Social Relevance: “Inward Journey” Recital, Pt. 1

Hey everyone! I hope anybody reading this is safe & well. If you think an evening of beautiful music might help you feel better in these times, I invite you to watch my recital livestream for the Boston Court Pasadena Emerging Artists Series, which will be streaming two weeks from tonight. More info here: http://bostoncourtpasadena.org/events/emerging-artists-justin-birchell/ . It feels strange to be promoting myself as an entertainer while such momentous events are taking place in the world; believe me I’m aware how tone-deaf it might seem--that is what this blog post is all about.

Times are trying and events are sad every day. I haven’t written a blog post since March. Like many other people, I’ve had other things on my mind: coping with the demotivation of quarantine, fearing for the future of my industry, handling rapid changes and unpredictability in my own life-circumstance, and watching slack-jawed as a fascist administration tries to subvert our democracy (and some of my own friends and relatives support it).

But now I have a project coming up which once again has the artistic and intellectual juices flowing, and I want to write about it: not just to spill my own thoughts, but to engage with the current world-context and offer ideas that might also make the recital more relevant. I want to write a few blog posts that I hope will act as “DVD special features” for the recital; for the sake of an enjoyable livestream experience, we’ll keep the recital rather short and sweet, without too much talking or extra material. But (as most people who know me could guess), there’s plenty of talking I *could* do: I have thoughts I’d love to share about the intention behind the recital, the process of preparing it, and its relevance. Look out for 3 or 4 blog posts about aspects of this recital, such as: the unusual languages that are included in the repertoire, the ideas & meaning behind the recital contents, and the process of putting it together.

The theme of the recital is “Inward Journey”: one of my favorite subjects, and one which I feel is so sadly neglected in our modern culture. I believe that the interior world of each human being is a rich field full of mystery. Our conscious intellect is only the smallest portion of our inner world, which is full of the depth and range of emotion, our deepest loves and callings, and the mysterious but beautiful realm of dream-consciousness and imagination. From the interior of the human being bubble out all the ideas which have made up our human world: and even more awesome are the vast spaces within which are never externalized but which make up such a huge portion of who we are. The recital will, broadly, tell the story of a person who becomes unmoored from external society and takes a deep journey within the geography of their own psyche.

Because of this particular theme and the repertoire chosen to convey it, this recital will not give me an opportunity to say Black Lives Matter, or to call for justice for Breonna Taylor and Elijah McClain, or to tell people to help Save the Postal Service, or to remind people to register & vote. I feel this as a lack, and I feel guilty about it. At a moment of such societal urgency, can anyone with a public platform afford *not* to share these messages?

So first of all, let me take a moment to use this blog post to say what I won’t be saying on stage on October 10th: Black Lives Matter, ICE needs to be abolished, Trump needs to be removed from office, trans people deserve civil rights, and America’s public institutions, especially the institutions of state violence such as police forces, need to be reformed & managed for the public good.

Having said that, I believe that, even in this moment, a recital of esoteric music dealing with the esoteric themes of inward psychic exploration can still be relevant, even in this historical moment, for the following reasons:

First, escapism is needed sometimes. As we deal with the tiresome and grinding problems of today’s world, we also need islands of peace, of distraction, and of beauty. I hope this recital can be an island.

Second, in addition to material and social problems, the society is currently facing spiritual problems. The problems in the outer society have generated in the hearts and minds of people. The problems of greed, ignorance, and historical denial have their roots inside people’s hearts. I believe even people who are on “the right side of history” right now have work to do in this regard. We must uproot the injurious tendencies not just in our institutions but in our own hearts. The first step in this direction is to become familiar with our own interiors, not just our tastes, preferences, and hopes, the material we usually think of when we talk about “being true to ourselves,” but also the deep interior layers from which our actions and identities germinate.

The spiritual problems needing attention are not just those that are easy to label as such (racism, greed, historical ignorance), but some that are more basic and harder to let go: our need to fit in; our social assumptions about consumption, commerce, and what ultimately gives life meaning; our need for coolness or acceptance or attention. Many of these tendencies are subtly toxic and from their energies arise the larger historical problems of the society. In general one thing that must be addressed if society is to be just, or even just continue to exist, is people’s overall level of consciousness and compassion. To address these problems we must first dive inside and see what is there.

Finally, I feel that any act of true self-sharing is critical and meaningful at this time. The themes & content of this recital have generated in the deepest sphere of my own obsessions, interests, and what I think is beautiful. At a time when everything is sad and systems of oppression seem pervasive, I believe this kind of act is redemptive and beautiful.

Another problem with the recital is the inclusiveness, or lack thereof, in the programming. As it has turned out, my repertoire is all by white men. The languages represented are all the languages of white cultures. The recital is more inclusive & diverse than it may seem at first glance, as I will explain below, but it should be acknowledged that it could, and ought to, be moreso. Classical music must fling open its doors to the diverse human family if it is to remain a valid artistic form. As a recitalist I have been remiss in programming material by composers underrepresented populations, though in the past I’ve had the joy of singing the music of amazing women composers like Nicky Sohn, Carla Lucero, Janice Hamer, and Gabrielle Owens. The foregoing list of names also represents more racial diversity than the average classical concert program as well. But there is much more to be done in this regard. This recital was originally to include works in Farsi, Japanese, and Korean (and Catalan), but due to time considerations these pieces ended up being cut, leaving the large cycles in Irish Gaelic and Swedish, and the closing song in Finnish. I look forward to including these songs, and more from nonwhite languages, on future recitals I hope to program.

Nevertheless, this recital is more relevant, in terms of goals of diversity and inclusion, than may be superficially evident. By programming Swedish, Finnish, and Irish Gaelic, we have included three languages that are not normally associated with the canon of classical song. In fact, this recital contains no French, German, or Italian: a fact of which I am proud! The linguistic hegemony of the three “standard” languages is not merited by any linguistic or social justification. These languages are *not* more suited to lyric singing than the other languages of humankind. Rather, they are standard by historical accident. Those who praise the beautiful balance of vowel and consonant in Italian will find almost the same balance in Finnish (in linguistic terms, these two languages have almost identical rules for syllable construction). The variety of vowel colors in Swedish is certainly a match for that in French, and Irish has a beautiful phonological complexity all its own. Advancing the goal of linguistic diversity and reducing the cultural hegemony of French, German, and Italian is, to my mind, a progressive and worthy goal regardless of whether the particular languages are “white,” “nonwhite,” or other aspects of their status. Furthermore, in the case of the Irish and the Finns, the groups in question have been historically-oppressed minorities and have suffered particularly from linguistic suppression in the past, so in my estimation, their inclusion in an art-song recital remains an anti-imperialist act.

I will add that, although our composers are all white men in this case, we are featuring poetry by two fantastic women writers, Edith Södergran (for “Södergran-Dagbok”) and Doris Lessing (for “Sky-Descent”).

All in all, while the content & meanings of this recital are very dear to me, I also feel regretful that they do not do more to engage the problems of the present day. This blog post is an attempt to span that gap.