Composers' Uses of Social Justice and Political
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SOUNDING STRATEGY: COMPOSERS’ USES OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AND POLITICAL THEMES IN CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL CONCERT MUSIC A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Benjamin Safran May 2019 Examining Committee Members: Shana Goldin-Perschbacher, Advisory Chair, Music Studies Maurice Wright, Music Studies Noriko Manabe, Music Studies Michael Klein, Music Studies Joyce Lindorff, External Member, Keyboard © Copyright 2019 by Benjamin Safran All Rights Reserved. ii ABSTRACT Contemporary classical concert music could be part of the solution to build a just and sustainable future. My research demonstrates that such music, despite its niche, elitist positioning in contemporary American society, can contribute to social movements and change the world in meaningful, tangible ways when attention is paid to social movement strategy and structures of power. To reconsider the potential power of this music, I apply a range of methodologies from ethnography to hermeneutic analysis to nonviolent direct action strategy, drawing on the work of musicologists, ethnomusicologists, and social movement theorists. Given the elitism of the classical concert hall, it is a non-obvious genre in which to convey a social justice or leftist political theme, yet many composers try to do so. I examine five of these composers in depth: Laura Kaminsky, David Lang, Curt Cacioppo, Ludovico Einaudi, and Hannibal (who goes by other names but used the mononym Hannibal in the concert which I discuss). Concurrently with my research, I composed a large-scale experimental work to be used in a protest to demonstrate the potential for contemporary classical music to support nonviolent movements. I organized a pilot performance that brought together music students and community members in the lobby of a large utility headquarters as part of an ongoing campaign for local green jobs in Philadelphia. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am endlessly grateful for the time, support, feedback, and guidance of my dissertation committee, Shana Goldin-Perschbacher, Maurice Wright, Noriko Manabe, and Michael Klein and my outside reader Joyce Lindorff. In particular, this monograph would not have been possible without Shana’s detailed and thoughtful comments and suggestions for further reading, while the composition would not have possible without Maurice’s feedback and encouragement. I am also thankful to Anne Harlow, our amazing performing arts librarian who was helpful at several points in the research and writing process, and Cynthia Folio, our highly-dedicated chair of Temple’s music studies department. I am grateful to composers Laura Kaminsky, David Lang, Curt Cacioppo, and Hannibal for our communication and for their openness to this project. I am also thankful to a number of the staff at the organizations that commissioned the pieces I discuss. These include Anna Drozdowski and Robert Blackson at Temple Contemporary; Kat Clark, Johanna Grant Axen, and Pilar Marcos Rodríguez at Greenpeace; and Robert Grossman, Steven Glanzmann, and Darrin Britting at the Philadelphia Orchestra. The premiere performance of “Action Piece #3” at the PECO was possible due to too many people to thank by name. I deeply appreciate Evan Kassof for conducting, Ryan Leitner for police liaising and helping to think about logistics, Nick Gallego and LJ Brubaker for helping me design, construct, and decorate the props for holding sheet music, Greg Holt for advice for media outreach, several other Earth Quaker Action Team iv members who offered encouragement and support, and of course each of the performers for their bravery, enthusiasm, and open-mindedness. Finally, this project certainly would not have been possible without the incredible, steadfast support and love from my family and friends. My grandparents and parents are responsible for my love of classical music. Since then, my family has been incredibly, steadfastly supportive of my work and of me and I am so very lucky to have them. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: POLITICAL CLASSICAL MUSIC IN THE 21ST CENTURY UNITED STATES .....................................................................................1 2. GENOCIDE AND A PIANO TRIO: INTERPRETING LAURA KAMINSKY’S VUKOVAR TRIO ...............................................................................20 Hermeneutic Meaning in Vukovar Trio .................................................................22 Social Meaning of Vukovar Trio ............................................................................35 An Aside on Music and Emotion ...........................................................................45 3. “NOTHING IS TOO BROKEN”: SERVING A COMMUNITY WITH NEW MUSIC IN DAVID LANG’S SYMPHONY FOR A BROKEN ORCHESTRA ............47 Responding to a Community Need ........................................................................50 The Rehearsal Process: Philosophical versus Practical Considerations ................52 Bringing the Community Together Through Music or a Neoliberal Solution to a Crisis in Music Education? ...............................................................70 Political Music? .....................................................................................................85 4. CRYPTOGRAMS AND ALLYSHIP: CURT CACIOPPO’S PIANO VARIATIONS ON “HAIL TO THE CHIEF” AS MUSIC OF THE RESISTANCE .............................................................................................................93 Listening to PIANO VARIATIONS on “Hail to the Chief” ...................................95 Other Representations of Trump by Classical Composers ..................................118 vi Conclusion ...........................................................................................................124 5. CELEBRITY AND POPULIST SPECTACLE IN LUDOVICO EINAUDI’S “ELEGY FOR THE ARCTIC” ..................................................................................130 “Alt-Classical”: Genre and Reception in the Music of Einaudi ..........................131 “Popularity” Within Contemporary Classical Music and Within Activism ........142 Einaudi’s Value for a Social Movement ..............................................................147 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................179 6. SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER IN HANNIBAL’S ONE LAND, ONE RIVER, ONE PEOPLE ...............................................................................................181 7. MODELS FOR STRATEGIC USE OF CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC WITHIN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS .............................................................215 Social Movement Strategy, Nonviolent Action, and Classical Music .................217 Action Pieces .......................................................................................................236 Prefigurative Music ..............................................................................................244 Toward a Goal-Oriented Music ...........................................................................258 Final Thoughts .....................................................................................................266 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................269 APPENDIX PERMISSION LETTERS FOR INCLUSION OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL ...............................................................................................................289 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. The first half of the first chord of Vukovar Trio . Copyright © 1999 Laura Kaminsky (BMI). Sale agent: Bill Holab Music………………………………...24 2. Piano interruption in "Lost Souls," the first of many such interruptions Copyright © 1999 Laura Kaminsky (BMI). Sale agent: Bill Holab Music.…….28 3. Opening of “Dance of Devastation.” Copyright © 1999 Laura Kaminsky (BMI) Sale Agent: Bill Holab Music ……………………………...……..…….31 4. Broken instruments stored prior to repair at Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia in Fall 2017. Photo by the author..………………………………………...........47 5. Forearm smashes in Hail Variations . Copyright © 2017 Curt Cacioppo...........108 6. The LGBT motif in Hail Variations . Copyright © 2017 Curt Cacioppo.............111 7. Performing “Action Piece #3” in April 2018 at the PECO Building in Philadelphia. Photo by Rachael Warriner……………………………………...238 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: POLITICAL CLASSICAL MUSIC IN THE 21ST CENTURY UNITED STATES “‘Well, we have an orchestra here,” quipped a United States immigration agent in 2018 in reference to a group of crying and screaming young children who had been separated by authorities from their families. “What’s missing is a conductor” (Thompson 2018). “We write symphonies,” said Donald Trump in a 2017 speech in Warsaw in defense of Western culture (Ross 2017). For an institution that has supposedly lost its relevance in contemporary society, and despite continued claims of its supposed inherent inability to communicate political ideas, classical musicking is used rhetorically in ways that are far