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elleng

(130,153 posts)
Mon Jul 31, 2017, 12:58 PM Jul 2017

Trump Is Wrong if He Thinks Symphonies Are Superior.

'“We write symphonies,” President Trump proclaimed on July 6 during a speech in Warsaw. When this curious quotation first circulated among music lovers, it seemed a bit baffling coming from a leader who had not previously evinced much affection for the classical repertoire. Alas, taken in context, Mr. Trump’s point was all too clear and dismaying.

He was asserting that Western culture is fighting forces of “radical Islamic terrorism” bent on testing our resolve; he questioned whether the West has the “will to survive” the onslaught. During one riff, Mr. Trump extolled the richness, history and, indeed, the superiority of Western culture. “We write symphonies,” he proudly proclaimed, as if to prove his point. Many commentators seized on the line as a clue to the president’s thinking, his “white-nationalist dog-whistling,” as Jonathan Capehart, a columnist at The Washington Post, bluntly put it.

But the president’s smug invocation of the Western symphonic heritage also pressed a sore spot for me as a music critic. Nothing impedes the appreciation of classical music — and keeps potential listeners away — more than the perception that it is an elitist art form, that composers throughout history, and their aficionados today, uniformly consider it the greatest, loftiest and most ingenious kind of music. Few classical music fans, in my experience, argue that the Western symphonic repertory stands apart from or atop music of other cultures, or other types of Western music.

But with just three words Mr. Trump buttressed this unfortunate perception. Did he mean that Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony is simply greater than, say, an Indian sitar master playing a classic raga? Or an exhilarating Indonesian gamelan ensemble?'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/30/arts/music/trump-classical-music.html?

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Trump Is Wrong if He Thinks Symphonies Are Superior. (Original Post) elleng Jul 2017 OP
Indian Raga is exactly what I was thinking of when I read the opening paragraphs. Aristus Jul 2017 #1
I've been a professional classical musician for fierywoman Jul 2017 #2
Pointless arguments about the relative merits of musical genres BeyondGeography Jul 2017 #3

Aristus

(66,096 posts)
1. Indian Raga is exactly what I was thinking of when I read the opening paragraphs.
Mon Jul 31, 2017, 01:17 PM
Jul 2017

There is no equal to it for complexity and ingenuity, not to mention duration. Western classical music as we know it is barely 600 years old. Raga has been around for thousands of years.

I'm pretty sure Trump couldn't name a single symphony anyway if asked...

fierywoman

(7,641 posts)
2. I've been a professional classical musician for
Mon Jul 31, 2017, 01:21 PM
Jul 2017

about the last forty years, have played everything (including At Last with Etta James at the Playboy Jazz festival) but nothing blows me away like Anouar Brahim's solitary musical lines. It's always about intention.

BeyondGeography

(39,284 posts)
3. Pointless arguments about the relative merits of musical genres
Mon Jul 31, 2017, 01:36 PM
Jul 2017

Yet another reason to despise Trump. Now how about some fun clips re. the impact of Gamelan on classical music composers:





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