The University of Exeter has awarded a degree of Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) to Dougie Scarfe (centre), chief executive of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
The award is for his ‘commitment to breaking down barriers in classical music’.
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It sounds as a reward for tearing-down the elitist nature of classical music and thus, the destruction of the walls surrounding symphony orchestras. A very timely undertaking: nothing should be protected against the liberating force of the democratic process.
As we know, classical music is the product of a suppressing, feudal, colonizing society run by white men, who were only concerned about excluding everybody who was not like them. A symphony orchestra is thus saturated with evil, like any other art form and their institutions stemming from pre-modern dark times. We are so much better than our ancestors, so to get rid of their footprints on earth would finally open-up the ideal state for which we have been longing for more than 100 years. Therefore, these half-measures are by far not enough and I propose that the Bournemouth Orchestra cancels itself once and for all. Think of all the players, how happy they would be to be liberated from their tedious, suppressing, un-free jobs!
We should never forget our great example: the Cultural Revolution in China, this enlightened exercise which liberated a large country from the weight of their suppressing culture of thousands of years. And look at it now: prosperous, happy, totally free, and chances of all kinds for every Chinese!
Good one John, couldn’t have written better myself.
You are clearly unaware of what the BSO is doing here in the South-West.
It gives concerts exclusively for schoolchildren. It also employs a small group of non-SO musicians who visit schools, arranging for the pupils to compose and play in small groups. It also sponsors a group of musicians who suffer from a disability. The orchestra also holds a Rusty Musicians day, when amateurs join the SO for rehearsal/tuition, ending in a concert.
Unwise of you, I suggest, to pass judgement on an organisation of which you seem to know very little.
All those entirely laudable activities have nothing to do with the phrase ‘… breaking-down barriers in classical music’, and it is that silly phrase with all the ringing tones of woke that was the subject of my comment. The activities you mention, are educational in nature and better not wrapped in ideological terms…. It is this politization of classical music that erodes its credibility.
The activities are not primarily “educational in nature”. They are activities making classical music available to groups of people who, for various reasons, are less able than others to participate fully in this aspect of cultural life, and can gain great benefit from it. (Dismissing efforts to improve access and inclusion as ‘woke’ and “political” displays a lamentable lack of thought on your part.
?? Is there not a difference between ‘improving accessibility’ and ‘breaking-down barriers’? The latter suggests something that has never been there, classical music has always been accessible in one way or another, at least since some 100 years. It is the woke jargon that suggests things that only exist in the minds of people who hate the art form for its being ‘elitist’. Getting a better access to classical music has nothing to do with making it less elitist. As Scottish scultor Alexander Stoddart said; ‘I’m for elitism for everybody’.
Some people see ‘woke’ everywhere – reds under the beds! Only a person suffering from paranoid anti-wokism would see the phrase “breaking down barriers” as an assault on classical music. This is not the French revolution.
I fear that this is a case of a good argument used against the wrong target.
Have you got some kind of problem?
I was wondering that too.
Sally
What do you mean by “the elitist nature of classical music”? That only the elite can or should have access to it?
What the Bournemouth Symphony – and many other fine musical institutions – are doing is the opposite of Mao’s cultural revolution. They are not denying or banning classical music, they are seeking to make it more widely known and appreciated. Your analogy is rubbish.
Is this the same Exeter University that scrapped its Music Department in 2005?
Oh Dear. Tudor Bonnets aren’t quite so silly if not pulled down over the ears. The style as worn by President and Vice-Chancellor Roberts and Chancellor Barber are more the norm. And yes, Exeter is one of the Unis that scrapped its Music Department, and in protest, Dame Evelyn Glennie returned her honorary Doctorate to the University. Subsequently it developed an organisation “Ex-Tunes” and “The Music Office” to bring together (and keep going in the absence of a Music Department) the many and varied music groups in the Uni (including the Disney Society) and even offered music and composition tuition! https://www.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/campusservices/music/pdfs/Music_Guidebook_1314_16_Page.pdf
I love the bonnets…. I think all PA’s should be allowed to wear them. It would enhance their dignity, which is so much needed in these days.
Sally
Viola player inclusion? Is that what he does?