Shostakovich and the Politics of Survival.(On Music)(Dmitri Shostakovich, composer)

From: The New Leader | Date: November 1, 2004| Author: Simon, John | Copyright information

IT IS FRUITFUL to speculate about why we want our artists to be "good" persons. This is more or less understandable--which is not to say justifiable in the case of writers and painters, but absurd in the case of composers. A writer deals in words, and even if they take as many liberties with everyday reality as a poem can, words may be construed as exemplars: models for perception or behavior, influencing readers' thoughts and actions.

The morality of the writer, therefo...

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