Where are all the curious?

Where are all the curious?

By Bob Small

In the world of ideas and art, there’s a fear of the new, whether it be new ideas, new methods ,any new way of doing things. From Beethoven to Elvis, from Mozart to The Rolling Stones to Nirvana to Katzeye to Twenty One Pilots new ideas are not always welcome.

A new violin concerto by composer Clara Iannotta was cancelled in Germany last October without telling the composer, conductor, or violin soloist.

Titled “sand like gold-leaf in smithereens” required non-musical instruments that were “additional sounding objects” .and it was reported that, due to this, “30 percent of the musicians refused to play the piece.

“What concerns me most is a profound lack of curiosity,” said the composer.

This lack of curiosity is not restricted to the arts world.

To quote the movie Cool Hand Luke: What we have here is a failure to communicate.

Too many people assume there is only one side and they know it!

The Essener Philharmoniker raised concerns but said discussions between players and management to find a solution were “initiated too late or not conducted with sufficiently empowered personnel. As a result, a genuine dialogue or joint decision was hardly possible”.

Translation, management wanted not to do this piece.

Clara herself said

“If situations like this are not addressed, they risk creating a climate where composer — especially younger ones — begin to anticipate refusal and adapt their language in advance,” Ms. Iannotta said.

In other words, self-censorship.

She noted the decision to cancel the performance was ultimately made by the management.

Let’s discuss the recent election in hometown Swarthmore.

Even though many of the problems of Swarthmore Borough such as high taxes, over-regulation, and the threatened changes to Cunningham Field, arise from the all Democratic Swarthmore Borough Council, many of the voters were not curious enough to give the Republicans a chance.

We now live in the “Delco Hospital Desert” and the all Democratic Delaware County Council has to do with that.

How bad does it have to get for people to consider a change?