The violin: a climate warning
NewsIn today’s Guardian newspaper, the American feminist and environmentalist Rebecca Solnit writes a personal interpretation of the instrument as a crucible of climate crisis.
Her intro reads:
For the last 50 years, David Harrington, the founder and artistic director of San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet, has been playing what he calls “pretty athletic music” on a violin made in 1721. I’ve heard him play all kinds of compositions on it, from the galloping notes of Orange Blossom Special to the minimalism of Terry Riley and even the occasional bit of Bach. The instrument made by Carlo Giuseppe Testore in Milan has survived three centuries, providing music for countless audiences, and can be heard on more than 60 Kronos albums.
When I first learned the age of the instrument I was filled with wonder that a delicate piece of craftsmanship could endure for centuries, that something so small and light could do so much, that an instrument made in the 18th century could have so much to say in the 21st. It felt like a messenger from the past and an emblem of the possible, a relic and a promise.
This violin is from before….
Read on here.
Typical middle-class Guardianista doom-mongering climate hysteria.
Not an uninteresting article, because it has become rare for writers in the popular press to spend much time on serious music makers and their instruments and I enjoy the “oh wow” tone they take when they realize just how old some of these instruments are. Nor was it poorly written. But it did have a strong whiff of someone looking for a hook on which to hang their polemic (or is it a philippic? The distinction used to be important to me).
I noted with interest how she avoided delving at all into the little matter of how many jet airplane rides the Kronos takes each year, compared to us more stay-at-home fiddler types. Fossil fuels indeed.
Nicely put David – you expressed a far more nuanced approach than I did.
Your pithy response was accurate. Hope the writer moves to a rainforest and enjoys herself.
Exactly. Meanwhile, modern fiddles are killing the old Italians in tests, much to the dismay of dealers, some of whom remain unjailed. This is just a typical leftist political agenda article. Tired of it.
Couldn’t agree more.
The Beeb (with the without a science degree -climate pope-Harrabin) and Guardian climate cultists with their endless propaganda.
Bellamy had it right, -It’s those nutters who need a cull.
Orwell described the BBC as a cross between a band of liars and a lunatic asylum.
Defund the lying BBC and NEVER contribute to the Guardian whingers team, who constantly beg for cash to fund their miserable little rag.
Actually Orwell described the BBC as ‘something half way between a girls’ school and a lunatic asylum’! which is a possibly bit more accurate. But point taken.
“American feminist…” <>
100%
We now return you to our usual program of music globetrotting.
Forgive the abstractified comment below,
But I’ll say to make no mistake people.
Folks like this are mainly driven by resentment in their lives, and they are not innocent when they spout their extremist one-sided misinterpretations of traditional elements in our societies/cultures.
They are trying to destroy EVERYTHING that we know and replace it with some kind of postmodernist technocratic nothingness where they won’t have to be resentful anymore because there will be no one for them to resent; Because if they succeed, no one will be an individual anymore and just a part of a borg hivemind plugged into social media and the like (brave new world).
They hate the beauty of classical music because it’s something they don’t have much of in their lives and they want to take it away from us.
Yes!
You are really overreacting. This was an informative article on violin craftmanship, not a liberal rant. Everything you said about “they” and “folks like this” actually applies to you and your people. It seems like you are actively trying to find something on the internet to trigger your amygdala. You are being a masochist.
You do not need to be like this. You do not need to be a slave to your amygdala.
You need to take care of yourselves. Stop finding ways to trigger your amygdala. Instead, take a walk, read a book, or listen to your favorite classical music.
Complaining about “liberals” or the “liberal media” does not hurt your intended targets. You are only triggering your amygdala and making yourselves unhappy.
You deserve better than this. Turn off the television and internet and find something that makes you feel good.
There is no shame in having a mental health problem. Everyone has them. It is part of being human.
It is your responsibility to keep yourself healthy and protect your brain from anything that is going to trigger your amygdala and make you angry or sad.
Do yourselves a favor and disconnect your cable television and use the money you save to buy a nice pair of headphones.
Learn to treat yourselves with kindness and dignity.
It is not the “liberal media” that is making you so unhappy. You are doing it to yourselves and you really deserve better.
Amygdala count at 5.
(I had to look this one up.)
The second sentence insisted this article was not a “liberal rant;” not sure I can agree with that conclusion.
Violins are still held together with glue derived from animals. Ebony is used almost exclusively and is harder to find than ever. We don’t necessarily have enough trees to sustain violin making and lumber needs… oh yea, and blame it all on China?? (A source of luthier material and general goods all over the world). How did the author of this article make it all the way to the burning of fossil fuels?? I don’t understand what that has to do with the fact that we’re running out of regular resources that will change how we make these wooden sound boxes out of tree bones. Hans does great things with alternative materials- he was quoted in the article- I wish we could’ve learned more.
Owning a Tesla contributes more to pollution over the life of the vehicle than a hundred violins that, possibly, could last for hundreds of years. Pick your fights carefully, and if you’re owning a fossil fuel vehicle while making this nonsense case, it’s time to park your brain before you bark insane.
Most of the treehugging claptrap you read about fossil fuels comes from people who have the luxury to do so precisely because of the privileges fossil fuels have brought their generation.