Thought many parents on this board would be interested in this story. This is a very talented young man who is currently a Junior at NEC.
I’m not sure yet what to think about this story. I spoke with my son about it a few days ago, as the composer is a friend of one of my son’s friends, and they were quite upset about it. That was my initial reaction as well. There is no doubt that Jonas is extraordinarily talented, and in talking with my son, I do have sympathy for Jonas’ reluctance to try to explain his music and the purpose of quoting from the Horst Wessel Lied.
At the same time, the NYYS is really an amazingly wonderful organization that has given so much to the world of music over the years. I know a couple of the members of the board of trustees, who are dedicated and passionate about music and who volunteer their time and donate their money because they believe in the cause. I have contributed to the organization as well. I have not spoken about this incident with either of the board members I know, but intend to the next time I see them. But even without hearing their side of the story, I have some sympathy for the position they were put in here as the stewards of a youth symphony, having to answer to parents as well as to audiences. For what it’s worth, here’s a link to the statement that the NYYS posted on its website: http://www.nyyouthsymphony.org/news/2015/nyys-statement-removal-commissioned-orchestral-work
In any event, I’m reserving judgment for now. I am glad that the composition was given at least one performance, last month, and hope that the publicity this incident is receiving will lead an adult orchestra somewhere (or maybe several) to pick up the piece and perform it. Perhaps the incident will also lead to opportunities for Jonas to have some of his other works get more exposure as well. From what I understand, he deserves it.
The more I read about this incident (and I’ve read a lot) the more complex the issue seems. At heart, I’m very unhappy with the idea of censorship. And yet, the matter could have been handled so much better had the young composer supplied context for his work. Sure “art should speak for itself” but the artist needs to reach out, and sometimes down, to the public, assuming a least-common-denominator in which no irony is appreciated.
If you use Nazi melodies in your composition, have a statement to contextualize that. Just do. Where were these young man’s mentors when this was going on? Did he compose this piece in a vacuum? The situation was handled poorly, and the poor handling originated with the composer, whatever the merits and intentions of his piece.
Through no fault of their own that I can see, the NYYS administration were left doing damage control and were in a situation that, whatever their decision, they were going to look bad. As someone who has worked both as an artist and in arts management, I do not envy their position and I can also see how it could have been easily avoided. In the future, NYYS will probably require extensive vetting of commissioned pieces–if they commission them at all. I’ll be their board will have a lot to say about this. This incident could spell the end of commissioned pieces from their organization. And that is a real shame.
The kind of arrogance of “not having to explain” and “take my work or leave it” is what makes classical music so isolated. Many are saying that the incident was a calculated effort of a brazen young man to become famous by creating a media debacle. I don’t think this is the case, but that is part of the effect that’s been created.
@glassharmonica, I’m confident that this incident will not spell the end of commissioned pieces by the NYYS. They started the commission program thirty years ago and are very committed to giving young composers the opportunity to have their works performed. One of many things that makes the organization extraordinary in my view. I do agree that it may change the vetting process for the commissioned works. But the whole concept of the commission is to produce new works of music - they select the composers based on their prior work and then ask them to write music specifically for the NYYS season - so they don’t have the ability to vet the composition before they issue the commission.
I also don’t think this was in any way “a calculated effort of a brazen young man to become famous”. I don’t know Jonas personally, but from what I’ve heard about him, that’s just not who he is. Rather, I think it’s a case of a young artist who, like many young people, lives in a somewhat black and white moral universe where any compromise in principles is viewed as an attack on artistic integrity. That said, my understanding is that he’s a terrifically talented composer, and I really do wish him success with his music, including this composition.
I agree jazzpianodad that Jonas is a very talented composer. NYYS seem to be forgetting, Jonas Tarm is not the first to “quote” music from a difficult period in history. I have to wonder how this censorship fits in with other racial and emotional issues today.
BTW, glassharmonica Jonas’ reluctance to explain his composition and his desire to have the music speak for itself is quite common among young artists these days. I hear it all the time from visual art students. I am not sure why many feel if they have to explain their work then they have failed, but they do.
There is so much on social media about this - I’ve read a thousand comments from composers and administrators in the music world - and the more I hear the less sympathetic I am towards Tarm. And that’s from the mother of a young composer who writes very enigmatic program notes!
Interesting that you are seeing that from visual arts students. I can only speak from my own experience, but my daughter who graduated from art school last year was very much groomed in business of art classes to be articulate about her work. And I’ve seen this, although only anecdotally, of course, going on in other art schools. My daughter is now just out of school and continually applying for residencies, etc. She needs to be very verbal in her applications. If she refused to explain her work she’d be shooting herself in the foot.
Spiritmanager has shared some of the social media stuff she’s found with me, and I have to say, despite my initial siding with Tarm, I am pretty much no longer a supporter of his, based on how this event was handled and continues to be handled. Currently he’s got sponsored (paid) Facebook posts trumpeting his NYT interviews, and his father, a journalist, is tweeting the story enthusiastically.
As the parent of someone currently in NYY we witnessed this all unfold, from the inside, with the communications from the NYY administration. It has to be kept at the forefront of the discussion that this is a youth orchestra with members as young as 12; the game changes when you are dealing with minors. I have seen my own reaction to this morph from siding with the composer initially, to feeling now, that NYY management did what they had to do, given that they were blindsided by the lack of information from Tarm. There was a chance in this process for education, but that was denied, because Tarm took the stand he did. Had NYY management had more information about the content of the piece they could have communicated with parents and students fully and disclosed the content. Tarm is naive to think that quoting this was not risky, and that it doesn’t need explanation. Utter transparency would have put an entirely different spin on this commission.
It seems to me a bit hypocritical to write a programmatic piece, and then to be angry when people have trouble interpreting the program. Whose fault is that? Certainly works of art can incorporate offensive symbols–a movie about World War II will probably do that–but what matters is what you are saying about them. Tarm failed to do this clearly, apparently, either in the piece itself or in the program notes.
By the way, the use of the Marseillaise in the 1812 Overture is the way to do this effectively.
Edited to add: if his program note had said what his online statement did, there would probably have been no controversy.
I think this is a complicated situation and the human impulse seems to be to decide who is right and who is wrong. I think it best to resist that impulse and perhaps everyone can learn something.
Here is the NY Times article that Jonas Tarm has on his Facebook page: http://nyti.ms/1NrNeTy
Apparently one person complained, and signed the letter as a “Nazi survivor.”.
My composer daughter does not like to write program notes or explain her music either, but feels that in this case the two historical quotes could have been noted on the score. (And where was the teacher in all this?) My other daughter is a dancer: choreographers she works with do not like to explain their work either.
There is an opposing trend in the arts (including classical music) toward hour-long educational lectures before concerts, in which composers discuss their works at length. I find the contradiction between this trend toward explanation and education versus the artists who want their work to “stand on its own” very interesting.
The NY Times seemed to think the intention of Tarm’s work was clear if the piece is actually heard. I have no idea if that is true of course.
The accusations that this whole controversy was intentionally engineered by Tarm seem misguided at best. Clearly the cancellation would be upsetting. On the other hand, the symphony has parents, young people, audience, media and donors to consider, and most likely needed some reasonable middle ground - the gray between Tarm’s black and white perhaps- to move forward.
It would seem that this situation could have been resolved easily by someone. None of us knows what went on in communications or meetings and all the Internet speculation is a little out of control. And here I am participating in it!
Glassharmonica, you can be sure that the art student I meet have teachers who are pushing them to write about their work. And I think the reason I am seeing so many young artists not want to write about their work is they are pushing back against the trend these days to have work that require explanation, especially in galleries and modern art museums. And perhaps young composers are pushing back against conductor talks and that particular trend. It is their own rebellion agains the corporatization of art. So I “get it”. I am not saying it is right or wrong. But I do think that youth’s rebellions sometimes point out when us adults are going to far with something or perhaps when we need to readjust a bit.
My composer son is happy to explain his work. But I think he makes up the explanation after the piece has been written.
Lol, Hunt!
Titles raise similar issues, and after the fact 
Here’s a piece written by one of the student musicians in the orchestra with a lot of follow up comments. It’s on reddit which CC won’t let me post. But the end of the url is: /classicalmusic/comments/2y5stw/astudentsperspectiveonthenyystarm_censorship/
@SpiritManager I can’t get the link to open
I think cc has censored the address somehow.
Haha love the irony
@Clarimom No, that link won’t open - CC wouldn’t let me post it. One would need to go to reddit to find it. I intended to just delete my post but couldn’t figure out how! Oh well, maybe best to just let this controversy fade away…