University of Oxford considers scrapping sheet music for being 'too colonial'
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 4 years ago • 20 commentsBy: Raven Saunt (Mail Online)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The University of Oxford is considering scrapping sheet music for being 'too colonial' after staff raised concerns about the 'complicity in white supremacy' in music curriculums.
Professors are set to reform their music courses to move away from the classic repertoire, which includes the likes of Beethoven and Mozart, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.
University staff have argued that the current curriculum focuses on 'white European music from the slave period', according to The Telegraph.
The University of Oxford (Merton College pictured) is considering scrapping sheet music for being 'too colonial' after staff raised concerns about the 'complicity in white supremacy' in music curriculums
Documents seen by the publication indicate proposed reforms to target undergraduate courses.
It claimed that teaching musical notation had 'not shaken off its connection to its colonial past' and would be 'a slap in the face' to some students.
And it added that musical skills should no longer be compulsory because the current repertoire's focus on 'white European music' causes 'students of colour great distress'.
It is thought that music writing will also be reformed to be more inclusive.
But the proposals caused upset among some faculty members who argued that it was unfair to accuse those teaching music from before 1900 of being concerned with just 'white'.
MailOnline has contacted the University of Oxford for comment.
It comes after one Oxford college removed the name of an 18th-century slave trader from its main library earlier this year - but has defied calls to take down his statue.
It comes after one Oxford college, All Souls College, removed the name of an 18th-century slave trader from its main library earlier this year - but has defied calls to take down his statue
A marble statue by Edward Cheere of the benefactor has been standing in the library after Codrington bequeathed £10,000 to the college
All Souls College reviewed its link to Christopher Codrington, a Barbados-born colonial governor, in the wake of last year's Black Lives Matter movement.
The former college fellow who died in 1710 bequeathed £10,000 to the library which has since been unofficially known as the Codrington Library.
A marble statue by Edward Cheere of the benefactor has been standing in the library for centuries and the college says it has no plans to take it down despite the clamour from students.
The All Souls governing body said: 'Rather than seek to remove it the College will investigate further forms of memorialisation and contextualisation within the library, which will draw attention to the presence of enslaved people on the Codrington plantations, and will express the College's abhorrence of slavery.'
Their review found that Codrington's wealth 'derived largely from his family's activities in the West Indies, where they owned plantations worked by enslaved people of African descent'.
The college claims it has undertaken a number of measures to address the colonial legacy, including erecting a memorial plaque in memory of those who worked on the Caribbean plantations.
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I think getting rid of classical music because the pieces were created in the period of European colonialism is taking it too far.
A lot of these people seem to have too much idle time on their hands.
Absolutely agree with you on this JR!
I love music of all sorts. From classical to heavy metal and gangster rap and everything in between. The only genre that I'm not a fan of is country. I even enjoy folk music from time to time, but country music reminds me of whining dogs... it annoys me. If it's your "cup of tea" then that's fine, it's just not mine.
Those claiming to be woke are still picking the low fruit. What we are seeing is only the beginning.
Your sentiment is found in graffiti from ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt. The world is always going to hell according the negative nabobs of all times!
What??
And this.
I don't get it.
Same here. Emotions over rationality I suppose.
I can see adjusting their curricula to become more inclusive of music from areas other than Europe, but to eliminate Beethoven and Mozart? To stop teaching musical notation? I'm not sure how one teaches music without including musical notation.
In my opinion, the Russians were the best classical composers. Especially Tchaikovsky..
Has any great music come from BLM?
I do not know about BLM?, but black Americans are primary due credit for the invention of jazz, rythm and blues, soul, funk, Motown, rock and roll, hip hop and rap which blows up your point, if you had one...
Don't discount the the contributions of White musicians to most of those genre.
Ridiculous. I never once associated this music with colonialism or slavery, and I’ve never heard of anyone who did. It’s just music. There’s nothing about music notation that implies either of those things.
How dumb. There is nothing about music notation that is not inclusive.
These people have lost their minds.
Agreed.
Just because two things exist at the same time, that does not mean they are connected. Shall we also decide not to use the Gregorian calendar or eat with forks? How about we also do away with the printing press? Steam power? Telescopes? Those things were developed in the same centuries that colonialism and slavery were happening.
At the very least, I guess the school should stop teaching or referencing musical instruments developed during the period - piano, violin, clarinet, oboe. That should make things interesting.
How is it that faculty or administrators at a university can’t be fired for being this dumb?
And don't forget industrialization. Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and Carnegie with the trains, oil, and steel industries. All that occurred from the 1760s through 1840s roughly.
This silly stuff is going to extremes
For a different take: