The University of North Texas College of Music will investigate a faculty-run academic journal responsible for showcasing critical responses to a claim that music theory is white supremacist. A group of graduate students in the Division of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology at the UNT College of Music released a statement recently, condemning the Journal of Schenkerian Studies (JSS), a publication run by faculty in the MHTE department.
A group of faculty members are also supporting the complaint:
We, the undersigned faculty members of the University of North Texas Division of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology, stand in solidarity with our graduate students in their letter of condemnation of the Journal of Schenkerian Studies.
Heinrich Schenker was a Jew, born in Austria, who died in 1935 so did not suffer greatly under the anti-semitism of the Nazis who only came to power in 1933. Still, this kind of criticism is notice that all culture stemming from white people is a target in this environment. The interesting question is will there be significant resistance, when will it take place and from where will it come? Because I can't quite believe that this is all going to take place without question.
Leave your thoughts in the comments.
For an envoi, one of Schenker's musical examples, the Piano Sonata op. 109 by Beethoven. This is Sviatoslav Richter in a 1991 performance:
3 comments:
I spent a little time poring over the original and the responses...
First takeaway is, I don't have much interest in this theory stuff. It's so dense and technical, I'm a practical musician myself. I get much more inspiration from music history.
Second, the responses were very measured and circumspect, I thought. The gist being "ok, if you have a problem with Schenker, then do some of your own analysis to rebut." But there never seems to be a credible replacement for the ideas the progressives want to sweep away. We're just supposed to trust that whatever the replacement is will be better because.....
The replacement will be better because it is more favorable to the designated victim groups and, more importantly, offers an opportunity for us to feel morally superior.
I think the real issue behind Jives' question is why the schools and activists think that anyone will support this project? The Kennedy Center is not a school and can play these games and shift their funding while still paying the bills. These schools and affiliated organizations have to attract paying students to attract donors. You don't need to go to school to play pop music or even most "world" music. You yourself are proof of that since you played music in a pop band before going to the conservatory.
Onanovergrownpath is a pretty good marker for the new dispensation as he is not abrasive about it. In fact he is reasonable and fair minded concerning different types of music and even opposed to single issue fanatics as he calls them. He clearly thinks the symphony orchestra is wonderful but not needed now. Here is his take on the "new classical music" (no formal training required):
No reference is made to the (Farewell) theme in the final movement of Mahler's Ninth Symphony by composer/producer Steve Roach in the notes for his new album A Soul Ascends. But both works take the listener on a similar transcendental journey, albeit in very different ways. Mahler deploys a symphony orchestra in all its sonic glory for his masterpiece, while a century later Steve Roach crafts his music from synthesizers and sequencers.
A Soul Ascends is important because it reaches the giddy creative heights of Steve's other ambient masterwork Structures from Silence. But it is even more important because it is new classical music for these troubled times.
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