Judging historical people on today's social standards. . .

[Christine]

Help. My daughter is writing a paper in her Music History class (she is a music therapy major) and has been given this topic: should we still listen to, perform, and appreciate music from classical composers who by today's standards were flawed individuals, who may have done/said/believed 'awful' things?

I shared with her the comments of Coby Treadyway which Laurie shared last week (The Historian's World). I know most of you are passionate about 'revisionist' history, and acknowledge the danger of throwing away our vital links to history because our common acceptance of social standards has evolved (which is what civilization is all about, right?).

So apparently this isn't happening only in historical circles, but in music as well. How do we acknowledge and celebrate that deeply flawed individuals (like all of us) can somehow still create beautiful works of art which move us and contribute to the fabric of our lives, (or made essential contributions to the history of our nation and world) without seeming to embrace their distasteful (to us today) words and actions?

Would LOVE your thoughts, ideas, and especially links to articles and commentaries about these controversies (I realize most will be about historical figures, but I think she can use it to link back to the thesis of the paper about musicians).

Thanks!!!