The choice of the Grammy voters to crown Macklemore and Ryan Lewis with multiple grammy awards in the same categories as Kendrick Lamar in 2014 (Best New Artist, Best Rap Album, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song) was widely criticized as a snub of Lamar, with some viewing the choice as a result of Macklemore being "a more palatable and whiter version of a music genre often deemed too aggressive and vulgar by the mainstream".
Macklemore himself texted and publicly posted an apology to Kendrick in which he expressed the view that Kendrick should have won, saying “You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have. It’s weird and it sucks that I robbed you.”
I personally think that it should have been nominated for a different category, given that it doesn't resemble rock but rather baroque pop (or at least alternative) but I'm definitely happy that Weezer are getting some love. Thoughts?
I in fact posted about this particular piece three years ago shortly after its premiere, during the lead up to which the composer repeatedly referenced, in lectures and in program notes, Jesus Christ and his life within the "Holy Roman Empire." Three years later it seems little has changed, except that the album on which it was released was nominated for a Grammy for the 2020 awards in three categories: Best Classical Contemporary Composition, Best Engineered Album, Classical, and Best Choral Performance. The conductor, soloists, and chorus subsequently won the Best Choral Performance award. My original post is here.
The piece is titled The Passion of Yeshua, composed by Richard Danielpour, Professor of Music at the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA. The Passion of Yeshua was premiered in July 2018 before being recorded by Naxos and released as its own album in March 2020. In Danielpour's program notes from the album booklet is the following:
>One of my aims in writing this work was to imagine the story of the last day of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. I thought if I could somehow take myself back in time and recreate what those last hours were like, that I may have a more developed understanding of who Jesus really was, without the 1800 years of European accretions and horrible acts that were committed in Europe in the name of Christianity. I think it is impossible for Jews and Christians alike to see the person of Jesus clearly and objectively because of the history of Christianity in Europe from the time that Constantine made it the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire, shortly after 300 AD.
In summary, Danielpour hopes to depict the final days of Jesus of Nazareth, and he hopes that his piece depicting these final days humanize him and depict him as a person as far removed from religious implications as possible.
But this statement in particular flies in the face of his stated interest in the historical Jesus:
>Constantine made it [Christianity] the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire, shortly after 300 AD.
Constantine was the first Christian emperor of Rome, but at most he declared tolerance for Christianity with the Edict of Milan in
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