At least once per month, I see an article about music that makes me think: How do people get away with writing this stuff? This series, “Articles of Shame”, is dedicated to roasting bad music articles/ideas with simple common sense. The first article on the chopping block is “The Enemies of Classical Music Open a New Front” by George Leef. His article heavily quotes another opinion-heavy article by someone named Joshua Nichols, who I will probably roast next.
Here’s the link: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-enemies-of-classical-music-open-a-new-front/
In some ways I feel it is unfair to criticize George Leef for this article. Leef has used such bulky quotes, less than half the material is his own original thoughts. It is essentially soft/lazy plagiarism. Leef has many conservative ideas about music and life in general. He wrote a fantasy novel called, “The Awakening of Jennifer Van Arsdale: A Political Fable For Our Time” , in which a fictional “progressive journalist” is saved by a “black veteran with an illegal gun”, causing her to rethink her liberal ways.
The truth is there are many bad ideas about music out there. Almost everyone’s got one regardless of their political party. Anyways, Leef and Nichols are upset because the League of American Orchestras (LAO) released a new guide for choosing music that promotes “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” in orchestra concerts. Throughout the article, Leef is unable to name any specific idea or sentence in the guide.
An Argument Made of Straw
Nichols’ entire argument rests on a strawman. His goal is to make the LAO’s guide sound like a list of extreme, mandatory rules. It is easy to do with the unfortunate wordings like “equity mandate” that LAO uses. But there is no punishment for orchestras who do not follow the guidelines. Instead, there is just a little bonus fund for participants. So far it has been awarded to only 20 out of the 1711 orchestras nationwide (causeiq.com).
The LAO’s guide is just that: a guide. A guide that will be interpreted and executed many different ways by many different orchestras, slightly influencing which songs they choose play. They do not specifically mention the elimination of “merit” when choosing music or musicians as Nichols’ suggests. In fact, several of the articles are just biographies and opinions of employees in the LAO program, not actual guidance. I’ll dig into this more in the Nichol’s rebuttal on the next Articles of Shame.
Turning over a new Leef
Leef truly has only 2 original sentences of substance in this entire article, so it will be easy to dissect. He goes on this tangent: “…the ‘progressives’ want to ditch blind auditions in favor of hiring musicians based on race…” This is a cheap jab at a complicated issue. Let’s pretend you’re a judge for a music audition. You have to listen to 20 violinists all play the same song, one at a time, and you have to pick the best violinist for your orchestra. If you can see them, their appearance may influence your decision. If you cannot see them, you may mistake what sounds are familiar for what sounds are good. (Say, if you had a one-armed violinist with a prosthetic bowing appendage in your audition, like Manami Ito, their tone may be different but they may still be a great orchestra member.)
The problem is, you cannot avoid choosing one: to look or not to look. People on the left and right side of American politics both have a favorite option they root for. The truth is that perfecting the audition process is likely an impossible task. Any option will have pros and cons. We humans all helplessly judge with our own personal tastes, and the behavior of music students is very difficult to predict. The top notch auditionee you think sounds perfect might end up dropping out in 6 months, then what?
Leef’s second questionable sentence says, “…it’s very easy to stay home and listen to works you know you’ll enjoy and save the expense of going to a concert where some of the programmed pieces won’t have much appeal.” This mentality is passive aggressive and anti-intellectual. Orchestras are not big fancy iPods that let you pick every single thing that is played. They are supposed to educate and challenge their listeners sometimes, they are not purely for entertainment.
Orchestras around the world are giving in to Leef’s bad attitude, which is shared by many. These same orchestras are unintentionally creating an audience of cranky, curmudgeonly bullies. If we want audiences who are thoughtful, who have open ears and hearts, we must intentionally craft that kind of audience. If you’re going to threaten to withhold your money because an orchestra might play a song you don’t like, then orchestra concerts are not for you. Through their own shortsightedness, George Leef and Joshua Nichols have become the very thing they are afraid of: enemies of classical music.
Conclusion
Many of these issues go much deeper than one can in a single blog post. I could say so much more about Leef’s anti-intellectual writing and readers. It is an undeniable fact that some great music has been kept hidden away throughout history. How we bring that music back from the grave is an issue that effects us all, and it takes practice to lift up these underrepresented voices effectively. It is not a right/left issue, and yet each side has some favorite arguments. I’m sure I will elaborate on many of these subjects in the comments and on future Articles of Shame with you, my dedicated readers!