DECLARATIONS

posted by James Reel

    A few stray thoughts on Independence Day:
    » American composers have rarely been able to transform patriotic texts into lyrics that flow as beautifully when sung as they do when spoken. Randall Thompson’s Testament of Freedom (text by Thomas Jefferson) is something of an anomaly in that it handles the prose source quite musically. But David Diamond’s This Sacred Ground makes that most graceful of speeches, the Gettysberg Address, sound clumsy. And Howard Hanson doesn’t do much better with the poetry of Walt Whitman in his Song of Democracy. These composers are in good company; Handel and Stravinsky never quite got the hang of setting English idiomatically, either. (It counts as Americana rather than patriotism, but however gorgeous Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 may be, even it can’t quite match the musicality of James Agee’s original prose.)
    » Could someone please devise a Fourth of July orchestra concert that does not involve Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture? The piece has no relevance whatsoever to the holiday or any aspect of American history; it simply goes well with fireworks.
    » An angry listener once called to demand that we take A Prairie Home Companion off the air because host Garrison Keillor is “un-American.” It seems to me that the people who are quick to brand others as “un-American” are the citizens with the least understanding of what it truly means to be an American. Hint: It has little or nothing to do with patriotism, which, as you know, Dr. Johnson identified as “the last refuge of scoundrels.”
    » The State of Arizona requires its employees to sign a loyalty oath. What is this McCarthyite relic supposed to accomplish? Loyal Arizonans will resent that their government doesn’t trust them; the disloyal can simply lie.
    » Why do we make such a fuss over Independence Day, anyway? Any surly teenager can declare independence from his or her parents. The real test is coming up with a plan for life, and sticking to it, adapting the plan to unexpected developments through the years. Our great national holiday ought to be September 17: Constitution Day.