Rzewski - The People United Will Never Be Defeated (1975)
I usually donāt talk about contemporary politics on this blog since my main focus has been classical music history in general, but I am an American so at the risk of annoying people who donāt like āpoliticsā being brought up in their favorite subjects, I will say I am afraid of what has been happening to the country. I understand the desire to āignore politicsā and look to art as an excape, but this attitude can only help distract us for so long. And I do not know of any example of classical music that is truly apolitical. If anything, the desire to strip great art from its historic context is itself a political act motivated by a desire to insert oneās own values or vision into the work. In our current trends of AI generated imagery and text, corporate control over the internet and government, and promotion of anti intellectualism and consumerism (along with so many other trends that canāt fit in the typical rhetorical lists of threes), it is more common to see our cultural heritage being decontextualized for the sake of arguing in favor of destructive ideologies. In the classical sphere Iāve seen it all, and for a convenient placeholder for The Classical Industry I can use Mozart; Mozart as evidence of white supremacy, or an example of āanti wokeā art, or evidence of the importance of patriarchy or evidence that women are not as intelligent or creative as men, Mozart as proof of Christian supremacy, Mozart as evidence of a Great Past Culture That They Took Away From Us. It doesnāt matter that all of these arguments are flawed and fall apart under scrutiny, the point is not to understand the music or the culture, the point is to make rhetorical gestures to try and make someone Feel that it is true by appealing to the ambient biases that we can passively absorb around us. A poisoned psychosphere.
My blog has never been about political activism or anything like that, so my only justification for this rant is for me to articulate why I care about music history at all and ultimately why I think itās more important than just a pass time or my special interest. And I didnāt mean for such a long preamble but I did want to write out my thoughts on the idea of āpolitical musicā to introduce the piece I have been thinking about lately. Way back in high school when I was more interested in the novelty of superlatives (āthe most difficult piano songs everā, āthe longest pieces of music ever writtenā āthe biggest symphonies with the most musicians in historyā etc.) I learned of the pianist composer Frederic Rzewski for his 10 hour piano piece āThe Roadā. I didnāt listen to much of that specific piece, but it did lead me to hearing his most famous work, variations on a Chilean protest song Ā”El pueblo unido jĆ”mas serĆ” vencido!. It is another contribution to the classical tradition of large piano variation sets, following the line of Bachās Goldberg, Beethovenās Diabelli, Brahmsā Handel and Paganini, and the much less popular but still significant Passacaglia on DSCH by Ronald Stevenson. The theme is introduced in stern, strong unison, then given a more Romantic treatment. It is 36 bars long and this acts as the structural basis; 36 variations divided into 6 groups of 6 (I have no idea if Rzewski was thinking about what Iām about to say, but it is fitting that a song about unity and equality was used for variations divided into equal portions). As expected of the Variation genre, musical ideas are extracted from the original theme and Rzewski realizes the potential inherent in the original material. And being written in the latter half of the 20th century, greater expressive and technical possibilities are explored. The song is broken into dry pointillist staccati reminiscent of Stravinsky or Stockhausen, the old time piano classics of Gershwin and Porter, chromatic daydreams from Scriabin or Sorabji, rich chords like Debussy, Rachmaninoff and Chopinā¦serious and austere chords, or capricious finger play, moments of restraint and control, moments of abandon, music that sounds meticulously planned, and music that sounds like random improvisation, sudden climaxes, sudden silenceā¦and on top of all this, the pianist has to include more unorthodox moments such as whistling and slamming the piano lid.
The kaleidoscopic variety can be overwhelming at first, and I especially remember being confused by much of what I was hearing way back in high school. But listening through this feels like listening through the 20th century, celebrating the variety of human expression, and though I wasnāt politically aware as a 13 year old, I now understand the value of the message behind the song that inspired the variations. Thought it was originally popularized as a protest against Pinochetās dictatorship, it has since become popular worldwide, and in dark times where we might want to avoid politics, it is a strong reminder that we can and should unite to fight oppression.
In reading up on this work, I learned that Rzewski premiered this piece during the Bicentenial concert series at the Kennedy Center for the Performing arts, which has been in the news during Trumpās second term, as he is now the centerās chairman and he, along with his supporters, has criticized the āWokeā and āDEIā policies and programs at the center and would like to change things to be more āpatrioticā. As a cherry on top, he hopes to have the center renamed in honor of his wife Melania. This irony feels too on the nose to be real, but we cannot hope for change by ignoring reality.
