音樂與政治 該不該劃清界線？
摘錄自：天下雜誌 經濟學人電子報 2013/1/3
2013-12-31 Web only 作者：經濟學人
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| 圖片來源：flickr.com/photos/34316967@N04/ |
委內瑞拉國會最近賦予總統馬杜拉（Nicolás Maduro）巨大的新權力，讓他有權制定法律。許多人視之為攫取權力，其中一名反對者、委內瑞拉的鋼琴家蒙泰羅（Gabriela Montero），貼出了一段影片，以小調演奏委內瑞拉的國歌。
蒙泰羅稱她的音樂示威為「垂死國歌」，她的演奏即緩慢又悲傷，也確實讓人想起葬禮進行曲。她告訴《經濟學人》，「委內瑞拉正在步向死亡！我們在虛無之洞裡越跌越深，身為藝術家，你不可以置身事外。」
在一般人心目中，搖滾樂手應該要有反叛精神。而對古曲樂音樂家來說，代價通常會更高一些；他們大多是在由國家資助或補助的樂團工作，因此他們多半被視為當權者的延伸，若是在不民主或極權國家，情況就更為嚴峻。
匈牙利作曲家費雪（Ivan
Fischer）認為，「藝術家不該干涉日常政治，但我們有責任說出我們對潛在社會發展力量的看法。我們是獨立的，而且擁有一定的能見度。」費雪創立了知名的布達佩斯節慶管弦樂團，也越來越明白地反對匈牙利的極右傾向。
不少古典樂藝術家表示，他們只想表演音樂，而且他們沒有表達政治意見的義務。俄羅斯首席女高音奈瑞貝科（Anna Netrebko）最近表示，藝術家不該「干涉政治」。
俄羅斯知名鋼琴家兼作曲家阿胥肯納吉（Vladimir
Ashkenazy）指出，在前蘇聯時代，任何型式的示威都有可能毀掉音樂家的生涯，「巴倫波因（以色列─阿根廷鋼琴家兼作曲家，常公開反對以色列佔領巴勒斯坦國土）想說什麼就說什麼，就算是在以色列之內也是如此，因為以色列是個民主國家。但在蘇聯，情況就非常不同。」
那麼多音樂家認為自己只是藝術家，這點讓蒙泰羅十分遺憾，她強調，「如果藝術家在乎的是真與美，那麼在有人奪走了真與美之時，我們就該有所反應。」她以拒絕公開反對馬杜羅和已故查維茲（Hugo Chavez）的委內瑞拉知名作曲家杜達美（Gustavo Dudamel）為例，「他說他想將心力放在（音樂教育計畫）El Sistema，但如果我們沒有了國家，當然也不會有El Sistema。」（黃維德譯）
©The Economist Newspaper Limited 2013
The Economist
Musical
politics
Artists v
autocrats
By The Economist
From The Economist
Published: December 31, 2013
Dec 29th 2013, 19:04 by E.H.B.
VENEZUELA'S parliament recently granted President Nicolás Madurovast
new powerswhich enable him to rule by decree. In protest against what many see
as a power grab, Gabriela Montero, a Venezuelan pianist (pictured), has posted
a videoof herself playing the country's national anthem in a minor key.
Ms Montero called her musical protest "Himno Moribundo"—The
Dying Anthem. Her performance does indeed resemble a funeral march, slow and
grim. "Venezuela is dying!" she tells The Economist. "We're
falling deeper and deeper into a hole of nothingness. And as an artist, you
can't isolate yourself from that." Reacting to several events in Venezuela
she sees as unjust, such as Mr Maduro's "fraudulent" victory to
become president, Ms Montero has recorded various protest versions of the
national anthem. Venezuela's authorities have since prevented her from
re-entering the country, Ms Montero says.
Rock'n'roll artists are expected to affect a rebellious pose. For
classical musicians the stakes are often a little higher. Their jobs tend to be
at state-backed orchestras or subsidised symphonies, rendering them extensions
of the establishment. In undemocratic or authoritarian countries, the situation
is even more dicey. Yet several classical artists have memorably ruffled feathers.
Consider Wilhelm Furtwängler, a leading German conductor in the early 20th
century, who defended Jewish musicians in a 1933 letter to Joseph Goebbels. Or
Mstislav Rostropovich, a Russian cellist, who publicly denounced the Soviet
Union's human-rights record and even sheltered Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a
dissident writer. Yet Goebbels forced Furtwängler into submission, and the
conductor's subsequent failure to publicly protest against the Nazi regime's
crimes damaged his post-war reputation. Rostropovich was punished with a travel
ban.
"Artists shouldn't interfere with day-to-day politics, but we have
a responsibility to say what we think about the underlying forces that develop
society in one way or another," argues Ivan Fischer, a Hungarian conductor.
"We're independent and have a certain visibility." Mr Fischer, who
founded and leads the respected Budapest Festival Orchestra, has taken an
increasingly vocal stand against his country's far-right tendencies, often
speaking at events in support of Roma and other minorities. "Of course our
situation is much less dramatic than in dictatorships, but my decision is to
stay in Hungary and perform for Hungarians even though there are many things I
don't agree with," he explains. "The popularity of the [far-right]
Jobbik partyis something we have to warn people about." In his new opera,
"The Red Heifer", which is based on a 19th-century blood libel case
where several Jews were accused of ritually sacrificing a Hungarian girl, Mr
Fischer tackles politics in a musical fashion. "There's a long tradition
of political messages in operas, going back to 'The Marriage of Figaro',"
he notes. Nationalists in turn have denounced Mr Fischer as anti-Hungarian.
Not a few classical artists say that they simply want to perform music
and have no duty to opine on politics. Recently Anna Netrebko, a Russian
primadonna, said that artists shouldn't "meddle in politics". And for
Valery Gergiev, a Russian conductor, good relations with the Kremlin have
brought stability and, by extension, musical excellence to his Mariinsky
Theatre in St Petersburg.
Vladimir Ashkenazy, a famous Russian pianist and conductor, notes that
in the former Soviet Union any form of protest could cost a musician his
career. "Daniel [Barenboim, an Israeli-Argentinean pianist and conductor
who regularly speaks out against Israel's occupation of Palestinian
territories] can say what he wants even inside Israel because it is a
democratic country. But in the Soviet Union things were very different."
And, he adds, "we must not forget that there was no possibility of
international travel unless the government would allow you to do so. You were a
prisoner in the country. I could play Beethoven and Chopin, sometimes even a
short piece by Schönberg. I won international prizes. The government was happy
with me. But of course you couldn't say what you wanted." The same
conditions applied in Nazi Germany.
Ms Montero regrets that so many musicians opt for the
we're-only-artists argument. "If we artists are the ones who care about
truth and beauty, we have to react when it's being taken from us," she
argues. She points to her compatriot Gustavo Dudamel, a famous conductor, who
has declined to speak out against Maduro or the late Hugo Chavez. "He says
he wants to focus on [the music-education programme] El Sistema, but if we
don't have our country, we won't have El Sistema," she says.
©The Economist Newspaper Limited 2013
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