Note: a version of this piece originally appeared in the Traverse City Record-Eagle as part of the "Tuning In" series.
“Stop making classical music political,” a listener recently commented. “We listen to music to get away from politics.”
I’d argue that we at Classical IPR don’t “make” music political because most music - even classical music - already is political.
Composers respond to the events of their lives, and those events are all shaped by politics. I’m not sure I could find a composer who operated completely free of any kind of political influence.
In the eighteenth century and earlier, composers were employed by royal families and politicians, and they had to write music according to their employers’ wants.
Franz Joseph Haydn was the court composer for Prince Nicholas Esterhazy. The prince played the baryton, a curious instrument with two sets of strings, almost like a hybrid violin-guitar.
Haydn wrote more than 100 pieces for the baryton, but I suspect that he might not have composed quite so many works for the instrument if his boss didn’t play it.
Mozart, on the other hand, famously was fired from the court of Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg, and the firing was accompanied by a literal kick in the butt from Colloredo’s steward. Why was Mozart fired? Well, he didn’t adhere to proper social protocol, and he wanted to be treated as a royal when he was actually just hired help.
Sometimes composers write music that is specifically tied to current or historical events. Composed in 2016, Joel Thompson’s “The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” is a choral piece that sets to music the final words of seven unarmed African Americans who were killed by police. It’s a powerful piece that shines a spotlight on terrible tragedy.
Thompson’s piece is a contemporary example, but composers have been connecting their music to politically charged historical events for years.
Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture celebrates the Russians’ defeat of Napoleon. Beethoven’s “Wellington’s Victory” commemorates the Duke of Wellington’s victory at the Battle of Vittoria.
To raise spirits during World War II, the Cincinnati Symphony asked American composers to write fanfares for their concerts; Aaron Copland penned his “Fanfare for the Common Man” in response to this request.
In the 21st century, it’s hard to imagine an American patriotic event that doesn’t include Copland’s music. In the McCarthy era, though, Copland was accused of being a communist sympathizer. His “Lincoln Portrait” had been scheduled for the 1953 inaugural concert of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, but it was removed out of concern for Copland’s personal politics.
“The inaugural concert of President-elect Eisenhower is no place for Copland’s music,” said a member of the House of Representatives at the time. Copland would even be called to testify and defend himself before the House Un-American Affairs Committee.
In response to the suggestion that Classical IPR should stick with music and stay out of politics, I’d say that’s impossible. Music is conceived in an environment affected by politics, so if we know anything about the history and context of the music we broadcast, we can’t help but “be political.”
