A Composer Condemned Arson. Now No One Will Hire Him.
Until last year, Daniel Elder—a 34-year-old musician who lives in Nashville, Tennessee—had a promising career ahead of him.
The theme of the prize-winning composer's work, truth through emotion, is evident across his catalog of choral music, including his debut commercial album, The Heart's Reflection.
Elder isn't composing very much these days.
And even if he were, no one in the industry is willing to buy his work.
His publisher has blackballed him.
Local choral directors refuse to program his music for fear of provoking a backlash.
They won't even let him sing in the choir.
"My artistic wellspring is capped," says Elder.
What happened?
Elder made a short statement on Instagram that went viral during the George Floyd protests in the summer of 2020.
On May 30, around 1,000 peaceful protesters marched down the streets of Nashville as part of an "I Will Breathe" rally. But not everyone on the streets was peaceful: A group of activists joined the protest as it was drawing to a close and started smashing windows and spraying graffiti on the sides of buildings. They threw rocks at police cars, and eventually someone set the city's historic courthouse on fire.
"The courthouse windows were smashed, its walls were spray painted with graffiti and fires were started inside the building, damaging a portion of the mayor's office," noted the Nashville Tennessean. "A plaque commemorating the civil rights movement in Nashville was destroyed."
The destruction spooked Elder, who lived nearby and was thus under a city-wide curfew. He also found himself increasingly unnerved by the large number of emotional social media posts coming across his feeds that seemed to justify radicalism and groupthink.
"I saw a mob mentality around my own friends, and I worried that was what was happening on the outside, too," says Elder.
Dismayed, disenchanted, and unable to sleep, Elder decided to delete his Instagram account. He penned one last farewell message, which was cross-posted to his Twitter and professional Facebook page: "Enjoy burning it all down, you well-intentioned, blind people. I'm done."
But when he woke up the next morning, critics were spamming his Facebook and YouTube pages with comments accusing him of being a racist and a "white supremacist piece of garbage."
He began to receive nasty emails as well. Some were anonymously authored, expletive-laden, and ugly from start to finish.
Others confessed a previous appreciation for Elder's music but noted that they could never listen to him again.
"Do some research and maybe some inner reflection and maybe figure out where your racist tendencies are coming from," wrote another critic. "You are canceled. Black lives matter!"
Within 24 hours, the controversy had garnered the attention of GIA Publications. In the world of choral music, GIA is not merely a publisher; it is the major publisher of religious content, thanks to its association with the post–Vatican II Roman Catholic Church. GIA was Elder's publisher, and an important source of his income. On the morning of June 1, GIA President Alec Harris and media editor Susan LaBarr contacted Elder about posting an apology.
This apology had already been written by GIA; all Elder had to do was post it. The remarks prepared on his behalf are as follows, and worth reading in full:
"Over the weekend I made a post on my social media accounts that was insensitive and wrongly-worded. I deeply apologize for the anger, offense, and harm that this post caused. While this offense was not intended, it is what was created. For this I am truly sorry.
"There is no justification that I can offer for my post. So, rather than try to offer an excuse for what was done, I offer a promise for what I will do going forward. I commit to making amends and to dialogue. I commit to continue educating myself about privilege and bias. I commit to continue seeking an understanding of the experience of others, especially the Black community. I know that working for justice requires that we each first act justly. My work begins now."
LaBarr added that while "we know that you write music that promotes social justice," this was not clear to people who had read the Instagram post.
"We're feeling time pressure on this as some people are calling for boycotts," added LaBarr. "It's all very heavy."
Elder wasn't inclined to make such a groveling apology, and was dismayed to see his colleagues siding with his critics.
"I chose to be that guy who didn't issue the apology," he says.
Within hours, GIA issued a denunciation of Elder.
"The views expressed in composer Daniel Elder's incendiary social media post on Sunday evening do not reflect the values of GIA or our employees," it read. "GIA opposes racism in all its forms and is committed to do what Michelle Obama called 'the honest, uncomfortable work of rooting it out.'"
Note this PR statement endorses the view that Elder had made an "incendiary" statement. Neither Harris nor LaBarr responded to a request for clarification as to which aspect of Elder's anti-arson agenda they oppose.
GIA also announced that the company would no longer publish Elder.
For Elder, the consequences were far-reaching.
Without the support of a publisher and professional network, Elder's work was impossible.
Moreover, local choral directors refuse to do business with him because of the controversy.
They are afraid to associate with him, or to be seen as defending him in any way.
What happened to Elder has happened to countless others. And as with so many of those others, Elder's story doesn't have a happy ending. He has survived his ordeal only in the most literal sense: His career is in shambles.
Nevertheless, the experience has positively impacted Elder in one way, he tells me: It has made him less ideologically narrow-minded.
"Because I was exiled, I started listening to voices on the right and the center, especially these classical liberals who have been exiled from the leftist movement," he says. "The strange silver lining is this shook me out of my prejudices a little bit."
https://reason.com/2021/06/15/daniel-elder-cancel-culture-choral-composer-antifa-blm-gia/
Cancel culture in the news
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Originally Posted by Legion
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