We need the English music that the Arts Council hates

19 April 2008

Roger Scruton hails the glorious achievements of the English composers, and their role in idealising the gentleness of the English arcadia — so loathed by our liberal elite

So fertile has English music been that there is less and less room in the concert hall for the neglected masterpieces. Yet at this time when we English are beginning to rediscover our primary attachments it is more than ever necessary to connect to our national music — the most vital and consoling part of the culture that defines us. Luckily the matter has been taken in hand by Em Marshall, the young enthusiast who founded the English Music Festival, with the express purpose of bringing back into the repertoire all the masterpieces that have fallen out of it or which don’t attract the attention of the official sponsors. The Festival takes place in Oxfordshire from 23 until 27 May, and provides a rare opportunity to hear Holbrooke’s Birds of Rhiannon, Rawsthorne’s deeply nostalgic Practical Cats, Mackenzie’s lovely Benedictus and Bantock’s Celtic Symphony, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra under Barry Wordsworth. Bliss, VW, Bridge and Delius are all represented, along with surprising premieres of works by Britten. Music lovers are urged to find out for themselves by visiting www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk; just to read the programme is to feel a spasm of national pride.

It is an interesting fact about our country, however, that its culture is the target of systematic repudiation from those entrusted with preserving it. Em Marshall’s approaches to the Arts Council have been repeatedly rebuffed. To seek funding for something consciously English offends against political correctness, and multicultural orthodoxy has required the Council to turn its back on England and on anything that might invoke our national greatness. Such an attitude to the national culture would be unthinkable in France. And it bespeaks a profound ignorance of what England stands for. Our culture has been a generous host to other outlooks, other places, other faiths. That is part of what it is to be English, and part of what our English music conveys. You don’t have to look very far to grasp the point. Names like Bax, Delius, Finzi, Dolmetsch and Holst bear witness to an immigrant-friendly island. Bax loved Ireland as much as England, and evoked its landscape as no other composer has. From Holst’s Vedic Hymns and Delius’s Koanga to Britten’s Curlew River our music has reached out to the world in a spirit of inclusion, and if ‘multiculturalism’ means anything, then Curlew River (a ‘church parable’ in the form of a Noh play) is the quintessential instance of it — and all the more English for that.

For the time being we English must live under governments and institutions that have our cultural annihilation as their hidden goal. All the more reason, therefore, to support the private attempts to keep the memory of our country alive, and to rally support for its real achievements. So let’s all meet up in Oxfordshire this May.

Previous page 1 | 2 | 3

More articles from: Roger Scruton | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (6)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Post comment

David Lucas

April 17th, 2008 2:48pm Report this comment

And also, of course, George Dyson's magnificent 'Canterbury Pilgrims'

Andy Hughes

April 17th, 2008 4:40pm Report this comment

Thank you, Roger Scruton, for articulating what many people (or, at least, I and my friends) feel about England, Englishness and English music.

You speak so eloquently that which we would like to speak ourselves, if only we had your words and your wisdom.

We wish that there were more conservative philosophers like you to combat the deluge of cultural Marxism engulfing and overwhelming our way of life and our values.

A Kendal

April 18th, 2008 2:54pm Report this comment

How surprising that Roger Scruton discusses the English composers that are, apparently, despised by the "liberal elite", and 'forgets' to mention Arthur Sullivan, particularly in terms of his work with WS Gilbert.

I do hope that it was just an oversight and not an indication of snobbery. Although it would be a disappointing oversight from someone who is supposed to know about music.

John Borstlap, Amsterdam

April 18th, 2008 10:50pm Report this comment

Roger Scruton is very right. But not only in relation to the UK, also for the whole of Europe: only a hospitable 'Leitkultur' can be a symbol of cultural identity. To celebrate cultural identity is in itself not a conservative gesture but only common sense; it is 'cultural relativism' which denies the obvious and normal reality that a culture can be related to a geographic area and therefore, as a normal thing, be its main charateristic, without 'dominating', 'suppressing' etc. offshoots of other cultures in its midst. PC cultural politics is an udnerstandable reaction against cultural imperialism in the past but often it has gone much too far.

Spencer West

April 19th, 2008 7:47pm Report this comment

Am I the only one who finds Scruton to be deeply CREEPY.

Nicholas

April 21st, 2008 11:15am Report this comment

Deeply creepy? Not sure how you get that feeling from this article. Perhaps you are the only one. As I listen to the Tallis Fantasia I'm grateful to Roger Scruton for his well-articulated thoughts on English music.

Post comment