I heard about Alma Deutscher’s 2019 speech from the Rising Tide Foundation’s newsletter.

https://www.facebook.com/AlmaDeutscher/videos/on-20102019-alma-received-the-european-culture-prize-in-a-ceremony-at-the-vienna/2213326375631408/

On 20.10.2019, Alma received the European Culture Prize in a ceremony at the Vienna State Opera. After thanking baritone Thomas Hampson for his generous words of praise, Alma made a plea for melody and for harmony in the modern world: “until now, I have always composed melodies and harmonies just as they pour out from my heart. But I have often been told: ‘as a modern composer, you’ll soon have to forget your melodies, and concentrate on dissonance, as befits our modern age.’ But maybe this award today means that a more tolerant age is dawning, when melody and beauty will once again be permitted. Perhaps this is a message that there is more to European Culture than just dissonance. Perhaps there is also a place in European Culture for harmony. And how beautiful it would be if this message could go out into the world from Vienna, from the city of music.“

To me this is confirmation that culture has been deliberately degraded by an oligarchy for almost a century now.

Things might have changed somewhat, but many of us who attempted to enjoy modern examples of classical music either at a concert or on the radio were disillusioned immediately by the dissonant noise. That was my experience.

It was the elephant in the room. It was absurd.

I believe this would have biased most of the public towards popular music.

Researchers such as Alan Watt would often mention the influence of Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt School. Adorno was committed to atonal music.

We should also remember the emphasis that Plato’s Republic put on the power of musicians and poets–of culture creators.

See also The Cultural Cold War by Frances Stonor Saunders.

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