The armchair historians and pundits who pullulate the comments sections of the legacy media love to prattle that we are re-living the opening moves of WWII. But, then, they always do. Everybody is You-Know-Who and everything is the curtain-raiser to WWIII.
Change the record, people: we’ve heard this idiot tune too many times.
There’s another tune we’ve heard before, too: but this one’s got lots of brass bands, thumping drums and hordes of fools cheering, Oh! What a lovely war! If you want a closer parallel to events today, you’d be better served by studying 1914, not 1939. There’s the same idiotic jingoism, the same tub-thumping propaganda, and the same blatant enthusiasm to rush into a war on the other side of the world that most of them know next to nothing about.
And most of all, the same hysterical xenophobia against anything even remotely associated with “the enemy”.
A Kiwi trio has dropped a piece by a Russian composer from the programme of an upcoming Christchurch chamber music concert because of the war in Ukraine.
Back in WWI, German-born citizens were attacked, even lynched. Dachsund dogs were stoned in the street. German Shepherds got off slightly easier, renamed “Alsatians”. Sauerkraut was renamed “Liberty Lettuce”. Entire towns and suburbs were renamed. Even the Royal Family had to change its name.
And they not only banned Beethoven, but they also sacked and arrested German-born orchestra conductors. Renowned German-born musicians were harassed and forced to cancel tours.
The concert’s organisers, Christopher’s Classics, have emailed subscribers to tell them of the programme change.
“Given Russia’s ongoing invasion of the Ukraine, the NZ Chamber Soloists do not wish to present a programme that celebrates Russia as a superpower,” the email said.
The musicians will instead play a piano trio in F-sharp minor by another 20th century Soviet composer, Arno Babadjanian, who was Armenian.
The concert was originally titled “Super Power Music” but is now called “Serious Delights”.
“Super Power Music”, eh?
The trio’s manager, Sally-Ann Coates, said they made the change because the theme of the concert had been superpowers.
“It was representing China and Russia, that was the main issue. With the title of it, we were not wanting to glorify Russia as a superpower in the current situation,” she said.
So, they were willing to celebrate China, even though that country’s human rights record encompasses everything from mass starvation, to slavery and genocide.
The long-standing trio comprises pianist Katherine Austin, cellist James Tennant, and violinist Lara Hall. All three are music lecturers at the Waikato University’s Conservatorium of Music.
Which makes their virtue-signalling even more egregious. Because, presumably, they would be expected to know a thing or two about Shostakovich.
Shostakovich is considered one of the 20th century’s leading European classical composers. He lived under the Soviet era and Joseph’s [sic] Stalin’s regime, and died in 1975.
Christchurch classical music fan and concertgoer Maurice Ward said the move was sad, and “a very shallow response to an awful situation”.
“Putin is a warmonger, the invasion of Ukraine is terrible. But all Russians aren’t to blame, and Russian musicians aren’t to blame. It’s really nonsense.
“I am sure they (the trio) have the best intentions, but they need to dig a little deeper.”
Ward, who regularly attends Christopher’s Classics concerts, said Shostakovich used his music to stand up to the Soviet state.
“Shostakovich gave so much in his work to challenge the system. Which of us would have the courage to stand up and fight a totalitarian government that was sending people to slave labour camps and executing people?”
Certainly not, one suspects, the sort of slavish cowards who jump on a hysterical, xenophobic bandwagon at the earliest opportunity.
Tony Ryan, a Christchurch composer, conductor and reviewer, said music by Russian composers should still be performed, and to stop doing so was a form of censorship and cancel culture […]
Ryan said Shostakovich’s music expressed the “horror and terror” of living under the Soviet regime.
“His music expresses his experience of oppression. He was condemned for the musical expression by Stalin.
“That music seems all the more relevant when you consider what is happening now. In some ways it is more important than ever because it engages and sympathises with victims.”
Stuff
Remember when it was “racist” to punish and exclude all of a particular group, because of the violent crimes of a small number of that group? That principle shouldn’t have changed.
All that’s changed is who is peddling the xenophobia and who they’re targeting.