{"id":73815,"date":"2022-01-20T16:01:33","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T21:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=73815"},"modified":"2022-01-20T16:07:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T21:07:14","slug":"twitterverse-uproar-composer-spencer-arias-lettersociety-for-the-preservation-of-western-music-spwm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2022\/01\/20\/twitterverse-uproar-composer-spencer-arias-lettersociety-for-the-preservation-of-western-music-spwm\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SCOOP | Music Society Sparks Outrage For Letter Critical Of Diversity In Classical Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Twitterverse has been in an uproar this week after a US-based composer (Spencer Arias) shared a letter he received from an alleged organization called, \u201cSociety for the Preservation of Western Music\u201d (SPWM).<\/p>\n

The tweet included the caption, \u201cTell me again that classical music isn\u2019t #racist\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The letter identified him as \u201ca respected voice in our pursuit of integrity,\u201d and invited him to collaborate on a new monthly online periodical.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not until the letter outlines their mission statement, that it starts to get strange.<\/p>\n

The letter alludes that the new publication is in response to \u201c\u2026the virulent spread of identity-based concert programming.\u201d<\/p>\n

It goes on to state they are looking to \u201cactively promote canonical masterworks of the Western Classical tradition from antiquity to the present day.\u201d<\/p>\n

See the full letter [HERE<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Twitter was quick to identify the letter as blatantly racist.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The identity of the author is a mystery\u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u2026All we know<\/strong> is that it was sent on behalf of a group of over 100 Canadian and American composition and theory faculty members who describe themselves as \u201c\u2026staunch advocates for the foundations of our traditionally Western artistic practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With little to go on other than the name of the organization, a web search for the name turns up nothing.<\/p>\n

Trolling maybe?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A few Twitter comments have suggested that the letter is far too outrageous to be real. Some suggested it was sent from an internet troll looking to harass and\/or provoke an angry response.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

According to Ben Liberatore, a PhD student at Columbia University, most of the recipients were BIPOC, queer, and\/or women.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeems most of the musicians & musicologists who got this are BIPOC, queer, and\/or women, which makes this particular variation on the unhinged \u2018death of the West\u2019 whinge not just desperate in its meanness and fragility, but targeted harassment, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poetic justice<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Someone has registered the spwesternmusic.com domain and redirected it to www.andwewereheard.org<\/a>, an organization dedicated to giving underrepresented composers a platform.<\/p>\n

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

Get the daily arts news straight to your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sign up for the Ludwig van Daily \u2014 classical music and opera in five minutes or less <\/em>HERE<\/em><\/a>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Twitterverse has been in an uproar this week after composer Spencer Arias shared a letter he received from the \u201cSociety for the Preservation of Western Music\u201d (SPWM).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":73816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[39907,39646,39],"tags":[39933,39932,39801],"yst_prominent_words":[39370,6767,6715,8399,13461,10356,6616,10744,8229,13869,7766,27006,10760,7414,8046],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/01\/Society_for_the_Preservation_of_Western_Music.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-jcz","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73815"}],"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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73815"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73824,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73815\/revisions\/73824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73815"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=73815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}