Letters: RTÉ Living Music Festival 2005

Dear EditorGiven that I had been quite critical of his programming, it is entirely understandable that Kevin O’Connell should be annoyed with my review of the 2005 RTÉ Living Music Festival. Henze’s work featured above that of any other...

Dear Editor

Given that I had been quite critical of his programming, it is entirely understandable that Kevin O’Connell should be annoyed with my review of the 2005 RTÉ Living Music Festival.

Henze’s work featured above that of any other composer; his face was on the posters; he was supposed to come and be interviewed – whether this was a Henze festival or a festival with a focus on Henze is not of any great importance. In any event, it was a rather unprovocative and apolitical Henze that we experienced. As for audience psychology, I had no huge theory on the subject. The only aspect of psychology that concerned me was whether as many people as possible were motivated to spend as much of one weekend as possible listening to a particular kind of music. If Kevin O’Connell believes that thinking about how to achieve this goal is condescending, so be it. It is probably possible for a well established event like Huddersfield to promise good music and nothing else; I am not sure that a still-new festival like the RTÉ LMF can do the same.

Regarding the rest of Mr O’Connell’s letter, I must express extreme puzzlement. He himself admits that the focus of which I wrote does not have to be geographical. My imaginary festival focusing on English music picked up on the English sub-theme in his own festival; there was nothing to suggest that it could not as easily have been a festival focusing on minimalism, electro-acoustic work, improvisation, the human voice…

As I have frequently accused certain writers, critics and artists of facile internationalism, it is probably time that someone should accuse me of the same – but I have not succeeded in identifying just where in my review there lurks ‘the chilly grip of the nation-state mentality and its attendant ugliness’. Finally, if I had the slightest inkling of how, through the RTÉ LMF, Mr O’Connell ‘kicked at some borders, including the most disputed one (60 miles north of here …)’, I am sure that I would share in his pride in that achievement.

Barra Ó Séaghdha
Navan Road, Dublin

 

Published on 1 July 2005

Barra Ó Séaghdha is a writer on cultural politics, literature and music.

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