From classical and jazz, to rock and pop music, a degree in music offers a sophisticated knowledge of the theory, history, and performance standards of all fields of music (Music, n.d.). That definition of the field has not proven to be quite accurate. The study of music theory in particular is not fully inclusive of all styles of music, but rather,framed in a white supremacist lens at various levels of the field, which dictates the styles of music studied and valued.An abstract of music education in the United States begins in the 1700’s, with music theory in American popular culture only referring to the white racially framed style of European musicians.
Music theory is white. According to the Society for Music Theory’s “Annual Report on Membership Demographics ”for 2018, 84.2% of the society’s membership is white 90.4% of all full-time employees in music theory are white (8), and 93.9% of associate and full professors in music theory are white (9). Aside from this literal version, there exists a figurative and even more deep-seated whiteness in music theory. This is the whiteness—which manifests itself in the composers we choose to represent our field inside and outside of the classroom, and in the music theorists that we elevate to the top of our discipline—that one must practice,regardless of one’s own personal racial identity, in order to call oneself a music theorist (Brown, 2018, Ewell, 2020).
There is a vast and diverse musical tradition globally and in the U.S. that many music majors are not introduced to. Indigenous spiritual music played purposefully by Natives already living in North America was viewed as “inferior” and even “horrifying” by European religious colonizers who moved in with Quaker, Catholic, and Christian hymns(Winston, 2019). The migration of people southward led to the settling of the Appalachian Mountains where many poor Europeans inhabited and brought country blues and fiddling styles. African Slaves came to the United States and introduced the music world to instruments like the xylophone and banjo. The diverse music of the United States comes from the diverse type of people who first colonized this country, however music “scholars” in the field of education have long maintained white-centric curricula by labeling music from other cultures as “less than” with other names like “folk” and“ethnic” music (Ewell, 2020).According to musicologist Dr. Ewell,
Our white racial frame believes that the music and music theories of white persons represent the best framework for music theory. Music theory can be seen as a racial ideology in which the views and ideas of white persons are held to be more significant than the views and ideas of nonwhites (Ewell, 2020).
America also proved how music education can be a mechanism of cultural genocide. In the 1800’s, Congress elected to assimilate the remaining Indigenous population, chartering boarding schools where thousands of Native American children suffered, often died, and most notably were denied the right to sing, dance, or play their ancestral music. Thus,they were unable to experience, know, or pass on their culture, thereby killing hundreds of individual tribal cultures. For American students in the 1900’s, class and wealth gaps in the United States economy have defined generational ability to own any instrument,attend music lessons, or proceed to a music institution. This means racial segregation played a major role in lack of access and opportunity.
It wasn’t until the 1950’s that the American Orff-Schulwerk Association (AOSA) popularized, and simultaneously, mass production factories granted the ability to make and deliver plastic recorders to children across the country. Recorders have dominated public education for the past 70 years or so, and every citizen can likely say they’ve played a recorder in school as a child. AOSA is fully responsible for the popularity of the recorder and the mass elementary music education curricula, yet many are unaware that Carl Orff,the man who created AOSA, was the most celebrated Nazi musician of the Third Reich. Orff’s affiliation with the Nazi regime has not prompted the AOSA to consider a name change despite their website’s commitment to diversity and inclusion (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, 2021).
The recorder is not the only element within the field of music with an insidious background, as many popular rhymes have racist roots. “Eeny meeny miny mo” is one of those rhymes that’s ingrained in our cultural limbic system,yet its racist references predate the end of the civil war and enslavement. The song lyrics were constructed sometime in the 17th century with the “n” word in the second line, and even had later versions popularized in Europe before it was officially published in 1935 with the “n” word still encrypted, less than one hundred years ago (Simchayoff, 2021).
Decolonizing the music educational experience from toddler to senior starts with centering Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian voices, knowledge, and experiences to challenge the historical dominance of white Western European and American music,narratives, and practices that have resulted in minimization and erasure throughout the music field. Solutions lie in expanding curricula to include nonwestern and nonwhite forms of music theory. This change would not erase Western tonality, rather, it would make space in the curricula for music theories of nonwestern cultures to be included. By decentering whiteness and reframing the totality of the world of music, the music theories of nonwestern cultures would enrich musical offerings in our music institutions (Ewell,2020).
