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College Music Department Pledges to Remove ‘Systemic Racism’ From Curriculum

College Music Department Pledges to Remove ‘Systemic Racism’ From Curriculum

“European tonal scales/intervals will be compared with other cultural tonal systems in the theory classes, and be further investigated in the global music course”

In too many places, the progressive agenda is more important than the actual subject of study.

The College Fix reports:

College music department pledges to remove the ‘systemic racism’ from its curriculum

The music department of Meredith College has promised to tackle racism problems, according to a news release from the university.

The private college in North Carolina has pledged to change the way it picks music, highlight a diverse set of musicians and overall create a more inclusive curriculum, according to the September 25 statement.

“Having been aware of systemic racism in housing, banking, education, etc., I have to admit that I was not truly aware of how that systemic racism was built into our curriculum in music and music education,” Jeanie Wozencrat-Ornellas, the music department head, said in the news release.

She stated she plans a number of changes as part of the music department’s contribution to the university’s overall anti-racism plans.

It includes a curriculum revision that will promote the “inclusion of marginalized musicians” including an addition of the “contributions of BIPOC, women, and LGBTQ musicians.” BIPOC refers to black, indigenous and people of color.

“European tonal scales/intervals will be compared with other cultural tonal systems in the theory classes, and be further investigated in the global music course, including harmonies, tones, rhythms, and notation not used in western music,” the university noted.

Improperly labeled songs will also be removed from the playlist.

Music department faculty will take “definitive steps … to purge ensemble libraries of inappropriate selections,” including “‘Chinese folk songs’ that include neither Chinese poetry nor harmonies, and are written by white composers.”

The choral director at the university also criticized her own field for not being “proactive” enough in “anti-racism.”

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Comments

I hate these people with every fiber of my being.

antisocialjustice | October 1, 2020 at 9:42 am

Cast in the light of pro POC/world religion vs WASP sure this looks like more pandering but this is music we are talking about.

Learning from the widest encompassing perspective is helpful for development of musical ears and rhythmic sense, this is absolutely not a bad thing on its own.

When they start bringing in lyrics, slandering and banning composers and performers because of their color or the dominant societal norms at the time of their music making, is another thing entirely.

And I think we ave seen enough of the left to know they will not stop until everyone is singing the back national anthem in chinese. Exaggerated for effect.

    I can’t speak to college music programs but I can to statewide high school music competitions judged by music educators. My son loves singing spirituals and does very well with them. He was strongly discouraged (told he would be scored low for having pale pigmented skin and singing a traditional style tied to darker skin)from competing with a spiritual. He found a song written in spiritual musical style, the lyrics based on an appalacian folk story and competed with that. He scored the highest possible score in performance. I fully expect, within a few years that even that work around will not be allowed and that if you are not of the culture that wrote the song you will not be allowed to sing it.

The American left has had its paws all over American culture, academia, government, media, and society since 1828. Nearly two centuries. If there still is systemic racism in America, Democrats own it. Subject the leftists to their own struggle sessions. Help them maintain their pretense.

Having a class that compares Western vs. non-Western harmonies and tonalities would be worthwhile, interesting, and somewhat useful to an aspiring musician. Discarding the Western canon would be destructive and idiotic. It’s hard to tell from the description which goal they seek.

No one cares. Your worthless diplomas are trivial token to wasted lives, encumbered by debt and shame by association with the college’s sullied reputation.

    kyrrat in reply to NotKennedy. | October 1, 2020 at 5:03 pm

    Musicians have a valuable skill. Music is an essential part of life. It communicates beyond the notes played, the words sung. Bleh I’ll let Plato say it better. “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.”

Groundhog Day | October 1, 2020 at 5:53 pm

“BIPOC refers to black, indigenous and people of color.”

That’s wrong – BIPOC’s are ‘black indigenous people of color’, describing African Americans – because they do not want to be in the same group with other people of color (hint: slavery). So to sum it up: there are BIPOC’s (African Americans) and POC’s (all the other colors, including blacks like Ilhan Omar with no slavery history), Thank you, Left…

Personal experience.

Years ago I was in the choir at a large church. We prepared for a denominational missions conference at the church by performing several numbers in other languages, including Mandarin. We were coached by a Chinese woman from the foreign languages at the nearby very large public university, and she was very complementary of our efforts. After we sang at the conference, a missionary couple who had been in China for decades told us our pronunciation and tonal performance were *_absolutely perfect_*.

No pandering, just a lot of work to get it right, and we all enjoyed learning how to do it differently from what we were accustomed to.
.

I knew Jeanie Wozencraft-Ornellas at Oberlin as a friend of a friend, so it has been a good 40 years since I have seen her in person. I suspect she has been caught up in the fervor put forth by every issue of the alumni magazine. Similarly, I doubt that the word “purge” was in the normal lexicon of a conservatory student. So kids, instead of our weekly Bach organ recital, a bunch of students will beat on hollow logs with sticks (Airplane movie reference).

Speaking of which, I wonder when Paul Simon will be called out. Not that he did anything wrong, but he has money, and I am sure someone will try to extort it out of him some way for the Graceland Album. No good deed goes unpunished.