So much for service through song
Donald Trump, presidentelect of the United States, is planning his inauguration and has run into trouble with both the Rockettes and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. This is interesting only partly because it sounds like the setup to a joke, possibly an obscene one, from the 1960s.
Both these American cultural institutions are of relatively great antiquity and familiarity, but they are a little old- fashioned. The Choir used to put out best- selling records that I am just old enough to have seen in the stereo cabinets of neighbours and friends. If you know someone who has one now, it seems more likely that they are a great- grandparent than a parent. One does not expect to find either them or the Rockettes in the middle of a sharp, current political debate, and on the same side. Or even, typically, at the same public event.
Both the Rockettes and the choir are large artistic ensembles that have had defectors oppose their participation in the Trump inauguration festivities. The Rockettes, the precision dance team of Radio City Music Hall, were said to have been handed an “edict” requiring them to perform after their appearance was announced in the press. Members speaking anonymously to the press seemed shocked at the sudden discovery that their job involves performing in dance costumes in front of strangers for hire.
It was not quite clear whether they disliked the idea of being leered at by Trump, as they might be by any New Jersey dentist who attends one of their shows, or whether they perceived a risk of being physically molested backstage by the president- elect. Fortunately, the managers of the Rockettes, the Madison Square Garden Company, have declared that members of the troupe are free to opt out of particular events. It added that, in this case, it has a sufficient quorum, and the performance will go ahead.
It is the hint of dissension in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir that is more compelling.
Its singers are not, after all, employees chosen for looking sharp in fishnets.
Members of the MTC belong to a publicity arm of a religious denomination that has a pretty tense relationship with the incoming president, to say nothing of its past struggles with the American federal government.
Historically, Mormons have been both persecutors and victims of persecution. Their choir played an important part in positioning Mormons in the mainstream of American life, and its members are checked out for theological standards as well as performing- related ones.
In short, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has a mission in a way that the Rockettes don’t. Choir member Jan Chamberlin is leaving the group after a lot of prayer, according to a Facebook message (since withdrawn).
She argued that performing for the new president would be an endorsement of “tyranny and fascism”: “For me,” she wrote, “this is a hugely moral issue. I only know I could never ‘ throw roses to Hitler.’ And I certainly could never sing for him.”
Anyone who thinks Trump is a second Hitler obviously doesn’t know the first thing about, er, the first Hitler. But even if you are really, REALLY anti-Trump — maybe he is a dangerous but un- Hitlerlike fascist predator! — the choir is certainly not being asked to perform for someone who has already plunged the United States into war and liquidated minority groups. That stuff comes after the inaugural!
Ms. Chamberlin, who spent five years in the choir, seems a bit confused about what the choir is for. Its official site speaks of “service through song:” the massed human voice, we are told, has “the power to bring joy, peace, and healing to its listeners. This unique music organization transcends cultural and generational boundaries and brings together people from around the world through stirring music.”
This mandate would seem to impose a high standard of political openness on the choir. It does not exist primarily to perform for Mormons, or strictly for the nicer sort of Republican. You cannot possibly “bring people together” if you are insanely fussy about which people are worth performing for. And since Mormons are usually counted as Christians, it is worth asking: Wouldn’t a professing Christian actually sing for Hitler if it might help?
Doesn’t the choir’s formal mandate seem to be making a rather big deal of music’s power to awaken the best in the human spirit? Has Ms. Chamberlin just now discovered, in tortured late- night dialogue with her God, that this is nonsense? It almost certainly is, after all. You may not approve of Hitler’s musical taste, but it was unquestionably very sophisticated. I doubt whether this is true of Trump, and that may actually be reassuring.
The curious thing is that in responding to Ms. Chamberlin, the Church itself did not make much of the choir’s apolitical mission. It makes the ensemble seem more like an instrument of political accommodation.
Spokesman Eric Hawkins noted that the Choir has a long tradition of “performing for U. S. presidents of both parties” and added “It is a demonstration of our support for freedom, civility, and the peaceful transition of power.”
This is surely more of a “No, the president- elect isn’t Hitler” defence than it is “We exist to demonstrate our wonder-working faith to all mankind.”
THE CHURCH ITSELF DID NOT MAKE MUCH OF THE CHOIR’S APOLITICAL MISSION.