{"id":229,"date":"2014-12-19T21:08:55","date_gmt":"2014-12-20T02:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/?p=229"},"modified":"2014-12-19T21:08:55","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T02:08:55","slug":"requiem-for-a-symphony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/?p=229","title":{"rendered":"Requiem for a Symphony"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"london<\/a>This morning, the councillors of the city of London, Ontario decided unanimously to deny funding to their symphony orchestra, which was in dire straits financially.\u00a0 The musicians, twenty nine in total, plus some support staff, had not been paid in recent weeks, apparently, and they needed 300 grand to tide things over for a month or two.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now, I love classical music, and consider it the basis for all music post-classical (classical itself being derived from the ancient chants, Gregorian and otherwise). \u00a0I sing in our local schola, trying to keep real music alive. \u00a0So I sympathize.\u00a0 In fact, though I am an implacable proponent of small and limited government, I could see some role in offering some support to the arts and culture.\u00a0 Ideally, however, I would like to see individuals in the community keeping their local orchestra afloat, along with other artistic endeavours, drama, poetry, libraries and so on.\u00a0 The Stratford Festival, specializing in plays by the Bard, is generously endowed<\/a> by the government.\u00a0 I guess not enough private support for Shakespeare.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is a sad testament to our culture that a university city like London cannot support an orchestra, but it is not a surprise.\u00a0 What used to be our ‘culture’ is being left in tatters.\u00a0 Even in the supposedly highbrow halls of Western, where the elite go to study (yes, yes, sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but I am permitted in this case, since I, sad to say, went there blindly to seek an education).\u00a0 Outside of the music faculty (and even within it), how many students could tell you anything about Mozart or Bach, to say nothing of Palestrina or Corelli or Vivaldi? \u00a0Students may vaguely recognize the Halleluiah chorus from the Messiah, but most would not be able to tell you who wrote it, nor, even, what the whole piece is about.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I wonder who would dedicate their life to music, outside of the rap and pablum on the radio, when there is no remuneration?\u00a0 What are all those violinists and cellists and oboeists going to do?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Culture reflects what people in society value, and they no longer value much of what we would normally construe as ‘culture’.\u00a0 Thus, culture must be artificially supported by the coffers of the State; as we saw this morning, in these days of fiscal restraint (well, restraint at least in some areas, and possibly illegal profligacy<\/a> in others), those halcyon days of cultural funding may be coming to an end.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, if you love the arts, get out there and attend a concert, an opera, a play even a ballet over this holiday season or in the new year; I think you would enjoy it more than you think, and you would be helping preserve what is best in our past and present.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

December 19, 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning, the councillors of the city of London, Ontario decided unanimously to deny funding to their symphony orchestra, which was in dire straits financially.\u00a0 The musicians, twenty nine in total, plus some support staff, had not been paid in recent weeks, apparently, and they needed 300 grand to tide things over for a month […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions\/232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}