Something Evil This Way Comes

I started playing the pipe organ at my local church at the age of six. It certainly doesn’t mean that I considered myself superior, let alone different, than any of the other kids in my neighbourhood, but in the schoolyard I was always shunned, bullied and teased, and often defined as a “sissy”, simply because of the pipe organ’s association with classical music. And this derision didn’t abate during my teenage years, and actually acquired a darker undertone. Back then I used to simply perceive their behaviour as nothing less than a “misunderstanding” of classical music. After all, at least in my opinion, music is music. Right?

Fast forward sixty years and nothing has changed. In fact its taken on iniquitous socio/political trappings redolent of book-burning. Classical music organizations, musicians, orchestras, record labels, etc... have been doing their best to promote classical music to the general public, but society as a whole seems to have refuted these efforts on the grounds that classical music is, according to a vocal minority, elitist, racist, and beyond the grasp of today’s cultural mindset. Music is music. Right?

Not according to a customer of mine back when I was manager of the classical music department of the HMV Superstore in Montreal who, incensed at my recommendation, stomped out of the store never to come back. You see, he had asked me to point out to him, out of the many recordings we had in stock, the very best performance of the Symphony No. 9 by Gustav Mahler. Without hesitation, I immediately suggested the famous 1982 ‘live’ recording by Herbert von Karajan. He looked at me as if I had three heads as his face turned beet red and said: “I would never listen to anything this Nazi supporter has recorded.” In turn I politely asked him if he could consider disassociating the politics from the music, and that is when he stormed out of the store. I then assumed that this customer must have been Jewish, but then again so was Gustav Mahler. Music is music. Right?

Not according to church committee members who let known their displeasure regarding the choice of a particular song during a fund-raising concert. You see, back when I was a church music director, the choir members and I were asked to put together the music for an upcoming fund-raising concert of which the theme was to be light, popular, secular music. Everyone involved came up with great suggestions and we immediately got down to work in preparation for the upcoming concert. My pick for the evening’s closing song was “Always Look On The Bright Side of Life” from the Monty Python film “Life of Brian”. It fit perfectly with the theme of the evening, and we even changed one of the words in the song so as not to be offensive. Well during the following days, I heard that some noses were out of joint regarding that particular song because of its association with Monty Python and its “religious” insinuations or connections. Music is music. Right?

Not according to the Canadian broadcasting giant CBC radio who, after finding out that I had managed multiple classical music retail outlets over the years and had been a judge for the Canadian Juno Music Awards on three occasions, urged me to apply for an open position to manage their Classical Music Library. I quickly applied only to be told not to hold my breath, because their mandate at the time was to first and foremost hire new staff from visible minorities. Needless to say I never got the job. Music is music. Right?

Not according to the ‘woke’ or what is currently known as the 'cancel culture' movement. Since around 2010 or so, they have bemoaned the fact that Classical Music is too white or pointed out the lack of diversity in leading orchestras. And now they are asking, sorry, make that demanding, that at least 40% of the total number of American orchestral musicians be black, which now stands at around 2%. And it seems that some of the top orchestras board members are consenting to that request. Well good luck with that. Some established musicians will lose their jobs in the process. It’s like major corporations and government departments now hiring employees not on merit or qualifications but rather by skin colour and religion simply to fill a quota set down by the left, and are now facing a shortfall. Correct me if I’m wrong, but could it not simply be that black musicians don’t want the position. Of course there have been some highly successful black classical musicians; pianist Andre Watts, conductor James DePreist, singers Kathleen Battle, Leontyne Price and Jessye Norman. So it’s not that they’ve been banned from the field or hamstrung in their rise to the top. But generally speaking classical music is simply not a major priority for young African-Americans.

Do white, English-speaking women complain that they are not well represented in belly-dancing competitions, or that they can’t participate in Hula dance festivals? Or should we rise up in arms because there are not enough white male chefs involved with Jamaican cuisine. No ... because like religion, culture is polarizing. Like in sports for example that is why Canadians are rabid fans of hockey, whilst Americans prefer basketball. You can’t mix and match or create a potpourri out of something that’s deeply rooted and established in old traditions. This may seem like a silly example but young, white, British musicians make the best Progressive Rock bands, and young, black, American musicians play the best Blues. The two will never really mesh with one another. We have to stop kowtowing to the far-left wokers lest we pay a price. It took centuries of evolution and refinement for classical music to be where it is today and these so-called activists, just like they’ve been doing with historical statues and monuments, want to tear it all down because they can’t build something new they could call their own. It's like that common but twisted business mentality where a gas station owner decides to setup shop on the same intersection as the competition. Not to provide better customer service but to put the other guy out of business. In the end, nobody wins. Build on your own strenghts rather than tear the opposition down.

I could keep going and bolster my point of view by pointing out that classical music today still owes much of its existence to a 300 year old Lutheran, German, white composer but then I would be considered a racist. Music is music. Right? I’m not so sure anymore!