“Cancel Beethoven” has, apparently, become a serious battle cry among some on the left, with the classical composer cast as a stale, overrated, and all-too-white impediment to greater diversity in the arts. In a recent opinion piece in the University of Cambridge newspaper, a student wonders if the cancellation of Beethoven would bring about a “more diverse, inclusive and accessible classical music scene.” He muses on the benefits of a cancelation, “notwithstanding that some people actually like Beethoven’s music.” While he ultimately concludes that a “mass cultural boycott” would prove counterproductive (since other white composers like Mozart would take his place), it’s the relegation of the work’s artistic merit to a secondary concern that should trouble lovers of the arts.
Far from an isolated incident, the “Cancel Beethoven” movement is just one manifestation of a well-intentioned but dangerous notion: that political-minded engineers must realign the artistic world in accordance with their agenda. This agenda, normally, revolves around diversity, which in itself is a worthy goal. The problem is that in the pursuit of this end, art itself becomes secondary to the group identity of its creator. Last week, Viet Thanh Nguyen wrote in the New York Times that white writers who don’t address political issues are guilty of “a retreat back to white privilege,” as if the tenor of someone’s artistic creations should be dictated solely by their race and historical circumstances, and individual artists are ethically-obilgated to take on only certain topics.
Now, there’s no denying that art is inescapably political. Decisions about what gets published, displayed, or performed are inseparable from sociological and political circumstances. And yet, the way out of this morass comes through eliminating restraints, not imposing them. A certain freedom of spirit and imagination is necessary for the appreciation and creation of art, and we should all be rooting for art to keep slipping from the hands of those who would seek to control it.
A lack of diversity in the art world is certainly a problem. A New York Times study recently found that, among a dataset of books published in 2018, 89% of the writers were white. That’s shocking, and it needs to change. Through the breaking down of barriers and increased opportunity, people of color need greater access to artistic spheres. But what I can’t abide is an atmosphere where Renior’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party,” Beethoven’s “Midnight Sonata,” or Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” are blithely disregarded, simply for being the work of white men.
Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca once spoke of “the mystery, the roots that cling to the mire that we all know, that we all ignore, but from which comes the very substance of art.” German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe referenced that “mysterious force that everyone feels and no philosopher has explained.” This is where the essence of art lies. This is where the magic happens. And there’s nothing so inhuman as banishing or controlling instantiations of artistic magic for political purposes, no matter how good the intentions.
