{"id":179,"date":"2020-02-24T22:48:31","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T04:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/?p=179"},"modified":"2020-02-24T22:48:31","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T04:48:31","slug":"nationalism-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/2020\/02\/24\/nationalism-then-and-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationalism: Then and Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t talk about the debates over national musical identity in 1920\u2019s France without looking at the rise in French nationalism, as well as nationalism throughout Europe during this time period. In the present day we are seeing a similar trend in nationalistic urges globally, with nationalist demagogues, such as Modi in India, Duerte in the Philippines, Duda in Poland,\u00a0 <\/span>and even Trump in the United States, rising to power on the back of nationalistic rhetoric. In turn, at least in the United States, we see a similar cultural debate as to that they had in France regarding what, and who, should be treated as American. Milhaud implied in his writings<\/a> that though Honneger, who had studied in France for years, and was, in fact, born in France, could never truly write music that was truly French due to his Swiss Heritage, and, ergo, his German musical roots. We see a similar trend in the United States today of othering national differences, with agencies such as ICE detaining people<\/a> solely for speaking Spanish, despite their being US citizens. Though Milhaud is critical of Honnegar\u2019s Frenchness, he does acknowledge that all musics are ultimately influenced by those of other peoples and cultures. This poses a stark contrast to voices like those of Cocteau, who in his piece the Cock and the Harlequin<\/a> asserts that any and all outside influence, especially German, is against French nationalism, and makes for improper French music. This is a stark contrast to Ravel who is, like Milhaud but even more so, quite cosmopolitan with his approach to music, recognizing that ultimately music transcends borders, with roots stretching back across place and time throughout the world. To me this is somewhat reminiscent of Yo-Yo Ma\u2019s protest<\/a> at the US-Mexico border wall; a situation where a wall meant to strictly divide the United States from the other provided a backdrop for a concert calling for unity among all peoples. This concert serves as a poignant example of the ongoing debate in the United States as to national identity, and ultimately our countries place on the world stage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t talk about the debates over national musical identity in 1920\u2019s France without looking at the rise in French nationalism, as well as nationalism throughout Europe during this time period. In the present day we are seeing a similar trend in nationalistic urges globally, with nationalist demagogues, such as Modi in India, Duerte in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3602,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3602"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}