Rand and Shostakovich

[ggmuze]

I would like to throw out a topic that was presented and argued on another post

that you all would probably find very interesting. You need to know a

little about Ayn Rand and Objectivism to understand this statement

fully. To find out an over view go to www.aynrand.org.

Here is the post by Monart Pon:

"Once, when I was listening to the sweet, lyrical Andante of

Shostokovich's 2nd Piano Concerto, I thought of Rand and checked out a

few dates. Shostokovich's 2nd Piano Concerto was published in 1957, the

same year as Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Both Rand and Shostokovich were born

in Russia nearly the same year: Rand, 1905, and Shostokovich, 1906.

Other comparisons: Rand left Russia and Shostokovich didn't. Both are

regarded as master artists by their admirers, with Shostokovich being

called 20th Century's most tragic composer, and Rand, the most heroic

novelist. Shostokovich did not value philosophy in any way like Rand

did, and thus suffered under a totalitarian Russia with little protest

until his death in Moscow 1975. Was Shostokovich able to read Rand? How

would his music have been different, if at all, if he had read Rand, or

if he had escaped to America (assuming he wanted to?) What influences on

the music does the kind of philosophy that a composer (or artist) has,

or the kind of culture a composer (or artist) lives in? What would Rand

have thought of him and his music?



-Monart"

[gimli3]

Shostakovich composed his piano concerto 2 purely to provide his son with an easy concerto as an audition piece for his entry into the music conservatoire.

Just nepotism.

It uses ideas from Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Rubinstein, Prokofiev, etc. Why not just listen to Tchaikovsky etc?

It is simple and deserves its popularity, but you can't really live with it -- it has no substance.

Who the hell's Rand?

:-5

[telephoto lens]

I came upon this thread by accident and feel compelled to answer this question because of 2 reasons: Shostakovich is one of my favorite composers and I did a study of Rands 'Romantic Manifesto' several years ago.

After studying both Rand and Shostakovich I think the latter was a genius and the former was not. In general the major difference between the 2 is that Shostakovich had an open mind and Rand was as dogmatic than the Soviet commisars she hated.

What were some of the things she disliked? Classical art because it was based off the Golden Mean formula and hence she did not like Mozart, Hayden and Beethoven - who was not purely a classical composer. The humorous part of this is she liked James Bond films - there is no formula here!!! And her own work had formulaic elements because she artistic inspiration and idol was Victor Hugo's Les Mis. Also, though she did not have access to such a reasearch tool as the internet, I learned through my research that stock markets positive to negative ratio, purchasing to selling transaction ratio, is nearly identical to that of the mathematical proportions of the Golden Mean. Why should I mention this? Because she exaulted businessman and the market works like the proportions of the Golden Mean - plus the businessmen she loved actively purchased modernist art (she disliked any form of modernist art work with the exception of architecture - think The Fountainhead). She hated existentialism yet espoused 'The Twilight Zone' as a good example of Romanticism and she was almost right, the Twilight Zone is a good example of existential romaniticism spurred on by the paranoia of the cold war and nuclear destruction......

She was a lover of action-oriented romanticism and her work looked like Soviet Socialist Realism glossed over by a thick coat of syrup. In the 20th century the west embraced cultural modernism whilst the more conservative communist countries thought it degenerate, along with the non-communist Nazis, and supressed abstraction, expressionism, musical atonality, rock'n roll - though the Soviets loved jazz (the nazis hated jazz)...... under the term of formalist 'anti-people art'. In place of modernism the soviets (Joseph Stalin's idea) posited Socialist Realism as the norm. SR showed everday soviet citizens in work, athletic and social situations working towards utopia. Hence both Soviet Socialist Realism and Rand writings are forms of figurative art that harken back to 19th century russian realism and this is their common thread. As for the dreaded medieval National Socialists (Rand hated the medieval era) they suppressed modernism and substituted race-based figurative art which exalted the nobile aryan physique in its place. So along with the Soviet and Nazi kitsch Rand contributed a major form of figurative, action-oriented art, to the 20th century.

As for Shostakovich he was undoubtedly a genius and now that the political blinders have been removed his artistic output is being evaluated for what it is and always was - great music. As for his youthful piano concerto I do think it has substance because it is witty, makes you smile without pandering to cheap effects. Sure you can hear influences but if you were to eliminate all forms of art which you can see/hear the influence, you would not look at much art at all. Rodin's 'The Burghers of Calais' was greatly influnced by Michelangelo but who cares? Rand was greatly influenced by Victor Hugo but if you like her aesthetic more power to you. And should we disgard Prokofieff's Classical Symphony? It is true Shostakovich outdid the concerto with his later, much darker compositions but this, along with his first symphony, should not be slighted musically because they show wit, imagination and a fine grasp of classical form.

As for Shostakovich reading Rand, I cannot answer this question. If I were to venture a guess I think he knew of her because the soviet government (surely) vilified her in the press as they did all who they considered their enemies. From studying frosty Shosty since 1988, I own 115 discs of his music and have read whatever I could read about him, I just don't think her writings would appeal to him. It is hard to speak for someone who is dead and you never knew but I think he would find them preachy and hollow because she did not have to live under the harsh soviet regime and it was easy to speak in such a manner with no consequences. Plus Shostakovich is a link in a chain to past russian composers whilst Rand identified with the frenchmen Victor Hugo. Shostakovich, like Borodin, put much stock in social responcibility and worked vigorously to better the community. Shostakovich would have worked to improve conditions of his musician and non-musician friends alike regardless if he worked for the Czars, The Provisional government or the stern soviets. Rand had a different mind set and I don't think Rand and Shost. would have got along at all.

Rands philosophical message was nothing new - it was the traditional values of 19th century liberalism: small government, individual responcibility and rational self-directed action. This was in opposition to being guided by big brother 'collectivist' states like the USSR and Nazi Germany and I have no problem with this but her rational stance was reasonable politically but not in relation to liberal (modern) science. The question she never asked was what caused modernist art in the first place? Modernist art reflected the wests great embrace of the flawed and discredited notion of 'scientific progress' and the mechanization of society. Think of science and art movements as follows: Psychoanalysis = Salvador Dali; The scientific light theories of Chevreul and Rood = Impressionism; societal segmentation, fragmentation and violence as a result of a mobile society and the technical innovations that led to more powerful armaments and the slaughter of WW1 = DADA (and later neo-dada during the Vietnam war); pictoral abstraction and its formal elements of line, texture, color and form was analagous to physicists disecting atoms into protons, neutrons and electrons; cubism came into age at the same time as newspapers were mass produced and information proliferated - and if you have looked at many analytical cubist paintings many of them have newspaper collages in them.

Initially I had an open-mind about Rand and looked forward to learning new ideas from her but after reading The Romantic Manifesto repeatedly over 6 months and doing internet research, I found her to be a unorigional, pontificating bore who had a closed mind. What a disapointment and I wish it were not the case but this is what I think.

Take this for what you will and have a great day.

[Nomad]

I have to go to the mall, I sat on my glasses and they need to be repaired.

[telephoto lens]

Nomad wrote: I have to go to the mall, I sat on my glasses and they need to be repaired.


Sorry to hear it. This responce is one of the better displays of DADA I have seen in a while.:driving: