Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Politics and Religion
Rolling over Beethoven

Rolling over Beethoven

Last updated on: September 30, 2020 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

0 Comments

Rolling over Beethoven 2020-09-26T12:11:25-04:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

We blogged about canceling American literature. A new effort to cancel Beethoven demonstrates that cancel culture is not really about race, sex, or gender at all. It is about canceling culture.

The online magazine Vox has published an article by Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding entitled How Beethoven’s 5th Symphony Put the Classism in Classical Music. Here is their thesis:

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony starts with an anguished opening theme — dun dun dun DUNNNN — and ends with a glorious, major-key melody. Since its 1808 premiere, audiences have interpreted that progression from struggle to victory as a metaphor for Beethoven’s personal resilience in the face of his oncoming deafness.

Or rather, that’s long been the popular read among those in power, especially the wealthy white men who embraced Beethoven and turned his symphony into a symbol of their superiority and importance. For some in other groups — women, LGBTQ+ people, people of color — Beethoven’s symphony may be predominantly a reminder of classical music’s history of exclusion and elitism.

This sounds like the typical repudiation of artists who are “dead white males” on account of their failing to live up to the prevailing contemporary standards about race, sex, and gender. But the authors say nothing about Beethoven’s attitudes on those subjects at all!

In fact, as Daniel Lelchuk points out in his response to this article entitled Then They Came for Beethoven, the great composer was quite progressive–even radical–for his time. I am not aware of any conservatives who let Beethoven’s politics detract from their enjoyment and appreciation of his music. For them, politics is not everything. Art, music, literature, and other things that enrich our lives have an aesthetic dimension that cannot be reduced to politics, much less to the power and oppression reductionism of contemporary critical theory. But Sloan and Harding do not say anything about Beethoven’s political beliefs.

And their charge that Beethoven’s music excludes women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color is wrong on its face. Do they not know how many gays and lesbians are in classical music? Do they not know how many women are in classical music? Do they not know how Beethoven’s music is loved around the world, by people of virtually every race and culture?

The reason Sloan and Harding charge Beethoven with being elitist and exclusionary is that his music, because of its structure and the way it is composed, requires close attention. They say that when people would attend concerts of Mozart and other earlier composers, they would stand up, applaud, and cheer throughout the performance. With Beethoven, that was not possible, or the audience would miss the music and its subtleties.

Concert etiquette, they say in their accompanying podcast, developed accordingly. Soon, as today, audiences were obliged to dress up, arrive on time, and be quiet during the performance.

This etiquette served the values of white people and turned attending classical music concerts into an upper-class, elitist activity for the wealthy. It became a class marker, setting apart the upper class from the vulgar masses.

But they themselves show that the etiquette evolved because of the nature of the music, not to signal class membership or to exclude anyone.

Furthermore, the criticisms of the “classist” nature of classical music are excruciatingly condescending and patronizing. Are they saying that black people don’t dress up? They obviously haven’t attended a black church, in which the congregation typically dresses much more formally and stylishly than is common in a white suburban megachurch. And that black people don’t show up on time? And that they can’t keep quiet? Aren’t these offensive racial stereotypes? Isn’t this racist?

True, classical music has become a niche taste, with little support from the mass commercial marketplace of pop music. Thus it depends on the patronage of wealthy donors and a smaller cohort of musically-educated ticket buyers. But don’t critical theorists disapprove of consumer capitalism?

Another musically sophisticated style of music with a similarly limited audience in the mass market is jazz, which also depends on donors, requires close listening, and has its own etiquette. Jazz is a black art form, both in its origins and in its artists, though it also has a largely affluent and well-educated white audience. But nobody is excluded, and there are lots of black jazz fans. The audience can applaud for a solo, but they are still paying close attention. Even in a club, it’s considered bad form to talk over a really good musician, reducing it to background music. And jazz fans, who know a lot about music, nearly universally respect Beethoven.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

political correctness

Previous Post

September 29, 2020

We'll Live-Blog the Debate!

Next Post

October 1, 2020 The Racism and White Privilege of Critical Theory

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"I know wired earbuds are making a comeback (I never stopped using them as I ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"VCRs, tape decks, and cassette players are all having a revival among a segment of ..."

Tom Hering

Luther on Tools

"As a (retired) lawyer I see potential liability from sharing things like power or sharp ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"I am not sure the items you mentioned, though disused, discontinued, discarded, could be considered ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In Hebrews, who is described as "king of righteousness" and "king of peace"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Melchizedek Josiah David Solomon

Books by This Author Books by Gene Veith

See All Titles »