AV俱乐部 the author: is a Professor of Musicology and Director of the Fountain School of Performing Arts at AV俱乐部.
Since the start of the pandemic, people have been turning to music to process the anxiety of . In global Black Lives Matter protests, music also plays a role, forging community and celebrating resilience. We can be more grateful than ever for music鈥檚 power to express feelings and ideas too complex for words.
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So in this moment of intense reliance on music, we should pay attention to what might otherwise look like a petty squabble in a minor academic discipline. At the 2019 Society for Music Theory conference, music theorist Philip Ewell delivered a keynote lecture titled 鈥�.鈥�
Ewell鈥檚 talk explored how . Indeed, it鈥檚 the only music that gets to call itself 鈥渕usic鈥� without an adjective like 鈥減opular,鈥� 鈥渇olk鈥� or 鈥渨orld.鈥� This naturalizes the position of Western art music at the centre of what matters, while the musics of the rest of the world are particularized and othered. Thus, early in my own career as a music professor hired to introduce popular music to the curriculum, senior colleagues reminded me I needed to teach 鈥渞eal鈥� music too.
Schenkerian supremacy
Ewell pointed to the widely acknowledged white supremacy of music analyst Heinrich Schenker鈥檚 work, . And this, it seems, was a bridge too far; the Journal of Schenkerian Studies devoted most of its to an 89-page rebuttal to Ewell鈥檚 3,000-word presentation.
Surely it is fair to refer to this as a pile on, especially when five of the 15 contributors serve on the journal鈥檚 editorial or advisory board; all appear to be white (Ewell is Black) and at least 13 are male (one author chose to remain anonymous); Ewell was not notified about the content in advance; and the contributions were not peer reviewed.
This flouts professional standards in scholarly publishing. Much of the writing is ; articles by Richard Beaudoin, Suzannah Clarke and Christopher Segall, however, respectfully engage with Ewell鈥檚 work, demonstrating that some in the field are willing to examine biases and broaden approaches. The , including one professor emeritus.
I need hardly say that this outsize response underscores Ewell鈥檚 argument; clearly, outraged Schenkerians have assembled to defend their turf. Like the weepers described by Mamta Motwani Accapadi in her analysis of , these 鈥溾�� are shoring up their authority with indignation and bluster.
Public denunciations
Denunciations have come from the Society for Music Theory and, magnificently, from at the University of North Texas, which hosts the Journal for Schenkerian Studies.
Still, I worry about this impulse for 鈥渨oke鈥� music scholars to insist that music theory, musicology and ethnomusicology are all distinct disciplines and that theorists are notoriously backwards 鈥� don鈥檛 even get us started on composers and performers!
Insisting that music theory, musicology and ethnomusicology are separate disciplines with no shared ground impoverishes all of our work. By narrowing our focus and policing our boundaries, scholars miss connections and opportunities, and we remain frozen in disdain for all that we don鈥檛 know. A distinction between applied and academic music may have its uses, but hyper-specialization leads ultimately to a belief that scholars can鈥檛 be creative and that artists are incapable of critical thought.
All these subdisciplines were built on assumptions of white supremacy, whether in the presumption of Western art music鈥檚 superiority or in the entitlement of early ethnomusicologists collecting and codifying the music of 鈥渆xotics鈥� and 鈥減rimitives.鈥� We who teach music must work together to dismantle these ideologies, particularly when we see them . Surely 2020鈥檚 most urgent lesson is that we are all responsible for ensuring our communities are safe, inclusive, and respectful.
Legitimizing music education
Distinctions between areas of music studies are limiting, and they contribute to ensuring that university music programs are irrelevant to actual musicians, even those who want higher education.
There are plentiful examples of successful musicians who developed their skills outside of university music departments. Singer-songwriter Moses Sumney enrolled in UCLA鈥檚 creative writing program rather than music, . John Legend 鈥� who has been nominated for 31 Grammy awards and received 11 鈥� chose . Thom Yorke studied at the University of Exeter, while planning a music career.
My own institution, AV俱乐部, was the logical place for Sarah McLachlan to study music 鈥� she鈥檇 performed on campus as a high-schooler. Instead, she pursued .
These stories are less shameful than Nina Simone鈥檚 infamous rejection from , but the pattern of musicians dismissing the value of music degrees is troubling.
Unflinching examination
Can we keep condoning an ideology that deters ambitious, talented musicians from pursuing higher education in music? Many professors are scrambling through this extraordinary summer to learn to teach online, and to make their class content speak to the times we live in. We can also seize this opportunity to make our programs inclusive, appealing and useful to talented people dreaming of creating music that will speak to the world.
This must include an unflinching examination of our collective investment in . It will be challenging, but the boundaries can dissolve between performance and creation, classical and vernacular musics, and theory and application. Now is the time to work together, in recognition that what we teach matters.
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