The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Hold the Applause

6.19.07 @ 12:01AM

MUSICAL INTERLUDES
Re: Stephen M. Davis's Symphony Flags:

I enjoyed Stephen M. Davis's "Symphony Flags," where he complained that, "[a]side from talking, cell phones and coughing, nothing mars a performance more than applause between movements. And, other than cowboy hats and tractor hats, nothing marks a community more as a backwater of the beaux arts than such a robust expression of rubedom."

I generally agree with both of those sentiments; during a recent performance of Beethoven's Ninth, I had the grim pleasure of tapping a disruptive nine-year-old seated in front of me on the shoulder and, when he turned around, hissing at him, "Knock it off!" He managed to behave during the rest of the performance.

But unfortunately, you can't tell thirty or forty people in a concert hall to stop clapping.

All that having been said, I have to admit to having broken that rule once myself. Last year, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg performed the Tchaikovsky violin concerto with our local Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. While waiting for her first entrance, she had all the appearance of a sprinter preparing for a 100-yard dash; she shifted from one foot to the other, shook her arms as if relaxing them, rolled her head around as if working any stray kinks out of her neck. Then she made her entrance.

The movement was a European high-speed train careening full tilt down a mountain. The tempo was -- well, "breathtaking" is too mild a word; "terrifying" really describes it. The sound was full-bodied and robust. You held your breath the entire movement, expecting the inevitable catastrophic derail -- which never came. When the movement's final chords crashed through the hall, everyone immediately burst into thunderous applause -- not the usual desultory scattered claps you generally hear. When the noise had died down, Salerno-Sonnenberg, looking a little embarrassed, remarked to the audience, "I'm sorry to have to tell you, but there are still two more movements."

General laughter.
-- Bernie Gilbert
Alexandria, Virginia

I could never understand the objection, often colored with a sneering condescension, as Mr. Davis's article so aptly illustrates, to applause between movements of a symphony. Think of opera. After a beautifully sung aria, applause is de rigueur. What an insult to do otherwise!

Why not for symphonic music?
-- Paul

WAR AND VALUES
Re: George H. Wittman's Losing Hearts and Minds:

This is a letter invoking concern over the article "Losing Hearts and Minds," by George H. Wittman.

On the whole, I found this an excellent read that fully exemplified what is essentially a Catch-22 that applied to Iraq as it did in Vietnam: when occupying a foreign country, you can easily open yourself to grinding, pointless guerrilla war unless conditions on the ground have already been met that will preclude it, such as liberating that country from another foreign occupier. This in itself is exemplified in the differences in the situation with Afghanistan and Iraq.

However, I did note some concern over the last few paragraphs where Wittman describes the world "not waging war in a manner consistent with American values." I found this section a blind spot on what was an otherwise insightful article.

Did Tecumseh Sherman wage war consistent with American values when he moved through the south? One wonders. As I see it, when resources, funding and security are scant, values can be a very tricky phrase. American values are unlikely to be incredibly different in this respect from British, French, Indian, Japanese... yes, even Iraqi values, and even in warfare. The difference is that America currently faces an undisciplined force that is still learning in many ways how to fight, and exists only to fight, and fight dirty. They have no reliable base of operations with not a tank nor aircraft to their name and neither the capacity to build or operate one if they could. Were America invaded and overcome -- whatever the stated reason of the occupier -- no doubt similar ruthless groups would appear determined to stop what was observed as the enemy. This would happen even if the invader were Christian and spoke English. Even more so if they were of different religion, language and ethnicity. And this would be the same anywhere, different mostly only in non-essential details.

Iraq, as anywhere, has its share of racists, its share of anti-western patriots, its share of bull-headed religious adherents. These will always be the people who will not be bothered to understand the nuanced argument, or care for it -- people who favor action for action's sake, more concerned with appearing to be manly than actually doing it. You can find this on the streets of Fallujah as readily as on the streets of Detroit. And in the corridors of power in Baghdad as easily as in Washington or Paris. The difference is that in Washington, these people understand there is little to gain and much to lose by violating the status quo of society.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Harry Reid, Sports, Religion, Law, Military, Iraq, Iran, NATO