Music News of the Day

Back in the Middle Ages there was black notation, white notation and colored notation, all of which you can see in the Music Salon logo/illustration at the head of the page. Sadly, what we seem to have now is black music theory and white music theory: Music professor sues university for punishing him over defense of ‘racist’ composer. We have mentioned this case before, but here is a refresher:

Timothy Jackson followed through on his threat to sue the University of Northern Texas for investigating him in response to his defense of a 19th century composer.

The “distinguished university research professor” accused the Board of Regents of First Amendment retaliation in response to Jackson’s criticism of a black peer who called Heinrich Schenker (above) “an ardent racist and German nationalist.”

He’s also claiming defamation by a graduate student and 17 colleagues in the Division of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology. They promoted claims that he engaged in “particularly racist” actions and “platform[ed] … racist sentiments” in the Journal of Schenkerian Studies, a UNT-produced publication that Jackson co-founded. 

The journal published a “symposium” issue in response to work by Hunter College Prof. Philip Ewell that claimed Schenker’s ideas exist “to benefit members of the dominant white race of music theory.” Most of it criticized Ewell’s arguments, with Jackson saying his black peer’s claims were part of a “much broader current of Black anti-semitism.” (Schenker was Jewish.) 

The journal’s ordinary academic actions “incited an academic mob” that is demanding Jackson’s firing and the shuttering of his journal and associated Center for Schenkerian Studies. They accuse Jackson of racism simply for defending a composer and criticizing a black peer, the suit claims.

You should probably read the whole thing to get the complete story. I can see similar conflicts happening across academia if more traditional scholars refuse to knuckle under to the wholesale transformation of their fields by the progressive agendas. Honestly, I can't see how scholars in the humanities can do the most important part of their job, transmitting the cultural heritage of Western Civilization to new generations of students, while being forced to conform to these agendas. Cancelling Beethoven, Bach and Mozart because they are dead white males in favor of almost any living black or woman composer is where the battle lines will be drawn, I imagine. The current case is like an opening salvo, just to range in on the opponents. Well, should be interesting at least.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 would seem to be an appropriate envoi, though in a few years it might be Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 that we are turning to!