Summer Series Webinar: Creativity During Times of Crisis

RSVP to Monique.Skinner@myunion.edu

Times of crisis can prompt the creation of works of art that continue to speak to people long after that particular crisis ends. This presentation will focus on a handful of such musical works composed during a variety of crises over the past several centuries. Examples include works written while the composer’s country was under military occupation, while the composer was in jail, a prisoner of war, or held in a concentration camp, while the composer’s city was under active military siege, or while the composer was dying. The music written under these circumstances sometimes reflect the stress, anxiety or fear that one might expect. Sometimes the music is joyful or life-affirming, almost as an antidote, and sometimes there is no obvious connection between the events and the music as though the composer refuses to acknowledge the crisis.  Composers are at work right now creating new music and some of that music, no doubt, is being written as a response to the coronavirus pandemic.