Yup. And this kind of thing is always so patronising - assuming that the reader/listener/viewer has no ideas or mind of their own and is just a sponge for whatever the artist produces.
And with Wagner - yes, he was an odious jerk and some appalling people took up his work long after his death, but the music itself is beautiful. It is also impossible to understand why some later composers (such as Mahler) wrote as they did without knowing about their debt to him. Taking the argument to its logical conclusion (and I'm sure someone somewhere is thinking on these lines), studying the Æneid is wrong because it supports the Roman Empire, which was an imperialist, slave-owning society; the same with other Classical literature. What, too, of the great 20C Russian composers and film-makers? And many of the great Renaissance artists worked for various nasty despotic princes and belligerent Popes. They didn't have the technology that made more modern tyrants so dangerous and far-reaching, but were still brutal. It does not negate the value of the art.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-12-14 02:53 pm (UTC)And with Wagner - yes, he was an odious jerk and some appalling people took up his work long after his death, but the music itself is beautiful. It is also impossible to understand why some later composers (such as Mahler) wrote as they did without knowing about their debt to him. Taking the argument to its logical conclusion (and I'm sure someone somewhere is thinking on these lines), studying the Æneid is wrong because it supports the Roman Empire, which was an imperialist, slave-owning society; the same with other Classical literature. What, too, of the great 20C Russian composers and film-makers? And many of the great Renaissance artists worked for various nasty despotic princes and belligerent Popes. They didn't have the technology that made more modern tyrants so dangerous and far-reaching, but were still brutal. It does not negate the value of the art.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 04:13 pm (UTC)