In order to dismantle the white racial frame of music theory and history, textbooks and other written works on composition, they would have to be replaced with more modern ideologies on what composition is as a whole and not focused completely on the works of European composers; German in particular. Although, this does make it very difficult to study composition since there are many different understanding around the world. Some of our course loads would have to be revamped and/or changed in order to stay clear from the white racial frame we have become so used to in North America. These new interpretations would focus on works and techniques from different cultures from around the world and would not be restricted to one nationality. It is crucial that the author of these texts does not share any racist, anti-Semitic or bias beliefs much like that of Heinrich Schenker, explained in the video by Adam Neely, “Music Theory and White Supremacy”. In the video, Neely describes our current understanding of composition as “…we have built music theory from the ground up with the idea that the only music worth analyzing and worth having a language of analysis for is the music that Heinrich Schenker analyzed”. Whilst none of my textbooks for composition are written by Schenker, Neely’s point is still relevant in the sense that in my first year of music, I am only learning techniques and notation from European composers. It would be very interesting to see change within the next 5 years that would re-shape how we study music. It is unclear what exactly it would look like but, at least we know where to start in regards to our outdated texts etc. We must construct a new and improved version of composition as well as music theory in order remove any bias towards specific groups of composers. Whether they are derived from any musical genre, they are all important in our understanding of music. While new written work is required, that is not the only thing that should be changed. There should be more classes that go in depth in regards to different cultures and their understanding of musical sound. For example, North Indian theory and perspectives that was explained in Neely’s video. A university music school of the near future should consist of these changes and should consider all styles of composition. Although this is a very big task to overcome, I believe that it would be possible to dismantle the white racial frame of music theory and history within the next 3-5 years.
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