The following paragraph (in italics) is a very brief extract from the 'Seminar participation/reflection' document that I was required to submit for my MA Music (Composition) course, outlining my thoughts at the time after listing my compositional activities for that particular year of study.
As 2020 brought an unprecedented global situation with the coronavirus pandemic, at times it was hard to motivate myself to do work, and I questioned the relative importance of my chosen path/field.
However, I have since concluded that at times like this we need creativity and art more than ever, as escapism, as positivity and to allow life to flourish again when things return to normal. As Winston Churchill purportedly said* when asked about cutting arts funding to help the war effort- “Then what are we fighting for?”.
As I read this again in 2021 to post it here, we find ourselves again in a situation where the government looks at the arts with disdain. As seems typical of this particular party, ministerial jobs are frequently not given to people who have any experience of the particular field, rendering them unqualified to legislate or advise in any meaningful way.
For example, why is it ok for tens of thousands of sports fans to gather and shout and sing, but choirs are still not able to meet? This network of countless amateur choral societies and university/community ensembles, whose members rely on this shared music making activity for their wellbeing and social lives, have just been abandoned.
A more politically sinister point of note here (as opposed to the sheer incompetence of the above example, although consistently this government seems to test Hanlon's razor to the absolute limit) is the increased examples of governmental crackdown on creativity and art.
A video recently emerged of police breaking down the door of a building that had placed a sculpture on its roof that criticised the government's attitude to immigration, while the story of a Tory council threatening a volunteer community group who made a flower display noting the nuclear tests by the British government on indiginous land overseas with removal of the garden and harassment in the national press is equally troubling.
As I mentioned in a recent tweet**, perhaps I should send this to 10 Downing Street, or tweet a link to the Home Secretary and Oliver Dowden just to see how long it is until I get a knock on the door?..
*NB: firstly, it is widely agreed that he likely didn't say this and secondly, relevant to the below paragraphs, Churchill of course is guilty of many troubling activities at home and abroad, my knowledge of these things important for you to be aware of when reading this blog
**https://twitter.com/FreddieHodkin/status/1414926578337910788?s=20