The Ineluctable Power of the given
Sebastian Modarelli - The Ineluctable Power of the Given
The other day, I took a few middle schoolers for a hike. One girl was complaining about the hard walk, saying that she was tired and afraid of heights. As soon as we got to the top, where a beautiful view was waiting for us, she stopped complaining and said, “How beautiful this is!”
At the beginning of the 20th century, as world peace entrusted to pure human reason was about to break apart, a prolific Russian composer named Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote one of the most popular piano concertos ever, his Concerto No. 2 in C minor. He himself played the premiere, as he was also a magnificent pianist (a rare combination to find nowadays).
As the world was starting to disintegrate at a slow but sure pace, all artistic expressions began to reflect the same bewilderment. Rationalism had brought forward the idea that breaking all the inherent limits of reality and becoming its owners and lords would bring about freedom. After all, we strive for power so we may control creation, and by doing so, we believe we will be free.
This is not mere philosophical speculation; it has permeated music for over a century. Composers began to manipulate harmony, rhythm, intelligibility, and form according to their own positum—their own decisions elevated to the same rank as what was given by nature. Nothing was a “given”; all those aspects of music could be manipulated as the individual stipulated. The result is that there has never been a century in which classical music has been so far removed from the real man as the 20th century.
Because of this, music critics at the time regarded Rachmaninoff’s music as out of touch with modern tendencies and holding onto a period that was fading away. Nevertheless, the Piano Concerto No. 2 was on the top list of concerts all around the world for years (because those who buy concert tickets are everyday people, not the erudite).
Still today, any kind of music from Baroque to Renaissance to Romanticism to Impressionism can fill an entire concert program, but people rarely tolerate more than one avant-garde piece. That’s why this piano concerto never gets old and can always find a new generation. What is given has an ineluctable power. Rachmaninoff, who had inherited the bursting passion for beauty from the Romantics of the 19th century, can still communicate that to you and your children, just as it happened to the girl on the hike.