Politics of Politics: Fretwork Recreates the Cosmopolitan Vision of England ca. 1600

Humanism believes in a far-reaching program that stands for the establishment throughout the world of democracy, peace, and a high standard of living on the foundations of a flourishing economic order, both national and international.”
  —  Corliss Lamont, Humanism Defined.

In 1540, Henry VIII requisitioned musicians from Italy to compose and perform at his court. Two families came—they were not only Italian but clandestine Jews (marranos, or nominally converted ‘New Christians’). The Lupo and the Bassano families thrived in England and served the monarchy for over a century. Yesterday, the ensemble Fretwork performed a program of their music, ‘Birds on Fire: Jewish Musicians in the English Court,’ at Wigmore Hall in London:

• Augustine Bassano: Pavan and Galliard No. 1;
  
• Heironymus Bassano: Fantasia No. 1 in 5 parts;
  
• Joseph Lupo: Pavan in 5 parts;
  
• Thomas Lupo: Two Fantasias in 6 parts; Pavan in 3 parts*; Fantasia for three trebles; Fantasy for three basses; Fantasia in 6 parts; Two Fantasias in 6 parts;
  
• Van Wilder: Fantasia, con e senza pause (“Emmentaler vs. Gruyere”);
  
• Duarte: Two Symphonies in 5 parts;
  
• Salmone Rossi: Hashkivenu; Shir hamma’ a lot (Psalm 128);
  
• Gough: Birds on Fire;
  
• Various: A suite of dances from the Lumley Part Books: Desperada, Pavan and Gallyard, Seconda desperada, Pavan and Gallyard of Albarti, and Terza desperada.

    [50-sec clip, Thomas Lupo, Fretwork Ensemble, ‘Pavan in 3 Parts’, 0.9MB MP3]

The program notes assert that these pieces illustrate the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Tudor and Stuart courts, drawing upon the idioms of Franco-Flemish or Italian music. Although the Jews had been banished from the kingdom of England since 1290, the Italian-Jewish Bassano and Lupo families became composer dynasties, dominating English music between 1550 and 1650. But this program is, I think, far more than nominally ‘cosmopolitan.’ It is a story of international relations and the perennial pitfalls of international politics. More on that below...

Formed in 1986, the group consists of six players. Its repertoire consists primarily of music of the Renaissance period, in particular that of Elizabethan and Jacobean England, arrangements of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, plus contemporary music composed for them.

Fretwork

• Richard Boothby
  
• Richard Campbell
  
• Wendy Gillespie
  
• Asako Morikawa
  
• Richard Tunnicliffe
  
• Susanna Pell

with Jeremy Avis singing the Salmone Rossi Ebreo pieces, ‘Hashkivenu’ and ‘Shir hamma’ a lot’.

In 1997 Fretwork won the French Grand Prix du Disque for their recording ‘Lachrimae, or Seven Teares’ by John Dowland. Fretwork performed for the soundtracks of two Jim Jarmusch movies, ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’ (2003) and ‘Broken Flowers’ (2005). Their other film performances include ‘The Da Vinci Code’, ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, ‘The Crucible’, and ‘La Fille d’Artagnan’. Fretwork’s members’ versatility and musicianship are impressive. And last night the warmth of their playing delighted the Wigmore Hall audience of about 500.

The program was bookended with ‘Birds on Fire’, a three-part piece by Orlando Gough composed for Fretwork in 2001 and based on the novel by Aaron Appelfeld ‘Badenheim 1939.’ The novel is about a group of Jews at a spa outside of Vienna in the spring of 1939. With the Nazi regime’s actions the town gradually becomes a ghetto, and the musicians abandon Viennese schmalz and play klezmer tunes (‘Kandel’s Hora’ and ‘Odessa Bulgarish’) in secret. According to Gough’s program notes, they persuade themselves that the sinister changes around them are ‘improvements’, until summer turns to autumn, the food runs out, and they are reduced to eating absurd delicacies from the abandoned hotel pantry. “A pair of twins give a reading—their words were like birds on fire.”

Visiting England from the U.S. as I am, the Fretwork ‘Birds on Fire’ program was especially apropos and poignant. I imagined the precariousness of the Lupos and Bassanos in English society—this was a backdrop to my comprehending these compositions. The Tudor and Stuart courts—and the broader English society—were, I think, hardly congenial to the clandestine cosmopolitan views conveyed in these compositions. Parallels to today abound in them. To this day it is necessary to be clandestine. The recent postures of the U.S. bring into question whether the low-information voter can ever be persuaded to support a humanistic and cosmopolitan international relations: respect for reason, belief in the possibility of a democratic peace based on discourse rather than military might, the peaceful effect of trade, non-provocative defense policies; the obsolescence of conquest and universal respect for human rights.

A cosmopolitan outlook has also though sometimes been associated in the past with an inclination toward ‘messianic’ interventionism. Thomas Walker (then at Rutgers, now at SUNY Albany) wrote an as-it-turns-out ‘premonitory’ paper on this back in 2000 (see link below).

So cosmopolitans may be sophisticated, world-wise, urbane, intrigued by other cultures, and extroverted—but they may be delusional as well. Radical humanists position themselves opposite realism’s fundamental conception of the international system as inherently anarchical. The idea of international anarchy simply provides justification and ‘cover’ for states to pursue selfish national interests to the detriment of international interests, especially those of developing countries. Regrettably, it’s the idea of the sovereign independent state pursuing its own interests that continues to dominate world politics.

An ‘emancipatory’ discourse on international politics, rather than a rationalizing one, ought to critically analyze the conservative stance of foundational International Relations (IR) theories such as realism (the politics of power) and international liberalism. In particular, such discourse ought to analyze their lack of theoretical focus on the oligarchic structure of IR. With regard to the global, anti-democratic nature of current IR, emancipatory discourses such as feminism and radical humanism differ, for example, on how to replace the present (oligarchic) structure with a fairer system.

Realist views embracing the concept of sovereignty (of the state) and opposing anarchy tend to argue for the “inevitability” of today’s world where a small grouping of states are dominant. According to realists, even a state’s external security is safeguarded by the anarchic politics, since it leaves the state free to defend its security either independently or by becoming a member of a multinational alliance. This conservative and pro-status quo ideology of IR runs counter to critics of the oligarchic structure of IR who see a potential for real change; that is, for international democracy where all are equal participants in a democratic world.

The “one world” liberal humanist call for the democratization and empowerment of the U.N. as a first step to toward democratization lacks real emancipatory potential if the unjust international world economic order is left in place. The scholar Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya typifies the humanist critique of the prevailing mode of IR–a pro-democratic ideology of IR. Bandyopadhyaya is Professor Emeritus of International Relations at Jadavpur University, Calcutta. Previously he was on the faculty at Columbia University and Professor of International Studies at the American University. The Asiatic Society conferred on him the Biman Bihary Majumdar Award (2006) for his contribution to Political Science and the West Bengal Bangla Academy awarded him the Manas Roy Choudhury Award (2006) for his contribution to Bengalie prose. He has been actively engaged in fighting fundamentalism in India.

T he [realist] paradigm of international anarchy is only an ideological camouflage for the rationalisation, legitimisation and perpetuation of this undemocratic and grossly unjust international sysytem.”
  —  Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya, World Government for International Democracy, p. 9.

What makes this perspective a humanistic one? I think it is especially the optimism that human beings possess the power to solve political problems by relying on reason and political will. It also encapsulates humanism’s stress on freedom and development (economic, political, cultural) of all humankind, regardless of nation, ethnicity or religion.

Listen to the music of the Lupos and Bassanos as rendered by Fretwork and you will hear these strains—a cosmopolitan IR stance embodied by Jewish musicians in England in the late 16^th and early 17^th Centuries. The use of democratic procedures and civil liberties throughout all areas of economic, political, and cultural life is still a feature in humanist discourse today, and the chamber music of the Lupos and the Bassanos contains discursive musical evidence of this. Such humanism today promotes an egalitarian socio-political program and a flourishing economic order. The radicalism of this humanist viewpoint is today positioned outside of liberal internationalism, which is critically viewed as being “blind” to imperialism and its own ethnocentrality. But in 1540, under the auspices of King Henry VIII and others after him, the compositions were not nearly so “blind”.

The virtually unlimited support extended to this oligarchic international system by those very states which proclaim democracy to be a universal principle of political organisation in human society is the most glaring paradox of international relations…The oligarchic international system brought into existence by the ruling classes of the militarily and economically powerful states does not, however, enjoy the support of all sections of world public opinion.”
  —  Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya, World Government for International Democracy, p. 22.

Radical humanist ideology shaped by emancipatory rhetoric is today more problematic than ever, particularly so during the reign of the neo-cons in the U.S. Fretwork’s ‘Birds on Fire’ program is historically-informed and commendable for its aesthetic beauty. But it is also apropos in yet more ways because of the relevance of the political context that gave rise to these pieces—relevance to species of IR today. ‘Birds on Fire’ would make an ideal program for fund-raising by IR organizations and NGOs concerned with the current situation in international politics.

• Fretwork website
  
• Askonas-Holt Management Ltd
  
• Wigmore Hall website
  
• Pliable. Lone voices: Jewish composers. On An Overgrown Path blog, 23-JUL-2008.
  
• Thomas Walker page at SUNY Albany
  
• Walker T. The forgotten prophet: Tom Paine’s cosmopolitanism and international relations. Intl Studies Quart 2000; 44:51-72.
  
• Fretwork. Birds on Fire: Jewish Music for Viols. (HarmoniaMundi, 2008.)
  
• Archibugi D. The Global Commonwealth of Citizens: Toward Cosmopolitan Democracy. Princeton Univ, 2008.
  
• Bandyopadhyaya J. World Government for International Democracy and Justice. Manuscript India, 2002.
  
• Bandyopadhyaya J. IR and Global Equilibrium. Bagchi/JU, 1992.
  
• Beck U, Cronin C. Cosmopolitan Vision. Polity, 2006.
  
• Cabrera L. Political Theory of Global Justice: A Cosmopolitan Case for the World State. Routledge, 2006.
  
• Games A. The Web of Empire: English Cosmopolitans in an Age of Expansion, 1560-1660. Oxford Univ, 2008.
  
• Moellendorf D. Cosmopolitan Justice. Press, 2002.
  
• Walkowitz R. Cosmopolitan Style: Modernism Beyond the Nation. Columbia Univ, 2007.
  
• Valerie Barber PR
  
• Viola da Gamba Society U.K.
  
• Henner Harders viols at ViolWerks.de
  
• Lu-Mi Chinese viols (Wendy Gillespie) at LazarEarlyMusic.com