If there is no struggle there is no progress
A concert by COMA London Ensemble
Rzewski Spoils 1-9 (a world premiere). Rzewski uses the song "Johnny I hardly knew you" - which he'd used in a previous antiwar piece in 1972. "At that time I was thinking of the war in Vietnam. Now it has come back in another form." Then Peace March 2 by Christian Wolff, and entertaining pieces by Stephen Montague and Michael Finnissy. And finally Rzewski's Struggle song, setting words by Frederick Douglas, a 19th-century anti-slavery leader: "If there is no struggle there is no progress...Those who say they want freedom but don't like agitation are people who want crops without ploughing up the ground. They want rain without storms. They want the ocean without the awful roar of the swirling waters...We never get all we pay for but we pay for all we get..."
I'm afraid I wasn't in the mood. Music seems an inadequate response to the calamity in Iraq. We're in a world whose awfulness leaves us no way to begin to struggle.
When Wittgenstein decided to give away his money, he gave it not to the poor but to members of his family who were already so rich that they wouldn't be corrupted by his gift. It seems as appropriate as anything else.
Tutto nel mondo รจ burla.
Rzewski Spoils 1-9 (a world premiere). Rzewski uses the song "Johnny I hardly knew you" - which he'd used in a previous antiwar piece in 1972. "At that time I was thinking of the war in Vietnam. Now it has come back in another form." Then Peace March 2 by Christian Wolff, and entertaining pieces by Stephen Montague and Michael Finnissy. And finally Rzewski's Struggle song, setting words by Frederick Douglas, a 19th-century anti-slavery leader: "If there is no struggle there is no progress...Those who say they want freedom but don't like agitation are people who want crops without ploughing up the ground. They want rain without storms. They want the ocean without the awful roar of the swirling waters...We never get all we pay for but we pay for all we get..."
I'm afraid I wasn't in the mood. Music seems an inadequate response to the calamity in Iraq. We're in a world whose awfulness leaves us no way to begin to struggle.
When Wittgenstein decided to give away his money, he gave it not to the poor but to members of his family who were already so rich that they wouldn't be corrupted by his gift. It seems as appropriate as anything else.
Tutto nel mondo รจ burla.
posted by Tony at 9:42 PM
1 Comments:
Check this out!
http://www.break.com/movies/realsimpsons5.html
Post a Comment
<< Home