Fundies and Classical Music

[crazyforkate]

Today I was at the symphony to hear a performance of Mozart's Requiem. Now, fundies are few and far-between in Toronto, so it was my first sighting here. And lo and behold, there was a young woman in a long skirt with covered hair across the aisle from me. She was with an older, conservatively-dressed man who was probably her father, and a younger man who might have been her brother or maybe a chaperoned date. I also noticed what looked to be an ultra-Orthodox Jewish couple a few rows back.

Seeing them there, it occurred to me that the symphony (for those who can afford it, and with cheap ticket deals, many can) is an ideal entertainment for fundies. A lot of bloggers have mentioned that they like classical music anyway. There aren't any obscene lyrics (if there even are lyrics), or if there are some risque passages, they're in another language most of the time. Depending on the faith of the fundies in question, a lot of music is related to the Bible, even if it's not their specific denomination persay. Even if the music is related to something a fundie might consider inappropriate, it isn't necessarily spelled out on stage, unlike, say, opera. Best of all, nobody gets defrauded, as the musicians are usually pretty modestly dressed. The soloists are most likely to be showing more skin, but even then it's generally pretty conservative.

The only downside I might see is perhaps some music might be related to a pagan (fundie definition of pagan) background, but once again, due to the language difference listeners might not necessarily pick up on it...

In the end, I loved the music, the fundies across the aisle seemed to love it too, and I was very interested to find something where this liberal heathen and a family of fundies might find common ground. Music truly can be universal.

[Avalondaughter]

During the Classical (and Baroque too) eras, much of the music was written for the CATHOLIC church. I know I sang a lot of that stuff in choirs over the years. Do the fundies care about that?

The Romantic era brought about music with themes of fairytales and romance and other themes that are definitely not fundie. Think of Wagner and his love of Norse gods (or is Wagner more contemporary than Romantic?) I wonder how fundies feel about opera in general now that I think of it.

[crazyforkate]

During the Classical (and Baroque too) eras, much of the music was written for the CATHOLIC church. I know I sang a lot of that stuff in choirs over the years. Do the fundies care about that?

The Romantic era brought about music with themes of fairytales and romance and other themes that are definitely not fundie. Think of Wagner and his love of Norse gods (or is Wagner more contemporary than Romantic?) I wonder how fundies feel about opera in general now that I think of it.

I think opera is a little different because it is a more visual medium. As for the denomination, lots of fundies sing hymns that were written for denominations they don't belong to.

[PBrooke]

Hell, think of Wagner's antisemitism. By which I mean most people today are forgiving of the personal views of composers and authors who died long before they were born, and I imagine fundies are much the same way.

[Rachel333]

I used to be really involved in youth orchestras and the like, and they were absolutely filled with fundies (they almost always played strings; I sometimes felt sorry for the fundie cellist girls in their long skirts). I think it's kind of an ideal activity for fundies; it's something girls and boys can do and still stay within acceptable gender roles and there is nothing else objectionable about classical music.

[kaetrin]

When I was a fundie teenager, we had season tickets to the symphony (college town - not very expensive) and my sister and I would get all dressed up in our best frumpers for the occasion. :) We were also serious classically-trained pianists all through high school and played in state competitions and whatnot.

We also had a book called "the spiritual lives of great composers" or something like that, short biographies with listening guides, so we certainly knew about the religious views (or lack) of the major classical composers, but we weren't forbidden to listen to any of them on that account.

This is completely from distant memory, but didn't Gothard have a strange thing about music needing to be not just free from evil "rock" drumbeats, but also "balanced" melodically? I remember vaguely something about the melody line needing to go up and down in roughly equal amounts, otherwise it would mess with your emotions too much, even classical. I don't think he really knew much about music but there had to be a spiritual principle to explain everything he personally liked or disliked.