Another Breakup Song
Nov. 1st, 2021 12:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
favoritebean_writesGeorg,
I’m trying to recall when we were first introduced. Sometime very early on. Was it with Princess Diana’s wedding? That sounds about right.
The wedding was televised across the globe, and viewers watched in awe, while dulcet tones played through the speakers. It was then that we became acquainted. After, teachers insisted on including your works during class through primary, and even the most nonmusical among us could recite sixteen measures from at least one of your choruses.
During studies at the university, professors made certain that you were much more than a footnote in our course of studies. Your works were dissected and reconstructed in theory and history classes; your virtues were illustrated in pedagogy classes. And of course, we were required to perform your repertoire with much regularity.
Georg, there is a running joke about you. We musicians frequently tire of having to schlep out your work over and over. But come December, at least one of your pieces pays the bills. Since we classical musicians make so little, we fervently sing, “Alleluia” when we get a Benjamin or two for that holiday service.
It seems that while you’ve been dead for hundreds of years, your melodies never die. I’ve shed many a tear over having to play your manuals, realize your basslines, and sing your melismatic lines repeatedly. Well, until last year. Then everything came to a screeching halt.
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While murder is not uncommon, Floyd’s was different, and for a moment, citizens of the world stopped to consider how we’d gotten here. Somehow, your name came up in discussions. Repeatedly. You, Georg Friedrich Handel, who died in 1759, across the Atlantic Ocean some 4000 miles away, have a history that most of us had no knowledge about. While you were penning The Messiah, one of your most famous oratorios, you were also making a profit from slave trading investments, and you did so for decades. Biographers have tried to leave this major detail out of texts for years, but evidence of your investments began to resurface in 2015. By June 2020, we were trying to figure out how to decolonize the musical experience, and historians spoke up saying, “By the way, Handel did this…” to the astonishment of all.
Unfortunately, the honeymoon doesn’t seem to be over with general audiences. So come December, many orchestras will churn out another rendition of The Messiah, just as many opera companies have revived noted anti-Semite Richard Wagner’s operas in their return to live performances. But while Wagner’s blatant anti-Semitism did not directly destroy people, your legacy did. While Wagner focused on opera, you wrote for every instrument and voice. Fortunately, for every Georg Friedrich Handel, there is a Joseph Bologne, a worthy composer and amazing violinist. Or perhaps if music from your contemporaries isn’t your style, Edward “Duke” Ellington, was a prolific and gifted composer. Perhaps audiences would discover his works and abandon yours at the altar.
I wonder if you ever regretted the fact that you profited from the trade of humans, or if you gave it any thought whatsoever. I wonder if classroom teachers and musicology professors realize the error in singing your praises, and if orchestra boards worldwide are trying to figure out how to state Black Lives Matter in practice by removing your works from upcoming concert seasons. I hope they do, but then I remember Wagner’s tremendous comeback tour of 2021, and I worry that the dialogue that happened following George Floyd’s death will be for nothing.
As a teacher, I no longer use your repertoire in my studio. I have opted to no longer perform your works as well. I no longer feel obligated to support concerts where your repertoire is performed, and instead am investing my time, talent, and money into new works by composers like Reena Esmail and Nilo Alcala.
I never loved you, Georg. Sorry, that ship never left the harbor. Yet, the disappointment I have for your past deeds is palpable. May you fade at long last.
Immer,
Favorite Bean
***
Author note: Thank you for reading. For more on Handel and his involvement with the slave trade, please visit the following links below.
1)https://musicologynow.org/handel-and-the-royal-african-company/
2) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/even-handel-profited-from-the-slave-trade-wqz7l6m7f
3) https://www.thespco.org/blog/artists-respond-to-handels-investment-in-the-transatlantic-slave-trade/
4) https://www.classicfm.com/composers/handel/royal-academy-of-music-decolonise-collection-slave-trade/
I’m trying to recall when we were first introduced. Sometime very early on. Was it with Princess Diana’s wedding? That sounds about right.
The wedding was televised across the globe, and viewers watched in awe, while dulcet tones played through the speakers. It was then that we became acquainted. After, teachers insisted on including your works during class through primary, and even the most nonmusical among us could recite sixteen measures from at least one of your choruses.
During studies at the university, professors made certain that you were much more than a footnote in our course of studies. Your works were dissected and reconstructed in theory and history classes; your virtues were illustrated in pedagogy classes. And of course, we were required to perform your repertoire with much regularity.
Georg, there is a running joke about you. We musicians frequently tire of having to schlep out your work over and over. But come December, at least one of your pieces pays the bills. Since we classical musicians make so little, we fervently sing, “Alleluia” when we get a Benjamin or two for that holiday service.
It seems that while you’ve been dead for hundreds of years, your melodies never die. I’ve shed many a tear over having to play your manuals, realize your basslines, and sing your melismatic lines repeatedly. Well, until last year. Then everything came to a screeching halt.
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While murder is not uncommon, Floyd’s was different, and for a moment, citizens of the world stopped to consider how we’d gotten here. Somehow, your name came up in discussions. Repeatedly. You, Georg Friedrich Handel, who died in 1759, across the Atlantic Ocean some 4000 miles away, have a history that most of us had no knowledge about. While you were penning The Messiah, one of your most famous oratorios, you were also making a profit from slave trading investments, and you did so for decades. Biographers have tried to leave this major detail out of texts for years, but evidence of your investments began to resurface in 2015. By June 2020, we were trying to figure out how to decolonize the musical experience, and historians spoke up saying, “By the way, Handel did this…” to the astonishment of all.
Unfortunately, the honeymoon doesn’t seem to be over with general audiences. So come December, many orchestras will churn out another rendition of The Messiah, just as many opera companies have revived noted anti-Semite Richard Wagner’s operas in their return to live performances. But while Wagner’s blatant anti-Semitism did not directly destroy people, your legacy did. While Wagner focused on opera, you wrote for every instrument and voice. Fortunately, for every Georg Friedrich Handel, there is a Joseph Bologne, a worthy composer and amazing violinist. Or perhaps if music from your contemporaries isn’t your style, Edward “Duke” Ellington, was a prolific and gifted composer. Perhaps audiences would discover his works and abandon yours at the altar.
I wonder if you ever regretted the fact that you profited from the trade of humans, or if you gave it any thought whatsoever. I wonder if classroom teachers and musicology professors realize the error in singing your praises, and if orchestra boards worldwide are trying to figure out how to state Black Lives Matter in practice by removing your works from upcoming concert seasons. I hope they do, but then I remember Wagner’s tremendous comeback tour of 2021, and I worry that the dialogue that happened following George Floyd’s death will be for nothing.
As a teacher, I no longer use your repertoire in my studio. I have opted to no longer perform your works as well. I no longer feel obligated to support concerts where your repertoire is performed, and instead am investing my time, talent, and money into new works by composers like Reena Esmail and Nilo Alcala.
I never loved you, Georg. Sorry, that ship never left the harbor. Yet, the disappointment I have for your past deeds is palpable. May you fade at long last.
Immer,
Favorite Bean
***
Author note: Thank you for reading. For more on Handel and his involvement with the slave trade, please visit the following links below.
1)https://musicologynow.org/handel-and-the-royal-african-company/
2) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/even-handel-profited-from-the-slave-trade-wqz7l6m7f
3) https://www.thespco.org/blog/artists-respond-to-handels-investment-in-the-transatlantic-slave-trade/
4) https://www.classicfm.com/composers/handel/royal-academy-of-music-decolonise-collection-slave-trade/
no subject
Date: 2021-11-01 04:19 pm (UTC)While I support your decision to remove his repertoire from your classes and your performances, I don't know that Handel fading from memory is necessarily a good thing, either. People should be free to enjoy art that they enjoy despite the artist's misdeeds and shortcomings, and I'm a huge proponent of separating the art from the artist. In your case, it's apparent that there's no love lost, as you weren't a big fan in the first place, but I'd hate to think that someone who is a fan of Handel's work couldn't still enjoy the music without feeling guilty.
After all, this situation is a bit different from finding out unsavory details about a currently living artist. I would still advocate for separating art from artist in any case (as art can be a very personal thing to a lot of people, and it's a shame to find yourself having to detach yourself from treasured memories out of a sense of moral obligation), but in this particular case, it's not as though Handel himself is directly profiting from any performances of his works at this point. It's hard to say that by continuing to perform or enjoy his works that you are supporting the man and his actions personally (which is where it gets sticky with someone who's art you enjoy but you find personally repugnant, who is currently profiting off of their works, in which case you are supporting that artist at least financially).
It's certainly an interesting discussion to be had and I would personally respect anyone who has made any decision regarding him either way - our moral compasses are one of the few things we have in life that give us direction, and while they may not point in the same direction for everyone, I feel like it's best to follow them and not do or consume anything that doesn't feel right to you. I do like that your alternative is to focus on new works by new composers; feel free to correct me, but being a composer doesn't seem like it's always the most lucrative of careers for all but a select few, so it's nice to see someone supporting living artists.
Again, this was a really interesting piece and I appreciate you bringing this to light for me.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-03 09:34 pm (UTC)The problem with Handel and the slave trade is that there are still repercussions in play generations later. It's different from say, Lovecraft, Debussy, or even say JK Rowling, who have shown themselves to have racist/phobic world views. While the aforementioned can be seen as dangerous and hurtful, Handel differs because he invested in trading humans who are still suffering from systemic oppression centuries later in the US alone.
In this case, separating the art from the artist proves to be non-feasible. The concert programs and pre-concert talks won't be discussing Handel's checkered past, and sales from the inevitable sold out performances with world class venues won't be devoted to reparations for those descended from the humans sold through the Royal African Company, which - maybe if it was- still doesn't justify celebrating his music.
In essence, we celebrate music created by a mass murderer year in and year out, which is pretty disgusting. It is my opinion that we should feel pretty guilty about it.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-03 10:21 pm (UTC)And when I think about it, I certainly would give the side-eye to someone who was like, "But can we appreciate Hitler the artist as oppose to Hitler the genocidal maniac?" I think that there's a way we can acknowledge the contributions that artists make while acknowledging the wrong they did outside of that scope and not specifically celebrating them, but it is a fine line to tread in many cases.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-01 05:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-03 09:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-01 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-03 09:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-04 06:14 pm (UTC)As someone who is of Jewish heritage and who lost most of her family in the Camps, I'm well aware of that aspect of history. I'm not fond of Wagner the person (a rather despicable man), but his "Flying Dutchman" is still one of my favorites.
I'm not fond of the person Handel was and the fact that he was enriched by his involvement in the sale of human beings (although he was certainly far from the only person in Europe at that time who was an active investor in that trade). So yes, it was again despicable. However, the music is amazing - soaring to heights few can reach.
If I was still playing orchestral music and Handel appeared on the proposed program, I might want to educate the people who decided on the offerings, but if necessary, I would play the music because the music doesn't speak of this world. The music speaks a completely different language and puts my hands and body into a totally different world-space.
Nonetheless, it was a fascinating part of his history, and one that I was completely unaware of. Thank you so much for writing this, and for the links at the end. Not all of them worked (or I turned down a few cookies), but I did get to read at least one commentary and it was illuminating.
- Erulisse (one L)
no subject
Date: 2021-11-15 08:43 am (UTC)The idea of educating audiences is really a good one. I used to perform with a Renaissance ensemble, and we did just that with a lot of Central and South American Renaissance works. There are surprisingly a lot of really lovely pieces, some in languages like Nahuatl. But our director was always blunt, stating that while the pieces in question are divine, they were written with converting indigenous groups and slaves. This sheds a different light on the music.
If they actually did take a moment to discuss composers like Handel before performances, that would be a start. Having a work by a non DWM (dead white male) composer in the same program would also allow audiences to explore avenues that have not been available until recently. Moving away from Schenkerian analysis in music would also be a great avenue to explore.
That said, I'm actually okay with discontinuing celebrating someone who sold humans as slaves. For every Handel, there are equally talented and much nicer composers that deserve attention.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-13 05:33 am (UTC)For some reason, it's all the more disturbing because all of it was so remote from him, but he casually decided that it seemed a good investment-- the destruction and misery of other people-- and offered his money for the venture.
Many others did as well, each making the same immoral choice, but without all of their financial backing it likely would not have been possible or at least might have gone on for so long. :(
no subject
Date: 2021-11-15 08:46 am (UTC)Thank you for reading, by the way! It's nice to see you.