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Welp.

Since this is The Weeknd of Deconstructing and Critiquing Whiteness, and also since I am not nearly as far along as I thought I would be in finishing up the Four Tenets series, let’s take a look at a Bastion of Ubiquitous Whiteness: the classical music world.

This article talks to a number of black people who are making inroads in the classical music field, which by its very existence, holds up on a pedestal music from Western Europe and as the article will show, has a terrible track record on the issue of race.

There are those who have beaten the odds, mostly opera singers, but the ranks of orchestras and chamber music, as well as opera, remain lily-white, there are almost no black conductors oh, and I was chagrined but not entirely surprised to learn at the Metropolitan Opera has yet to Stage a single work by a black composer.

That there are almost no black people and positions of power or influence in the administration of these institutions almost goes without saying.

All of this ties in very neatly with the chart that we examined yesterday.

The art form of jazz, which was invented by black people and is still significantly influenced by black people, although white people have taken up the mantle in recent decades, has never been as respected as the classical music realm, even though a number of the more notable Jazz musicians have come out of conservatories every bit as rigorous as classical conservatories.

This raises a lot of questions,
the first one for me being why does it matter if black players and black conductors fill the ranks of almost exclusively white institutions?

The first answer to that is that it’s tough to just build an orchestra from scratch, and, in any case, these institutions that have been built are for the public good not only for the good of people with European ancestry.

As well, the infusion of Black Talent energizes and turbochargers what has become, in some ways, a moribund music form.

Which brings us to another question.

Is gatekeeping in any profession whether it be music, or academics, or architecture, or law to the ultimate benefit of society well served by their fixation on whiteness, or are those disciplines compromised by their insistence on homogeneity?

The article is in itself fascinating, and those of you who are not fans of classical music will still get something from it so yes, it is indeed required.

New Norms apply, comments are required, absolutely no reacts.

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