> Well, of course, we end up making a lot of these
>judgments based on how the composers in question presented
>themselves or were viewed by those around them. . . .
I thought I should clarify some of what was implicit in my last few posts. Daniel, my criticism of your description of rock 'n' roll as fascist is that it seems a rather facile taxonomy (see the previous Schoenberg post: "is it an evaluation?") and that it doesn't take into consideration the historical situation and social context. Rock 'n' roll may be symptomatic of certain violent tendencies, Adorno's "hideous affirmation", but that's another story, which David James writes about in _Power Misses: Essays across (Un)Popular Culture_, regarding the Vietnam war.
Re: Barkley's post, here's a little more from Arnold S.
MY ATTITUDE TOWARD POLITICS (_Style and Idea_, p. 505)
I am at least as conservative as Edison and Ford have been. But I am, unfortunately, not quite as progressive as they were in their own fields.
In my early twenties, I had friends who introduced me to Marxian theories. When I thereafter had jobs as *Chormeister*--director of men's choruses--they called me "Genosse"--comrade, and at this time, when the Social Democrats fought for an extension of the right of suffrage, I was strongly in sympathy with some of their aims.
But before I was twenty-five, I had already discovered the difference between me and a labourer; I then found out that I was *bourgeois* and turned away from all political contacts.
I was much too busy with my own development as a composer, and, I am sure, I could never have acquired the technical and aesthetic power I developed had I spent any space of time to politics. I never made speeches, nor propaganda, nor did I try to convert people.
When the First World War began, I was proud to be called to arms and as a soldier I did my whole duty enthusiastically as a true believer in the house of Habsburg, in its wisdom of 800 years in the art of government and in the consistency of a monarch's lifetime, as compared with the short lifetime of every republic. In other words, I became a monarchist. Also at this time and after the unfortunate ending of the war and for many years thereafter, I considered myself as a monarchist, but also then did not participate in any action. I was then and thereafter only a quite believer in this form of government, thought the chance for a restoration were at zero.
Evidently when I came to America such considerations were superfluous. My viewpoint since then has been one of gratitude for having found a refuge. And I decided that I, as only a naturalized citizen, had no right to participate in the politics of the native. In other words, I had to stand by and to be still. This, I have always considered to be the rule of my life. But I was never a communist.
______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com