Posted on 10/25/2020 1:08:55 PM PDT by Borges
There will be a time when we’ll go to concerts again. We will buy our tickets, shuffle shoulder to shoulder down the aisle, and find our seats. The lights will dim, and the conductor will walk onto the stage to introduce the program. They might talk about Beethoven, Schumann, and Bartók. And they might talk about Alma Mahler, Florence Price, Henry Burleigh, and Caroline Shaw. Many of us, used to the conventions of classical performance, will hardly notice the difference: “traditional” white male composers being introduced with only surnames, full names for everyone else, especially women and composers of color.
The habitual, two-tiered way we talk about classical composers is ubiquitous. For instance, coverage of an early October livestream by the Louisville Orchestra praised the ensemble’s performance of a “Beethoven” symphony, and the debut of a composition memorializing Breonna Taylor by “Davóne Tines” and “Igee Dieudonné.” But ubiquity doesn’t make something right. It’s time we paid attention to the inequity inherent in how we talk about composers, and it’s time for the divided naming convention to change.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Looodveeg Von
Slate irrelevant idiocy ad per normal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz5jXwOXgKQ
I don’t know that I agree. Is not Beethoven equal to Sting or Prince? Single name fame is a good thing to me!
Anyone with a distinctive name who achieves a certain level can have this happen.
Today, it is Bono, Aretha and Elvis. Elvis Costello is stuck with using his full name.
If there are offspring or brothers, the name is employed to avoid confusion. George and Ira Gershwin, Johann Sebastian Bach, and all those other Bachs.
Ludwig Von Beethoven is a mouthful. THAT’S why we just say Beethoven. It is also why we say Lenin and Stalin, and often call Franklin Delano Roosevelt FDR (Theodore keeps us from using the last name).
Because “Beethoven” is sufficient for communication. Everyone knows who you are talking about.
But, who knows about Price?
(Note: Florence Price is much overrated by the new generation of Classical Radio announcers. They are working too hard for diversity.)
There’s a ton of mediocre “new” composers being introduced on Classical Radio everywhere. They are given a place because they are not white males. Certainly not due to talent.
Where’s Bach?
Someone tell me this is satire, please.
CRT has rendered satire irrelevant.
“He called himself a verb, present tense. He’s not Stung. He’s not Stinging. He’s Sting.” - Dana Carvey
Wolfgang von Beethoven?
Satire, yes?
You have to do it with the Bachs, but most composers are just eaiser to use their last names.
No
It wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that hardly anyone has ever heard of Tines and Dieudonné while Beethoven and Mozart are instantly recognizable, would it?
Aretha and Elvis (surprisingly) were born with their names.
LOL
Is it O S C A R ?
What a load of codswallop!
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