Now Even Music Notation Is Racist

[aquaduct]

Seriously

[david]

The article is odd in that the "Daily Mail" is reporting on what "The Daily Telegraph" reported seeing in an in house documents on a proposed reform by some of the music staff at Oxford. In the law, we call that third-hand hearsay. It could certainly be true, it just strikes me as an odd way to get the news.

Anyway, I was a music major for a couple years and we were taught music theory based upon composers of the 1600s to 1800s. To me, it is the building blocks of written western music theory, regardless of race. I don't understand how it might be too noninclusive, if that is in fact the thrust of the article and/or Oxford's concern.

[Russell Letson]

Aside from problems with anything published by the Daily Mail and getting pipelined into the right-wing outrage machine, with primary so far sources unavailable--

I do wonder what one is supposed to do with Scott Joplin, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Fletcher Henderson, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus . . . .

(And that only gets us up to around 1960.)

[james]

This version is a little more informative and has Music Faculty responses.  

www.classicfm.com/music-news/oxford-university-decolonising-music-syllabus/

From the above article. Contradicting the Mail -

Western staff notation, which has become the most internationally accepted musical language, is one of the fundamental components of the western classical tradition in music. Notation, meanwhile, has developed over time and varies widely between cultures.

However, the music faculty denies any proposals to remove western notation from its curriculum.

The Torygraph has a short free trial period (to skirt their firewall), but I'll pass.

ETA - from earlier this year, www.oxfordstudent.com/2021/01/29/music-faculty-changes-undergraduate-curriculum/

[epaul]

This was linked in the article James linked to. It contains pertinent information.

From the article:

47 percent fewer pupils are taking Music at A-level compared to a decade ago, today’s A-level results show.

Today’s A-level results show the number of pupils studying Music has fallen at an alarming rate over the last decade. Since 2008, there has been a 47 percent decline in Music entries at A-level.

The results, published today by the Joint Council for Qualifications, show that 12 years ago, nearly 6,000 male and 4,000 female candidates studied Music at A-level across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Now, only approximately 2,700 male and 2,500 female pupils are taking the subject as far as sixth form.

This puts the music curriculum discussion in a familiar light. I have heard the same discussion in English and Humanities departments I have had some experience with. The discussion goes something like this:

"We are losing majors. If we keep losing majors, we are going to keep losing funding and jobs. We've got to pull in fresh blood, dumb down the courses that are turning students off, offer more "topical" fun classes, and make damn sure we don't lose any majors we currently have, so no D's or C's."

[Russell Letson]

James can correct me on this, but this looks like part of the UK's anxiety-of-the-left about colonialism--related to, but distinct from, the USian anxiety about race and the heritage of slavery. It also might be something emerging from one activist faction of university culture, not unlike American academics who go on purity campaigns to eliminate any whiff of discomfort from the curriculum.

On edit--and like epaul, I noticed the concern about enrollments, which often sets administrators to examining their politico-moral consciences in hopes of finding new customers students.

[epaul]

There are currently 176 schools in this country offering advanced degrees in vocal performance with 2,342 students pursuing these advanced degrees. There are currently 3 job openings in this country for trained opera singers. One for a tenor in Dallas, one for a soprano in Cleveland, and one for a baritone in Fargo. *

[epaul]

(my daughter's boyfriend is a recently graduated vocal performance major who has trained for opera in Germany under a "world renowned" operatic instructor (an expensive scam). I am greatly relieved he has recently gotten a job in a bank.)

[james]

Facts and details thus far being a bit scant, I have nothing beyond speculation. My speculation, unsurprisingly, likely runs closer to epaul's and yours, Russell than that which might come from even less informed, shocked and outraged  Mail  readers.

[epaul]

* I made up the numbers above. (surprise!) But, my point generally stands.

[jdd2]

The daily mail makes up pretty much everything.

[Jawbone]

Sometimes, it gets to a point where I know I can't do anything about it, and I just get angry. Life is to short for that, I'm thinking.

[theevan]

Mar 30, 2021 0:43:09 GMT -5 Jawbone said:

Sometimes, it gets to a point where I know I can't do anything about it, and I just get angry. Life is to short for that, I'm thinking.

Face it, Jawbone, folks like us are considered evil, or soon will be. Then anything goes..

Can I have top bunk at the reeducation camp?

[theevan]

(“Alizongle” is an amalgam of Alibaba, Amazon, and Google)

[james]

More about studying music at Oxford.

www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses-listing/music

[david]

Mar 29, 2021 22:36:56 GMT -5 epaul said:

* I made up the numbers above. (surprise!) But, my point generally stands.

I agree that there are very few jobs for classically trained musicians, but a lot of schools selling the education. I guess it raises the general level of street musicianship.

After a year and a half as a music major, I noticed that there were very few actually working in the field, and those who graduated and were performing were mostly making a meager sum and traveling most of the year. Wish it had donned on me sooner!

As a group, music majors were some of the most unusual students I have been around.

[david]

Mar 30, 2021 0:43:09 GMT -5 Jawbone said:

Sometimes, it gets to a point where I know I can't do anything about it, and I just get angry. Life is to short for that, I'm thinking.

Jawbone, it probably helps to avoid hot button publications e.g. Newsmax, the Daily Mail, Democracy Now, Rachel Maddow Blog, etc. Whether it is left or right, it seems many are shouting crap intended to stir their audience regardless of the truth.

[Marshall]

<irregardless>

[Village Idiot]

Mar 30, 2021 16:26:03 GMT -5 Marshall said:

<irregardless>

Irregardless means the same thing as “regardless.”
Yes, it’s a word. But major dictionaries label it nonstandard.

www.grammarly.com/blog/irregardless/

[david]

"Regardless" means without regard (to the truth in the reference above). "Irregardless," well it really means nothing, except that Marshall might be trying to pull Bill's chain.