Recording Music in Ukraine

British composer, Ralph Vaughn Williams created his Symphony No. 6 in E minor while bombs were falling on London during World War II. In the United States, WWII was a very popular war, most everyone was on-board. U.S. citizens were told this war would end all wars, it would be humanity's last descent into barbarism. That did not turn out so well. That was propaganda and self-deception. We have had many more wars, and added several million more dead bodies to the pile of 40+ million dead bodies of WWII. The reptiles in charge did not seem to notice or care.

With this perspective of human history, American composer, Charles Roland Berry recorded his works with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine in Lviv, Ukraine in 2020, with Ukrainian-American conductor, Theodore Kuchar. At that time, many Americans did not know where Ukraine is located. Nothing of interest was going on there. In Lviv, Mr. Berry recorded his Symphony no.4 and Divertimento No. 2 for solo clarinet and strings. Plans were made to to record other orchestral works in 2021 and 2022. Then the tanks rolled in. One reptilian brain, the gray matter of Vladimir Putin slithered out.

Both Mr. Berry and Mr. Kuchar are old enough to remember when Russian tanks rolled into Prague in 1968. Tanks commanded by earlier reptiles. The ten-year-old boys were amazed. How did rational and civilized grown-ups allow this to occur? As successful grown-up musicians, Mr. Berry and Mr. Kuchar are no less amazed in 2022.

Theodore Kuchar now had to choose to stay in Ukraine, where he had worked for over 20 years, or leave. The American embassy suggested he leave. As a high profile American he would become a target. Mr. Kuchar took a bus into Poland. After working with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine, recording thirty CDs with that orchestra in Kyiv and Lviv, Theodore Kuchar was force to leave, to live and work in exile.

Charles Roland Berry decided this was not a time to be pushed around by reptiles, to allow the reptiles to dominate human minds. When reptiles are creating wars, civilized people must create art, music and literature. This is the time to compose and record symphonies. Mr. Berry composed his Symphony no. 5 in tribute to the musicians of Lviv, and all the civilized people of Ukraine. As he could no longer record in Lviv, the projects were moved to the wonderful orchestra of Lublin, Poland (about 80 kilometers from Lviv.) Both works, the Symphony no. 4 and Symphony no. 5 will be issued by the British classical music label, Toccata Classics.

This story of war and music points to a central fact of human history: 50, 100, 150 years later, the wars and brutality of reptiles are forgotten. What most people remember and cherish are great works of human imagination, most especially art. Reptiles can also create propaganda art, but it remain obvious to most people the vast difference between great and lasting art, and propaganda art. Years later, the reptilian leaders, and the piles of dead bodies they created sleep under fields of wheat, under grass, under blue skies with meadowlarks flying over. Reptiles like Vladimir Putin, Joseph Stalin, Lenin, Adolf Hitler, Nicolae Ceaușescu, Pol Pot and others, as well as reptilian actions of American Presidents, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and others... all the actions of the reptiles become part of our long and bloody human history, and their choices made those reptiles famous, and even glorious in their own minds. Years later, we all know they added only horror to human history, and should be turned into irrelevant footnotes. Remembered only as examples of human failure.

We notice, one of the two major airports in Warsaw, Poland is named for the composer and piano player, Frederic Chopin. The second airport named for a famous battle, where brave men held off the reptiles. The leaders of nations, corporate leaders, and many other elites often want their names on airports, libraries as on-going expression of personal vanity. Some are not reptiles at all, only self-involved humans with little concern for the rest of humanity. We notice many of these elite persons are easily forgotten, younger generations neither knowing nor caring who's name is on the airport.

What lives on in the minds of people are actual, undeniable accomplishments, the paintings, the literature, the music. We notice few people care about the life or ideas of the Margrave of Brandenburg. He is only remembered, because of Johann Sebastian Bach's genius work, The Brandenburg Concertos. The music was prompted by the Margrave, in an off-hand comment. Our living, self-congratulatory elites are of no greater significance than the Margrave of Brandenburg, significant only in their own minds.

Make no mistake. There will be more reptiles. Reptiles rise, mutilate and kill, and cause great suffering in every generation, across entire centuries. We are no where close to eradicating the reptilian genes in the DNA of world leaders. Civilized people can do little with such reptiles. The best we can do is keep the reptiles in their cages. When we put reptiles in power, and allow them to slither and wreak havoc, they will gladly slither and wreak havoc. And millions of people will suffer. The fact remains: The mass of humanity, the citizens of all nations, even citizens of nations run by reptiles.... the mass of humanity has more power than any individual lizard or family of lizards. Citizens allow the reptiles to slither. The mass murder we call wars are only possible because citizen go along with reptilian agendas. Citizens do not keep the reptiles in their cages.

In the end, the only thing civilize people can do with rampaging reptiles is kill them. It remains a mystery why many of the most vicious reptiles are not assassinated early in their careers. What madness allow reptiles to rule, to bully, to shoot missiles and roll in the tanks?