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When
we look at musical life in Germany, we must
realise that it does not produce anything special.
What
is it suffering from?
From
national institutionalisation.
It is
the same phenomenon that we saw in communism:
local authorities and the state took over the
economy and art - and what was the result?
Nothing!
We didn't
notice so much with art. But in the economy
the national exertion of influence showed itself
incorruptibly in the balance sheets: The communist
countries were bankrupt.
The state
with its functionary and clique system can only
give a mediocre performance, and in the economy
this becomes very quickly apparent.
But we
have the same case in classical German music:
every position that is strategically important
is filled with national institutions, the people
employed there are paid by the state, and so
in the end the state decides on the absurd examination
regulations and standards as to what classical
music is and/or should be.
A load
of eunuchs cannot father a child, everybody
knows that - that is what one would think, anyway.
A normal man can father many children.
But the
musical experts who are financed by the state
do not want to admit that the same applies to
art, and music in particular - that the mediocre,
the common cannot produce the exceptional -
the reason probably being their own payment.
The music
institutions established by the state, be it
educational institutions or some sort of supposedly
supportive institutions are based in their function
on artistic mediocrity. No artist who is really
inspired - whether he is a composer or an interpreter
- would sell himself to be employed as a professor
by the state.
And a
really talented artist would never imagine that
he could teach a student something in an artistic
respect.
The existence
of the artistic teaching profession reveals
to me the same presumptuousness with which some
technocrats think they need to support nature
with some sort of patents and products.
Artistic
talent is solely a matter of nature and/or the
Creator - just as creating great pieces of art
is only possible with nature's help, and only
through direct instructions by the Creator.
The idea
of the artistic subject in music appears to
me like pure scorn compared to nature and its
Creator, and has the same value as atheism does
in religion.
As mediocrity
does not know this simple truth or ignores it,
it is a part of the national establishment of
institutions, which seize the field of art through
institutional governmental power, establish
their mediocre standards there, and then professionally
prevent the exceptional in art, and/or the artist
designated in art by nature, out of their own
limited firm conviction.
For this
reason, it seems to me to be sensible in the
interest of music to close down all state-owned
musical institutions, or to open them up to
the regular market - where only the efficient
survive without any governmental regulations.
And all
that mediocrity which, with the help of public
financial means, has so far taken the liberty
to publicly set the tone as a kind of dictatorship
of mediocrity, can fall back into artistic insignificance,
from where it crawled up into public musical
life through governmental influence and political
connections.
Public
supportive measures under governmental management
are certainly a sensible decision where mentally
and physically disabled people are concerned
- but regarding the talent of the musically
gifted person they are downright subversive.
How much
arrogance underlies the system, where the mediocre
talent claims to want or to be able to support
the more than averagely gifted?
National
institutions and the people employed there,
who claim to support the musically gifted, can
at best make mediocre talents dependent under
the pretence of dubious appreciation.
This
is also the case for the committees and boards
at music competitions.
They
all produce only the ideal of their own mediocrity
- even if they now and again include a recognised
artist for a good fee as an alibi.
All these
institutions paid by public authorities and
dependent on them are damaging to natural musical
life, because they prevent the flow of natural
creativity in musical life.
They
only serve the purpose of satisfying the ambition
as well as filling the purse of blind music
experts, who don't know the first thing about
the artist's superior inspiration, about nature's
power and the Creator's work.
These
dignitaries of present-day German musical life
are the arrogant atheists in musical life.
In the
present time of great individual, social and
ecological crises it is important and sensible
for all of us to reflect on the natural, say
good-bye in our thinking and acting from unnatural
habits and respect the laws of nature. This
applies in particular to musical life. In this
respect, decency must also be newly defined
in the practice of classical music under the
viewpoint of naturalness.
At the
time of Hitler the Nazis were officially the
most respected people - under national sovereignty,
at the time of Stalin the communists were -
under national sovereignty etc., etc..
Thus,
it is not the governmental institution, which
in art, and, in particular, in music can be
seen as the model of all things. And I am glad
that in our times of general democratic efforts,
I am able to say such a thing without putting
myself in danger.
Ever
growing movements in people's consciousness
are nowadays trying to rank the power of nature
above the power of the state, and to somehow
integrate the structure of the state into the
structure of nature.
Why should
that therefore also not be the right point in
time to act accordingly in German musical life,
and to officially give nature more authority
- by providing the artist with talent.
The present
official public musical life regulated by supranational
institutions and national financial funds deceives
the parents of the musically gifted child in
a way that is very dangerous for the person
who is gifted: it pretends to be able to support
this person's talent, and to open up channels
for him for his later profession. But if this
pretence is not stupidity, it is deception -
as all governmental training and supportive
measures concentrate only on producing the ideal
mediocrity or on leading the exceptional back
to mediocrity - with governmental sovereignty,
with posts and dignity of state.
That
is the only purpose of titles in art, official
posts, dignitaries: to deceive the general public
regarding mediocrity, and to reduce the exceptional
to the ordinary or more clearly: to limit it
to the common.
In the interest of the true values of music
and the future of music, I can only urgently
advise the tax-payers and/or those responsible
for the state-funds to privatise all public
institutions in musical life, i.e. not to finance
them any longer, but to expose them to public
competition, as this was also done e.g. with
the former state-owned companies of the bankrupt
GDR.
Something
like the "Treuhandgesellschaft", a
company of trustees, should be established,
which handles and privatises the governmental
institutions or organisations financed by the
state in the same way as it was done with the
state-owned companies in the GDR, which had
not functioned properly under communist management,
and of which the enlightened economic expert
knew that they would not function under a western
management of state, either.
The same
applies for those boards of trustees, committees
and advisory boards of German musical life,
as long as they are financed by the national
budget.
The monthly
income of individual members of the board of
trustees or the professors, who could earn their
money more honestly in a different manner anyway,
is of no interest, when we are dealing with
the ethical matter and the pure value of music.
I am
maybe the only one in German musical life, who
can voice his opinion in such a way. And I am
by no means proud of that fact, but rather sad
that not more like myself have survived, but
have become stuck somewhere in governmental
measures, and there breathe their last talent
and creativity as professors or dignitaries.
Every
year the German state squanders billions on
the alleged support of music through questionable
organisations.
Surely
large amounts remain with the music functionaries
and some commercial enterprises from the field
of music - which, however, seems to me to be
the less harmless part of this macabre scenario.
The actual
damage is done by these music functionaries
with the remaining money in that area, where
their incompetent musical measures disable the
gifted people and undermine their natural musical
creativity.
In a time when in Germany ecological shortcomings
are increasingly explored, pointed out, are
publicly denounced and removed, where political
corruption is revealed, publicly denounced,
persecuted and eliminated, the same shortcomings
in German musical life should be actively challenged
by the real music lovers.
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