Critical Critical Theory Theory
- (Part 5 of Philip Ewell Go Down In History) Race scholarship is conspicuously mute on its intellectual antecedents. Possibly, reluctance to cite white males, has created a feeling that Critical Race Theory is original, that scholars such as Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Richard Delgado, Cheryl Harris and others, invented it from first principles. Since advanced academic degrees can now be earned without learning the history of Western thought, it is also possible many are not aware Critical Theory relies on at least two centuries' prior work.
Norman Lebrekt Needs Money
- Norman Lebrecht, who has made a career off the decline of classical music, is finally going down with it. For $79 / £59 a year, or $165 / £125 for three years, you can now "take membership" in Slippedisc. This entitles you to "a daily digest of stories" cluttering up your email.
Philip Ewell Go Down In History Part VI
- Thank you to everyone who contacted us regarding the fifth and sixth parts of Philip Ewell Go Down in History. Due to personal circumstances, Mr. Barnes has required additional time to get them in final form. We would like to provide an update that the fifth part is now being published in installments and the […]
Deer Whiteness and Maleness
- (Part 4 of Philip Ewell Go Down In History) It is not that Ewell is a poor Critical Race Theorist, but that he is such an effective one, that his work is helpful: it can be used to lay bare the workings of Critical Theory in general.
I Don’t Know. What’s Music Theory?
- This section consolidates Philip Ewell's papers, talks, blog posts and virtual symposia, including Q&A sessions, into a summary of his views on race and antiracism with respect to music theory in particular. It includes short video excerpts that illustrate Ewell's most essential remarks by topic. The summary is intended as fair and accurate, not critical or skeptical. In order to begin responding in any way to Ewell's work, it must be fully understood in both detail and overview.
On Music Theory And Making Music More Welcoming For Everyone
- Philip Ewell‘s book, On Music Theory and Making Music More Welcoming For Everyone is available for download below for individuals whose work its contents concerns but who do not wish to monetarily support the University of Michigan’s Music and Social Justice series.
That Scared the Shit Out of Them: A New Narrative
- (Part 2 of Philip Ewell Go Down In History) In barely a year, Critical Race Theory had thrust Heinrich Schenker and academic music theory into the mainstream media. People who had neither heard of or cared about either suddenly held passionate views and claims to knowledge. Comments, shares, secondary coverage, responses, upvotes, and downvotes proliferated on blogs, social media and digital news platforms.
Society for Music Theory Plenary Talk, 2019
- Philip Ewell's 2019 plenary talk, "Music Theory's White Racial Frame" is provided here for streaming and download.
Philip Ewell Go Down In History
- In the last four years, Philip Ewell has risen to international attention as a music theorist and public intellectual, specifically in the area of Critical Race Theory as he believes it should inform academic music theory and, to some extent, classical music as a whole. This article is neither a response nor a rebuttal to Ewell. It rather provides context and supplemental information to the words and behavior of Ewell and those whose opposition and support he has amplified and brought to prominence in the media in and outside of classical music. It also proposes alternative directions to those that have been tried so far in response, on both sides.
The Persnickety Classical Music Critic Caves
- Ross’s was soon firing on all cylinders, with one article after another devoted or related to black musicians. Troublingly, scarcely a word of actual criticism can be located in any of them. For a self-described “persnickety classical music critic,” [1] he becomes remarkably stingy with the lukewarm assessments and snide remarks he lops at white artists both present and past.
Searching for Alternatives to Esa-Pekka Salonen
- In one of his best moments ever, Alex Ross writes, “Salonen cherishes the symphony-orchestra tradition, and sees no need for it to be transformed beyond recognition or junked altogether.” By 2020, it would already become necessary to address both possibilities, for quite different reasons than Ross anticipated. “This period [2020] has shone light on an unbelievable amount of baked-in inequality and rotten practices rooted in the foundation of everything we do,” as Ross quotes composer Nico Muhly saying. Seldom in American history has classical music achieved more attention than when Critical Race Theorists, many without a shred of prior interest in it, saw the opportunity to expose its so-called racist antecedents.
Alex Ross and the Future of Classical Music, Part I
- Alex Ross was irritated by the 2018 celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday at Tanglewood and throughout the world. In his article “Leonard Bernstein and the Perils of Hero Worship“, he flinches at every superlative about the first great American-born conductor. With a loosely thrown together list of historical circumstances, Ross appears quite seriously to argue that Leonard Bernstein was, more than anything else, at the right place at the right time.