Music and trauma – why the two have a fraught relationship
Will artworks referencing the pandemic actually increase awareness and understanding, or is such appropriation simply a means of generating attention?
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Music is a medium that generally resists being unambiguously linked to external phenomena, and this is one of its strengths. It would be a narrow view to imagine Cosi fan tutte purely as a commentary upon sexual politics, or Modest Musorgsky's opera Boris Godunov as an incisive interpretation of pre-Romanov Russian dynastic history. Both of their musical content goes much further than this. So, if one wishes to communicate a clear message on contemporary events, is music necessarily the best medium to do so?
