Black Mozart R4

[Dave2002]

I found this Radio 4 programme In search of the Black Mozart interesting http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05wkkrf
Unfortunately in a short programme there wasn't enough time to play more music, but the composers discussed could be worth following up. There must surely be some recordings.

[verismissimo]

Chi-chi's new orchestra - debuts 13 September at QEH... Hurrahs to Chi-chi!

[doversoul1]

I’ve just listen to the first programme

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05wdsnl

I’m afraid to say that I feel I wasted my time. If I’d missed the beginning of the programme, I’d have thought this was just another programme about a forgotten composer with a few seemingly unconnected reference about slaves thrown in. There was nothing about how a composer who was an ex-slave was regarded and treated by the society, or how unusual / common for ex-slaves to distinguish themselves then. Are we to believe that that fact was irrelevant in the 18th century Britain? If that’s the case, what is the point of the programme?

And this:
Handel, whilst composing some of the most beautiful music around was an investor in slavery

Whatever is the point in bringing in a comment like this? Chi-chi Nwanoku sounded as if she was quite upset when she found that one third (or was it two thirds?) of the Academy of Ancient Music members had shares in slave trading companies.

I thought this was going to be a serious research based programme but maybe it’s just meant to be a nice gesture. Or is Chi-chi Nwanoku simply interested in music by black composers? Maybe I am spoilt by the Early Music Show.

[Conchis]

I heard a bit of this programme and would agree with you it was a waste of air-time.

What really sticks in my craw is judging people of that time by modern standards. However 'wrong' it may have been to our own perceptions, the fact is there was a time when slavery was considered normal and acceptable by an awful lot of ordinary people.

[MickyD]

I fully agree - it is absolutely ridiculous to apply the morals of our time to what went on in the past. Hopefully we have learned from what happened and indeed must never forget it - that surely is one of the most valuable things to draw from history.

[verismissimo]

... There was nothing about how a composer who was an ex-slave was regarded and treated by the society, or how unusual / common for ex-slaves to distinguish themselves then. Are we to believe that that fact was irrelevant in the 18th century Britain?...

Which 'fact' do you have in mind, dovers?

[doversoul1]

Which 'fact' do you have in mind, dovers?

Oh, sorry. That was a bit untidy. I meant ‘the fact that the composer (or any successful individuals for that matter) was an ex-slave’. I hope this makes better sense.

[Barbirollians]

I do so agree - mass murder and terror was perfectly appropriate in Genghis Khan's time and we should not judge him by modern standards.
What utter rubbish has been written on this thread about slavery - although it was 50 years or so later that the anti-slavery movements gathered pace it hardly makes it acceptable before then . The fact that people from Africa were treated as sub-human and as a commodity ought to have been by any professing Christian as profoundly wrong and evil then - slavery was hardly fun for the Israelites in Egypt .

It may be uncomfortable to find that our musical heroes have feet of clay and it may well be that in a time when something abominable was not treated as such by most of one's contemporaries that it is easy to understand why they had feet of clay but feet of clay they still are .

As for the programmes they were light on musical analysis but this is a Radio 4 general programme and the second programme on Saint Georges and Bridgetower was interesting .

[Dave2002]

I agree the programme wasn't very technical, and had some (to me at least) very poor features, but on the other hand it did at least point out the lives of a few musicians from an earlier era, and provided some examples of their output. Has R3 dealt with the composers mentioned, for example in COTW or the EMS?

Standing outside a locked chapel and making comments about feeling the vibes of the people buried within is real Daily Mail stuff - but perhaps some people believe in that, or even like it.

A more serious programme with more examples of the music, and also having a more critical discussion about how the particular composers came to be where they were, and what status they had in their society, and how they were viewed, would have been more interesting. I am still glad to have had my attention brought to these composers.

[MickyD]

There are a handful of discs available of J.B. de Saint-George's music - this offering from Tafelmusik is, to my ears, one of the more successful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPP4FNhiKcI