{"id":40341,"date":"2016-12-02T11:42:13","date_gmt":"2016-12-02T16:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=40341"},"modified":"2016-12-21T21:40:27","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T02:40:27","slug":"oh-no-no-the-problem-with-christmas-music-programming-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2016\/12\/02\/oh-no-no-the-problem-with-christmas-music-programming-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"EDITORIAL | Ho Ho No? : The Problem With Christmas Music Programming (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h3>\n
\"Christmas
Christmas Music in a Multicultural World \u2014 how do non-Christian music lovers get through December? (Part Two)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Part Two:\u00a0 Since Multiculturalism<\/h3>\n

[For Part One, See Here<\/span><\/a>.]<\/strong><\/p>\n

T<\/span>hough The Messiah and Christmas Carol concerts still predominate in December, things are changing. \u00a0There are more \u201cwinter holiday\u201d or \u201cwinter solstice\u201d concerts and groups are expanding their focus. \u00a0The Amadeus Choir deserves a lot of credit for updating their International Songwriting Competition, which for 29 years solicited \u201csongs celebrating the stories of Christmas and Chanukah,\u201d but this year invites \u201cworks based on texts reflecting universal goals of peace, inclusion, understanding and generosity of spirit.\u201d\u00a0 Such values seem especially meaningful in a multicultural city.<\/p>\n

I realized after chatting with people from different faiths, that their feelings about Christmas music were different from mine, for a variety of reasons.\u00a0 Whether they loved Christmas music or were indifferent to it, nobody objected to the amount of it performed each December.<\/p>\n

My Hindu acquaintance, who was born in India, then grew up in the United States, told me that at Christmas she would go caroling with Christian and Jewish classmates.\u00a0 The Jews were very secular and assimilated, and had no problem singing these songs. \u00a0Furthermore, she explained, Gandhi believed in studying other religions and cultures as part of his search for the truth and read The New Testament.\u00a0 Concepts from Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Theosophy can be found in Gandhi\u2019s thinking.\u00a0 Engaging with other cultures through music or thought poses no problem to Hindu observance.<\/p>\n

The Muslim\u2019s I spoke with were born here, but their parents had grown up in countries where Christianity was not the majority faith.\u00a0 There was an established clear separation between the faiths, with relaxed interaction, including attending Christian schools.\u00a0 Here, Christianity doesn\u2019t have a strong presence in their awareness, and Christian music isn\u2019t especially intrusive.\u00a0 There is no equivalent winter solstice holiday due to the nature of the Muslim lunar calendar, so there is no sense that one holiday is being overshadowed by another.\u00a0 By the time they entered the school system in Toronto, the Lord\u2019s Prayer, and Bible reading had been removed, and the curriculum was secular.\u00a0 Christmas is just someone else\u2019s holiday, as much as Chanukah and Diwali.<\/p>\n

The most enthusiastic non-Christian lover of Christian music I spoke with is Darius Bagli, who is Zoroastrian.\u00a0 A prominent M.D. and a virtuosic pianist who believes in the healing power of music, (you can catch his performance of Chopin Scherzo #2 in B Flat Minor, here<\/a>). Bagli explained to me that the first Zoroastrian Society in Canada was in Quebec, where his father, Jehan Bagli, an ordained Zoroastrian Priest, (and an organic chemist in his day job) was the President.\u00a0 Zoroastrians began arriving in Canada in the Sixties, and approximately 5000 of the 300,000 Zoroastrians world-wide, now live here.\u00a0\u00a0 The world\u2019s oldest existing monotheistic religion, originating in Persia, it may have been the inspiration for other world monotheistic religions, including Judaism, and the Three Magi in the Christmas Story may have been Zoroastrians.\u00a0 Its three core tenets are good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, and according to Bagli, this entails a \u201crespect and recognition of other religions.\u201d\u00a0 There is no impediment to a wholehearted embrace of sacred music, be it Christian or any other kind.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristmas music is part of my blood, I\u2019ve performed it in Churches, and at weddings, I\u2019ve blasted Christmas music on my sound system, it\u2019s a part of my own musical heritage even if it isn\u2019t from my religion,\u201d he stated quite passionately.\u00a0 \u201cEven though the words tell the Christmas story, I don\u2019t really listen to the words.\u00a0 Music is a universal language in and of itself, and the world religions share universal values, even if they have different manifestations.\u00a0 I like to say that Christians don\u2019t have the lock on Christmas.\u201d
\nWithout venturing too deeply into comparative religion, it\u2019s safe to say that doing good deeds is valued in many faiths.\u00a0 It is also one of the three core tenets of Judaism. \u00a0As for Bagli, performing music for others is one meaningful way for Toronto lawyer and advanced amateur pianist Gilda Berger to fulfill that tenet.\u00a0 On Christmas Eve she plays carols for the homeless people who find shelter at the Out of the Cold Program at her synagogue, and she performs Christmas music at her local food bank, where her audiences are very grateful.<\/p>\n

In her Facts and Arguments essay<\/a>, Berger describes her childhood discomfort with Christmas, in Winnipeg, circa 1960: \u201c In elementary school, I dreaded the approach of Christmas and the mandatory participation in the choirs\u2026I\u2019d carefully mouth all the key words I felt might compromise my status in my own religion \u2013 Jesus, Mary, saviour, manger, herald angels.\u201d\u00a0 But today, without reservation, she wholeheartedly embraces \u201cthe generosity, the hopefulness and positive wishes that come with the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

One reason she thoroughly enjoys playing her repertoire of Christmas Carols, is that she finds them very beautiful.\u00a0 She and Bagli both feel that it would be a shame to restrict Christmas music to Christians.<\/p>\n

There are many fine minds tackling the challenges of multiculturalism, so I defer to thinkers such as Erna Paris and Ian Buruma.\u00a0 If I could wave a magic wand, we would have December programming that retains the beloved sacred favorites of Christmas well as great music from other traditions, even if the compositions are not specifically about December holidays.\u00a0 However many cultures remain or arrive in Toronto, December will always be cold and dark, and our concert venues could be places to warm up and cheer up to the sound of music, no matter what our religious backgrounds may be.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Christmas Music in a Multicultural World \u2014 how do non-Christian music lovers get through December? (Part Two)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":40349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5723,4967,31],"tags":[6560,5166,6562],"yst_prominent_words":[6902,6905,6892,6890,6895,6893,6904,6903,6744,6907,6899,6616,6901,6897,6898,6894,6891,6896,6900,6906],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/ho-ho-no-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-auF","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40341"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40913,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40341\/revisions\/40913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40341"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=40341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}