Can Instrumental Music Be Political?

“Art is pure, right? Celestial. To soil it with base, terrestrial politics feels improper, even rude, especially when one considers just how awful politics really is. “Politics is about winning,” the political composer and activist Bob Ostertag says, “a concept meaningless to art.” So how are these things expected to mix, if at all, without the supposed purity and nobility of art being compromised?”