The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #122837   Message #2702866
Posted By: John Golightly
18-Aug-09 - 02:35 AM
Thread Name: Folk Against Fascism launch at Sidmouth
Subject: RE: Folk Against Fascism launch at Sidmouth
There are a few fundamentals here which I think are being missed –

1)        Good & inspiring music has always been subject to hijack/misuse (call it what you will) by those with a particular political or religious agenda. This has happened throughout history.

2)        There's *** all anyone can do about this

3)        Any music worth its salt will generally transcend any spurious association with a political or religious view.

The classic example – in the mid 1500's a Finnish student put together a collection of traditional Folk & dance Tunes, some thought to be already 500 years old at that time, & labelled them as "belonging" (!)to the church. The incentive came from the highest political levels as part of a strategy to bring some peace & unity at what was a very bloody time.
Four centuries later, Mike Oldfield (amongst others) "rescued" some of these tunes & brought them back into the Folk genre where they originated. Amongst the tunes – "In Dulci Jubilo".
(http://soonyritys.net/tapio/PC.notes.html, google "Piae cantiones")

Pieces of Folk music don't "belong" to anyone – they just are. If you agree with that statement, then where's the sense in starting a tug-of-war over an aspect of our culture? It lays you wide open to exactly the same charge, of "using" that music for your own political ends. The fact that you're "against" rather than "for" a particular viewpoint, is neither here nor there.

It's not much of an answer if you feel deeply about Fascism, I know, but the only practical answer to this hijacking is to live with it, ignore it, move on, & find some other front on which to fight Fascism.

John Golightly