Music and politics...

French politics. After being drip fed slowly but surely over the past year, life has suddenly become flooded with the subject as the elections loom. But it's only today that they've really got down to the nitty-gritty: music. :) Music website Altamusic posed three questions to the presidential wannabees, including the perennial favourite: "It's often said that classical music is elitist. What do you think about this?" Royal somewhat side-steps the issue, saying that she doesn't really like to oppose a popular/mass culture with an elite culture, but Bayrou and Sarkozy give pretty convincing answers. Bayrou suggests that it's not the music itself which is elitist, but its system of distribution. Fair point surely? Sarkozy gives the fullest answer, stating that "The music often called "classical" is often by definition the most popular because it is that which has descended time, fashion and society to reach us. Mozart and Beethoven's music was perhaps revolutionary, even elitist in the time of its contemporaries, but how can one pretend it isn't popular? The number of people who have listened to this music over many centuries is simply incalculable! Even the music that certain cultural functionaries name "musiques actuelles", even the music of the most contemporary rock groups, draw their harmonies from the tonal system invented by Bach and Rameau. And I'm not even talking of films and adverts which resort to Schubert, Shostakovitch or Fauré to create an atmosphere or to make their products liked. In truth, this music is universal." (Click here if you want to see more or read the original French.)