Sunday, March 28, 2021

Suppressing "Colonial" 🎶


For John, BLUF:  I neither read music or play an insrument, but I see the value.  Apparently, Oxford does not.  Nothing to see here; just move along.



Here is the sub-headline:

  • Professors set to reform music courses to move away from the classic repertoire
  • Staff argued curriculum focuses on 'white European music from slave period'
  • It is thought that music writing will also be reformed to be more inclusive

From The Daily Mail On-Line, by Reporter Raven Saunt, 27 March 2021, 22:00 EDT.

Here is the lede plus two:

The University of Oxford is considering scrapping sheet music for being 'too colonial' after staff raised concerns about the 'complicity in white supremacy' in music curriculums.

Professors are set to reform their music courses to move away from the classic repertoire, which includes the likes of Beethoven and Mozart, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

University staff have argued that the current curriculum focuses on 'white European music from the slave period', according to The Telegraph.

It is not clear how this is going to work.

Here is an excerpt from the referenced article in The Telegraph; Musical notation branded 'colonialist' by Oxford professors hoping to 'decolonise' the curriculum.  The subheadline reads "Documents reveal that faculty members have proposed reforms to address 'white hegemony' in music courses".  The reporter is Mr Craig Simpson, from 27 March 2021, 7:00pm.

Musical notation has been branded "colonialist" by Oxford professors hoping to reform their courses to focus less on white European culture, The Telegraph can reveal.

Academics are deconstructing the university's music offering after facing pressure to "decolonise" the curriculum following the Black Lives Matter protests.

The Telegraph has seen proposals for changes to undergraduate courses, in which some staff question the current curriculum's "complicity in white supremacy".

Professors said the classical repertoire taught at Oxford, which spans works by Mozart and Beethoven, focuses too much on "white European music from the slave period".

Documents reveal that faculty members, who decide on courses that form the music degree, have proposed reforms to address this "white hegemony", including rethinking the study of musical notation because it is a "colonialist representational system".

Teaching notation which has not "shaken off its connection to its colonial past" would be a "slap in the face" for some students, documents state, and music-writing studies have been earmarked for rebranding to be more inclusive.

With no sheet music and no music notation, then we are going to slip back 2,000 years?  Will it all be about memorization?  Or will there be a "Music Underground", devoted to keep the old ways alive?

I do not see this as progress.

Regards  —  Cliff

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