The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #127616   Message #2851023
Posted By: Don Firth
26-Feb-10 - 02:46 PM
Thread Name: BS: Should you alienate Fascists?
Subject: RE: BS: Should you alienate Fascists?
As to the matter of the relationship between music and any kind of totalitarian political system or belief:

I recall a scene from the 1945 Hollywood bio-pic about pianist and composer Frederick Chopin (played by Cornel Wilde).

Poland, the land of Chopin's birth, was under the domination of Russia. Early in the movie, before he had to flee to Paris, Chopin is playing piano for a group of people when a group of boisterous Russian soldiers came in. Chopin stopped playing until the interruption cease. The Russian soldiers took seats, then one of them imperiously waved at Chopin to continue playing.

Chopin pushed the piano bench back, stood up, and said firmly, "I do not play for tsarist butchers!" Then he stalked out.

Because of this, he had to flee for his life, joining a large number of Polish expatriates who fled their home country because of the Russian occupation.

But he made his point.

A man of courage and integrity.

Don Firth