Klarinet Archive - Posting 000815.txt from 1999/10

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] No apologies after virtuoso is jeered at the Academy
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 10:07:25 -0400

On further reflection, I created confusion by mixing a deadly in example with
examples of mere social awkwardness.

I wrote,
> Sanction 2: Applaud the performance enough not to draw attention to
oneself, but later, foment reprisals against those responsible.
>Appropriate for: grossly offensive conduct by the performer(s) in situations
where open dissent would endanger the audience.
> Example (hypothetical): In Nazi Germany, by way of introducing the music,
the conductor reads aloud from Richard Wagner's anti-Semetic screeds,
expresses agreement with them and boasts that there are no Jews or non-whites
in his orchestra.>

Dave Renaud wrote,
>>I'm surprised perverse behaviour(expample) is associated with polite
response while other behaviors get more serious responses. I admit fear for
our own security is powerful, but fear to speak out against injustice is
dangerous, May humanity never be polite when faced with this, even at our own
peril. Evil hates an open response, and loves quiet dark places.>>

I agree with you about that. I certainly never meant that the audience
should do *nothing* in the case of the musician who serves as mouthpiece for
an evil regime. Booing offers an opinion, useful in that it influences other
opinions. However, under circumstances of real peril to the audience, such
influence is normally fleeting and ineffective, unless the protestor is
already a celebrity or the act itself is so striking that the protestor
becomes a potent symbol for the cause, as happened to the young man
videotaped standing alone and vulnerable in front of the tank in China -- and
the fact that this video ever made it out of China was a minor miracle.

An individual display of conscience rarely inflames the public imagination
that way. Usually the regime silences the protestor, confiscates evidence of
the protest and then denies that it took place. It's normally more effective
to avoid arrest, spread one's opinion to a much *wider* audience through safe
channels, then come up with, or find and join, a plan for action more
militant than mere booing -- preferably some action that would strike
directly at the regime itself. Also, booing a conductor just doesn't make as
powerful a statement as standing in front of a tank. In other words, I tried
to give an example of a situation where it's not cowardice but intelligence
to stifle the impulse to immediate action, lay in wait for a better
opportunity and pick your best shot. Better a live revolutionary than a dead
critic.

Peter Randell wrote,
>>>Could someone please advise what / how the above relates to the Klarinet
list and clarinet playing ???????>>>

Michael H. Kater answers that question in _The Twisted Muse: Musicians and
Their Music in the Third Reich_ (Oxford University Press, 1997). His first
chapter (p. 7) begins, "In March 1933 clarinetist Valentin Grimm found
himself caught in a dilemma." Given recent events in Indonesia, Kosovo,
Chechnya and Somalia, I think it's not a bad idea for people to consider what
we would do under the circumstances, and how we should react if/when it
doesn't happen here but we see it happening somewhere else.

The ivory tower is fragile. The world breaks in. If we're watching out the
windows at the time, at least we can see what's coming.

Lelia

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