Earlier this month I attended a Christmas concert at a local high school. The surprisingly accomplished performance ended with Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. At the opening chords, a smattering of the attendees in the audience rose and remained standing while the rest stayed seated. (Most of those on their feet, of course, had white hair). Since the 1750s audiences have stood for this stirring masterpiece. Personally, I have witnessed this moving response at venues like the New York Met and at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. At the opening strains, a surge of solidarity lifted all the listeners to their feet and their shared reverence was palpable. Today, apparently, this tradition which has enriched the better part of three centuries is waning.
Like sixty percent of our vocabulary, the word ‘tradition’ is rooted in Latin. It derives from ‘trado’ which itself has two meanings: to hand over (as from one generation to the next), and to surrender in exchange (as in trade). One might wonder if today’s tradition is less about passing on beliefs and practices and more about giving up the old in exchange for the new. There is, of course, room for both. Civilization would not have progressed as far as we have were this not so. Wittingly, or otherwise, we’ve abided by St. Paul’s advice to the Thessalonians: test all that is new and hold on to what is good.
Today, however, the desire to hold on to what is good appears to be fading. Two reasons, perhaps, explain this decline. One is that more and more, traditions are considered limiting and burdensome. The obligation to honor them compromises our independence and obliges us to live by someone else’s values. Though as ancient as mankind, this attitude is perhaps more widespread today as so many seem ever more willing to ‘let go’ or to ignore the lessons of the past. The other reason is more recent and more disturbing. It is as though some unseen force is convincing gullible would-be beneficiaries of tradition that tradition itself is discriminatory and therefore to be rejected. This specious thinking propounds that the observance of tradition violates the increasingly respected imperative of DEI, namely the paramountcy of diversity, equity, and inclusion. To be sure, each of these three qualities is virtuous – even traditional. But, it is the mandated application of them that leads to the inevitable and profoundly ironic, result of uniformity. The celebration of tradition and the imposition of uniformity are incompatible. Tradition is losing.
The mixed reaction among the audience to Handle’s Hallelujah Chorus at the concert I attended is an indication of both the force and vulnerability of tradition. On the one hand, it reminds us of tradition’s power to underscore and to confirm our understanding of ‘the goods’ St. Paul urges us to hold on to. On the other hand, it demonstrates how tradition – even when rooted in centuries of practice – can, without proper attention, die. The message, I guess, is that unless our generation more consciously implements the first definition of ‘trado’ and attempts to pass on the ‘goods’ we believe, we will by default be acceding to the second definition. We will be surrendering in an exchange. But what will be accepted in the exchange?
‘Testing the new and retaining the good’ is a hallmark of the philanthropy of you, our donors. On behalf of our Trustees, may I wish you a joyful Christmastide. And, as we do at those opening chords of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, may we – all of us – ever rise at the summons of sound tradition.