
4 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
msjena 8/4/2021 10:18:07 AM (No. 867769)
Almost everything I know about classical music, I know from watching figure skating. I recommend it.
3 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
marlon 8/4/2021 10:45:23 AM (No. 867795)
C'mon people Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, etc. pale in musical talent compared to JayZ or Snoop Dog or the like. Let the old white dudes go. Embrace the change and recognize pure musical genius of our new leading lights. SO
2 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
rfr46 8/4/2021 10:53:20 AM (No. 867808)
A must read. I thought this level of crazy was not possible. Excellent job by the author.
4 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
hershey 8/4/2021 10:54:44 AM (No. 867810)
Classical music doesn't blend well with that obnoxious crap they call rap...crap = rap....
2 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 8/4/2021 11:09:45 AM (No. 867834)
The ambiguity of Heather's statement, ''... are said to discriminate,'' it vague enough. She could be even more vague if she took out the non-word ''allegedly.'' She should also guard against doing any articles for not widely unread publishers, Vanity mags, etc.
1 person likes this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Terry_tr6 8/4/2021 11:18:12 AM (No. 867846)
perhaps they need to include some basic math and set theory classes at these music academies. just saying
2 people like this.
Ok, I claim special privilege since I share a birthday with a certain ex-president who is hosting a soiree tonight. The only Black composers I ever heard was when I watched 'Drumline'.
( I just played the racist card)
My present to myself.
1 person likes this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
paral04 8/4/2021 12:19:56 PM (No. 867909)
How about more White's in rap and whatever else the pop music is today?
1 person likes this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
kewmac 8/4/2021 1:41:23 PM (No. 868019)
None of this surprises me and it has been going on for a long time. I remember famed conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein hosting a fundraiser for the black panthers 50 or so years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_chic
2 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
Zarin 8/4/2021 2:15:31 PM (No. 868045)
This strikes at my heart. Suicide is the word. I grew up immersed in this music. & swim in it now. There are several generations of master musicians & music lovers with me - past & present. Handel - OMG I have been listening to his 'As Steals the Morn' like a fanatic for weeks. These killers of civilization say we are supposed to self-censor and bend a knee to noise. The thing is - there are great American black opera singers - Jessye Norman being one - among other greats. It is the voice that counts not the color of the skin - that is the least of our differences. Just a note - there are several You Tubes out there showing kids who are black (and who love music) hearing some great classical piece for the first time and being totally awed by it. Truly - the complexity and nuance of the great composers works is a gift from God. And #15 - a queer Swan Lake - arrgggh! my eyes hurt.
1 person likes this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
stablemoney 8/4/2021 2:25:05 PM (No. 868052)
Soul music and Rap ain't racist?
1 person likes this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
NYBruin 8/4/2021 4:25:13 PM (No. 868177)
As the article observes, the large number of Asians in orchestras - particularly the string sections - don't count. Why is that?
2 people like this.
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Classical music was dying anyway, as the author points out, with almost no music programs in the schools and little classical music in the culture. (When I was a child the cartoons had classical music as backgrounds.) This promotion of black composers and musicians for their race instead of their talent will be the final blow. I hate almost all modern compositions anyway; why would I go hear such things because they are composed by black people? And the entire classical music world seems to be going along with this.