“On May 27th, two days after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, Anthony McGill, the principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic, posted a recording of himself playing ‘America the Beautiful,’ ” writes Alex Ross in the July 6 and 13 issue of The New Yorker. “Then he goes down on both knees, his clarinet behind his back, as if shackled, and bends his head. The video, titled ‘TakeTwoKnees,’ lasts about ninety seconds, but it has the weight of a symphonic statement. McGill later recounted that he had been searching for some way to respond to Floyd’s killing…. It has inspired a torrent of responses from other musicians…. African-Americans are severely underrepresented in classical music, although you wouldn’t necessarily know it from the frequency with which people of color are now featured in promotional brochures. Online discussions in the wake of nationwide Black Lives Matter protests have made clear how uncomfortable the role of a black classical musician can be…. Classical music, which is to say white classical music, has a problem.” The article also discusses new compositions that respond to the pandemic. “The strangeness of this moment lies in how it has pulled people both toward an extreme inwardness and toward an outward explosion of feeling.”
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