Or
I Want To Report A Problem With My Algorithm
by Rho Thomas, Published on Jun 21, 2020 at 4:47pm
William Dawson
After a concerted effort to diversify my music streaming algorithms on Spotify there is one genre of music that has neglected to budge from its white, male gaze: classical music. Of all the genres, this is one I can say with complete certainty that I have chosen to play music composed ONLY by marginalised groups for the past 2 years. This week, however, who does my algorithm present?...
Beethoven.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Beethoven. I appreciate the work he has contributed to the world (and that there is currently an insurgence of recordings to mark his 250th birthday in 2020). But I’m tired of it. I’m tired of hearing orchestras churn out the same old symphonies, century after century. Singers, piano trios, string quartets, even wind and brass quintets take from the catalogue. If there’s nothing for your instrument, never fear! Ensembles regularly make arrangements of Beethoven’s works purely for the privilege of being able to enjoy the notes this master put to paper. Audiences LAP. IT. UP.
But why?
I know in part it is because the works are good. I’m not denying that at all. But there is an underlying factor that keeps Beethoven at the forefront of our minds. He is a “Great White Male”. He has been indoctrinated into this so-called club along with the likes of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and - I shudder to say it… Wagner… But I want to know where this idea of “Great” composers comes from. Who decided? (Straight, white critics...). What were the contributing factors that enabled these composers to reach this level of esteem? (Talent, but not without money...). How did we arrive at the specific set of aesthetics that are considered good or bad, that ultimately determine the worth of a piece of music? (Straight, white educators and theorists, religion...). How much of this perceived “greatness” is based on privilege?...
To start with, “classical” music is a thing born of privilege. The instruments themselves are expensive as is the study of them and the composition for them. The approved set of aesthetics today have elements that hark back to an era of religious authority - touting that the wrong combination of notes was blasphemous (a concept recycled in the 20th century under the guise of “modernity”). Even after the church allowed secular music, a set of compositional rules continued to be put forth by religious authorities along with rich, white society. Rules that allowed for the likes of Bach and Handel to flourish and be admired, providing they “played the game”. But what if you didn’t agree with these rules? (Heathen!) Or what if you did agree with these rules and you were black?
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745 - 1799) was an Afro-Caribbean composer, an older contemporary of Mozart’s (1756 - 1791). Saint-Georges received his first appointment as an orchestral musician for the Concert des Amateurs - one of Paris’s leading orchestras in 1769. He then became soloist/conductor in 1772. Mozart was first appointed a court musician in Salzburg in 1773. Saint-Georges officially took over as director of Concert des Amateurs in 1773, then considering he had the most successful orchestra since Lully, he was put forward as the next director of the Paris Opera in 1776. Up to this point and onward, the 20 year old Mozart’s musician father was heavily involved in networking and procuring opportunities for Mozart (not to mention Mozart’s early compositional training). This privilege arguably had Mozart nipping at the heels of 31 year old Saint-Georges, who appeared to have been able to succeed professionally up to this point on his own merits (dubbed “the most accomplished man in Europe” by none other than a US President, John Adams). Yet a petition against Saint-Georges was sent to Queen Marie-Antoinette by three opera singers, stating that they refused to work for a person of colour. So to avoid scandal, the orchestra was handed over to King Louis XVI’s Intendant of Light Entertainments instead, thus ending Saint-Georges’s higher professional pursuits.
In spite of this drawback, Saint-Georges premiered his first two operas in 1777 and 1778 respectively - the latter to critical acclaim. Mozart composed a “breakthrough” piano concerto in 1777, then quit his position in Salzburg in search of greener, operatic pastures. After floundering around Vienna, Munich and Paris (where he aptly shared the same accommodation as Saint-Georges for 2 months in 1778), plus repeated failed attempts at employment in Mannheim and following the death of his mother, Mozart reluctantly took a position (secured by his father) as a concertmaster/organist back in Salzburg in 1779.
Mozart: Piano Concerto in E-flat - K.271, No. 9 (1777)
Saint-Georges: Symphonie Concertante in G - Op 13, No. 2 - For Two Violins and Orchestra (1778)
When looking at his career in this context it seems rather odd to say that the Chevalier de Saint-Georges is “the Black Mozart”. Mozart “envied” Saint-Georges and reportedly copied his work. It would therefore be more accurate to say, as Bill Barclay puts it, that Mozart is “the White Chevalier”.
So why has Mozart become an international household name and not Saint-Georges? History reports Mozart’s successful career and an output canonised into today’s “standard repertoire”, conversely Saint-Georges was left to comparative obscurity. Why then did Saint-Georges’s legacy vanish when he was talented enough to take over direction of the Paris Opera?
We see this vanishing again in the 20th century. William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, is a work that supposedly “is ‘black’ not only for its sources but for its very style, which evokes improvisation”.
This work was and still is groundbreaking. Why did it evaporate into the ether? Maybe it was a system of oppression that had been inseminated throughout classical music history, to uphold the “Great White Males” - presumably taking inspiration from the ideologies of slavery and segregation.
A system that coined phrases such as:
“[insert person of colour]’s compositions lack a level of taste/are unrefined”
“This symphony by [insert female composer] lacks strength or power/is weak...”
Phrases heard frequently throughout my own education during discussions of music by women and people of colour. Repeated to the point where I subconsciously believed them. When music is entirely subjective, if you hear these words repeated enough you begin to look for reasons to back them up. And if this insidious bigotry remains unchallenged long enough in your mind it becomes instilled whether you’re aware of it or not - no matter how well intentioned you may be. People may therefore try to explain it away, for instance that the Chevalier de Saint-Georges’s work was “not on the same level” as Mozart’s. But the truth of the matter is that the career of the first great black classical composer was thwarted because of the colour of his skin, not because his output was less in value than his white contemporaries. It’s hardly fair to compare outputs when we will never really know if Saint-Georges was on the same level or (more likely) greater than Mozart, because racists got in the way. So if you catch yourself thinking the above phrases, maybe ask yourself why that is? Who decides what is tasteful and what is not? Where do these opinions really come from? Are the aesthetics really inadequate because they challenge what you’ve heard before? Are they really uncouth or could they be groundbreaking? Does vulnerability or sensitiveness really portray weakness or are these traits powerful? Is what you’re listening to mediocre or is there an elegance to its simplicity? Is the output really of less value?
Errollyn Wallen (composer of This Frame Is Part Of the Painting for 2019 BBC Proms) performs the Errollyn Wallen Songbook, her continually evolving set of Ivor Novello award-winning songs…
The value of composers such as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges continues to be underestimated today. The case of Saint-Georges set a precedence in music history that conceivably had the effect of holding back people of colour, out of fear they might outperform their white counterparts. This systemic racism exists in classical music today because institutions still consider diversity a box ticking exercise while they unceasingly repeat the ”Great Whites” ad nauseam, justifying their choices by saying “Oh but it would be irresponsible NOT to showcase the works of Beethoven et al”. Last year’s BBC Proms season, which consisted of 2-3 concerts per day, spanning 8 weeks, contained “less than 20 minutes from black and minority ethnic composers”. It’s no wonder music streaming algorithms are unable to put forth marginalised composers to those actively seeking them, because as far as the programming is concerned, “Classical Music” is white. Anybody wanting to experience classical music for the first time is presented with a vast list of white men by Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon, Google, Radio 3, Classic FM and venues alike. So how do we fix this?
As classical music educators, what can we actively do to improve diversity? To answer this we must first answer, “what are the specific factors holding us back from improving diversity in classical music?” Is it that we feel uncomfortable discussing race in classical music? (Discomfort has never been a legitimate reason to avoid important conversations.) Are we afraid of racist backlash? Of seeing people’s true colours? Does the guilt feel unpleasant?... The Black Lives Matter movement along with recent events tell us that avoiding the problem is tantamount to enabling it, thus worsening it. Perhaps we need to face these fears, sit with them, own them so that we can move forward and take action.
Moving forward, how can we incorporate the music of black composers in the classroom? In 2019, Lauren Bagshaw interviewed elementary school music teachers to ask them this very question. Their responses detailed challenges such as:
limited classroom time
imposed institutional priorities
fear of students missing targets
a lack of knowledge
an unwillingness to conduct research
discussing race and racism is too sensitive for young students
Some readers might be tempted to agree with these challenges, so I offer you the following; firstly, I do appreciate that there is often very limited time allocated to teaching music in schools, but teachers still have control of the content to a certain degree, so why not change it? Secondly that, based on the above comparison, black composers contribute just as much value, if not greater than their white contemporaries. If a given priority is to teach music from the classical period by a great composer, teaching the music of Saint-Georges for instance will be of equal value to teaching the music of Mozart. No extra time is needed, there is no loss for teaching Saint-Georges instead of Mozart if a decision between the two really must be made. You could even argue that championing the music of great black composers will benefit students further by providing them with a more informed point of view. Thirdly, teachers can achieve the same goals using a more diverse source material, teaching the works of black composers does not automatically mean a diminished quality of education. Fourth and fifth, teachers have a responsibility to update their resources regularly to move with the times, CPD is often a requirement, plus there is a constant need to provide new music for students to learn. It is therefore no extra work for a teacher to research black composers if teachers are doing their jobs properly when preparing for lessons. Maintaining a lack of knowledge and an unwillingness to conduct research into black classical music is therefore irresponsible, neglectful and goes against the diversity requirements stipulated in most teaching contracts. And finally, avoiding black composers because you are avoiding talking about race is the very definition of whitewashing. These challenges sound, to me, like the symptoms of apathy or laziness. So how do we combat this complacency?
Bagshaw’s interviewees proposed two solutions that stood out to me:
Teach black contemporaries alongside well known composers
Use music by black composers to teach the practical tasks required for achievement
Teaching the works of black composers alongside those of the so-called “greats”, plus normalising black composers throughout learning activities, I believe will help in showing that anybody can compose great classical music. These strategies have the potential of undoing some of the damage a whitewashed classical music history has caused. On the other hand, choosing one piece of music by one black composer to put amongst 10 white composers, for example, in a year’s curriculum purely to tick the diversity box is not enough and, if anything, perpetuates the fallacy that black composers are not worth an equal footing. To really meet equality and diversity requirements there needs to be a fairer representation of cultures in classical music teaching materials. Institutions themselves must pledge to actively implement more diversity in their historical music curriculums and provide teachers the support required to achieve this. Admittedly there might only be one black classical composer for every 10 white composers because of systemic oppression, but again, this is not because either are any better or worse. So why not commission more black composers today? (Apply for diversity funding if your school doesn’t have this kind of money) Or while in the spirit of protests, BLM efforts and donating to black charities, why not donate some of your own time to arranging black composers’ music to suit your students’ instruments/needs?
If you discover a gap in knowledge in a child’s education, your instinct might be to amend this, fill the gap by putting in extra time/effort/resources... So if we think of classical music itself as having a gap in diversity knowledge that desperately needs to be filled, perhaps we should treat it the same way. Devoting larger portions of class time and materials to black composers on a regular basis - frequently programming the works of BME composers in the concert hall, on the air waves and online - will benefit the classical music world greatly, it will not take away from the contribution of other composers. Trust me, Beethoven will still be there when you get back. As proven by my algorithm, you can’t get away from Beethoven even if you try!
In April 2019 singer and songwriter Thabo spent a week at Opera North, developing an innovative new performance featuring song, scent and visuals…
How to donate to the cause:
In the UK it seems there are no funding schemes that you can donate to that are aimed at supporting BME composers specifically. Arts Council England and PRS have open schemes that anybody can apply to, so it is up to their commitment to diversity to ensure BME composers are being commissioned. For example Opera North provides Resonance residencies for commissioning works by BME composers (backed by Arts Council England). So if you want your money to go directly into the hands of black composers, your music organisation could Adopt A Composer through Making Music and request BME candidates (backed by PRS plus Sound and Music). Or if you want to donate to a diverse orchestra committed to furthering the careers of BME musicians and composers then please donate to the Chineke! Foundation.