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How Beethoven’s 5th Symphony put the classism in classical music To many, Beethoven’s most famous work is a symbol of exclusion and elitism in classical music.
Vox ^ | September 15, 2020 | Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding

Posted on 09/15/2020 1:12:30 PM PDT by C19fan

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 wealthy white men who embraced Beethoven and turned his symphony into a symbol of their superiority and importance. For others — women, LGBTQ+ people, people of color — Beethoven’s symphony is predominantly a reminder of classical music’s history of exclusion and elitism. One New York City classical music fan wrote in the 1840s, for example, that he wished that “all women shall be gagged by officers duly licensed for the purpose before they’re allowed to enter a concert room.”

Today, some aspects of classical culture are still about policing who’s in and who’s out, and it all started with Beethoven’s Fifth. When you walk into a standard concert hall, there’s an established set of conventions and etiquette (“don’t cough!”; “don’t cheer!”; “dress appropriately!”) that’s more about demonstrating belonging than appreciating the music.

(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...


TOPICS: History; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: bidenvoters; blm; classical; woke
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To: C19fan
The WWII "V for Victory" campaign used the first 4 notes in Beethoven's 5th. In Morse code, “V” is dot-dot-dot-dash, or three short clicks and one long. https://www.cmuse.org/beethovens-fifth-symphony-and-morse-code/
21 posted on 09/15/2020 1:28:29 PM PDT by DFG
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To: C19fan

Roll over Beethoven
And tell Tchaikovsky the news


22 posted on 09/15/2020 1:28:41 PM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: Fiji Hill

Just because you don’t act like you’re at a rap show where you’re waving your ass in the air it’s somehow racist? I think the assumption that civilized behavior illustrates the low class of blacks is absolutely racist. There are blacks who love classical music just like any other people.


23 posted on 09/15/2020 1:29:10 PM PDT by JMS
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To: Fiji Hill
Out with BeethovenWait, isn't Beethoven black??? (/sarc)

Younger Freepers may not get this.

24 posted on 09/15/2020 1:30:06 PM PDT by LibertarianLiz
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25 posted on 09/15/2020 1:30:12 PM PDT by RandallFlagg (Fact: Gun control laws kill innocents.)
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To: hinckley buzzard
Politicizing Beethoven. When will The Narrative ever end.

Last year, the started demonizing Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

He's now castigated as a patriarchal sexist because he painted nudes.

26 posted on 09/15/2020 1:31:30 PM PDT by Spirochete
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To: C19fan
Strong in this one the stupidity is.

Beethoven's Fifth is a piece of music. A lot of people like it. People who don't can listen to something else. There is nothing exclusive or exclusionary about that. Orchestras can play it or not, depending on what music they think will sell tickets.

27 posted on 09/15/2020 1:31:53 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: JMS

I just don’t CAAAAARREEEE

My derriere

is now available for kissing if you like,

and if you don’t then woke companion take a hike,

you need not come back,

why not try Ir-aq

and see how things go THERE


28 posted on 09/15/2020 1:32:03 PM PDT by Peter ODonnell (Pray for health, economic recovery, and justice.)
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To: C19fan

Yep. Nothing screams association with racism alike Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. That’as the first thing you see Anti and BLM decrying. But that pales compared to the anti-gayness of Beethoven’s 3rd!!

It does make sense in a way. What rapper would want people listening to Beethoven?


29 posted on 09/15/2020 1:33:05 PM PDT by Seruzawa (TANSTAAFL!)
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To: C19fan

Following the contortions of logic to make an idiotic point in an attempt to further degrade Western Civilization literally made my brain hurt...


30 posted on 09/15/2020 1:33:41 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: C19fan
What are these fags babbling about ?

Just enjoy the music. Beethoven was a frigging musical genius, his work doesn’t need analyzing by these turds.

31 posted on 09/15/2020 1:35:02 PM PDT by csvset (tolerance becomes a crime when attached to evil)
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To: StAntKnee
has anybody ever been stirred to joyful weeping by a piece of would-be music rap blasting from a passing teenager’s car

True story: My daughter went to a Catholic HS and there was a parking lot across the street where family members or friends would wait to pick up their student. Well, one car would park next to mine quite often. Young Hispanics, and they would play (c)rap music very loud. I had to close my windows.

Anyway, I decided if they wanted to play "their" music, then I could play mine. So, next day, after they park, I put in a CD of favorite opera arias, and turned up the volume. You never saw anyone roll up their windows so fast. Hopefully a lesson was learned that not everyone likes YOUR music; and, you aren't going to like everyone elses' music either.

32 posted on 09/15/2020 1:35:03 PM PDT by LibertarianLiz
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To: C19fan

“Racism” is just the excuse these destroyers use to destroy.

Their goal doesn’t have anything to do with racial justice”.

All they want is destruction.


33 posted on 09/15/2020 1:35:22 PM PDT by FreedomVsControl
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To: LibertarianLiz
Wait, isn't Beethoven black??? (/sarc)

That was the old line. Beethoven apparently had some African heritage and so we were basically told, "Nyah, nyah, nyah -- that classical music you white people like so much?? Black people did that!!"

But I guess the new line is: "Classical music is oppression and Beethoven is the worst racist who ever lived because his music is really awesome."

It's hard to keep up.

34 posted on 09/15/2020 1:35:36 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: C19fan

35 posted on 09/15/2020 1:35:44 PM PDT by Seruzawa (TANSTAAFL!)
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To: Honorary Serb

I just bought a CD of three Tschaikovsky symphonies - 4, 5, and 6 by the Berlin Philharmonic with Herbert von Karajan.


36 posted on 09/15/2020 1:35:47 PM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Gone but not forgiven.)
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To: C19fan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_Soviet_Union


37 posted on 09/15/2020 1:36:36 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: backwoods-engineer

Yep. They’ve increased their chipping away by orders of magnitude to a point where this doesn’t even seem that out of character for them.

When stories from the Babylon Bee, and the Onion in the days of yore, are now actual news and op ed articles... We’ve truly passed the point of no going back.


38 posted on 09/15/2020 1:37:06 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: C19fan
These guys do a good job.

Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 (Proms 2012 ))

West--Eastern Divan Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Royal Albert Hall, 23 July 2012

39 posted on 09/15/2020 1:39:04 PM PDT by csvset (tolerance becomes a crime when attached to evil)
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To: ClearCase_guy

40 posted on 09/15/2020 1:39:58 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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