Our descent back to savagery accelerates
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i bang rocks, eh? Fuck Beethoven!
University of Oxford under pressure to drop musical notation and classical musicians: “too colonial”
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.
Also deemed problematic are skills such as playing the keyboard or conducting orchestras. The proposed change would make learning them optional, since the repertoire used in the process “structurally centres white European music,” which causes “students of colour great distress.”
The current classical repertoire was criticized for focusing on “white European music from the slave period,” so presumably works by Mozart and Beethoven will have a diminished place in a rethought ‘decolonized’ curriculum.
The goal here, in case you haven’t been paying attention, is the complete destruction of western civilization so that a “new” social construct (same ol’ oligarchy of the past 5,000 years, but never mind) can be imposed.
(UPDATE) The more I mull on this, the angrier I become. Is there anything more universal than music? This story provoked a memory of the time, as a young freshman, I was walking down what I thought was an empty hallway and idly whistling a snatch of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, when one of my philosophy professors, Wing Ming Chin, spoke up behind me: “You like Beethoven? That’s great!”. He invited me to share a coffee, and he became my mentor and friend. A libertarian, Mr. Wing had been driven from Columbia University for his beliefs (this was 1972, so the process has been going on for a long time), and we had long talks about philosophy and life — he warned me to check out the national job postings for philosophy teachers in the department’s office (6, if I recall) and adjust my post-graduate goals accordingly — and, of course, music. Not once did the subject of Colonialism and white oppression come up between this refugee from the benevolent arms of Chairman Mao and me. Funny, that.
(Circling back again, because it’s my blog, and I can do that). Classical music is just that, while other forms have a more selective appeal. Had I been wandering down that hallway twerking and shouting out about niggers, whores, and motherfuckers, like any good rapper, I would probably not have become friends with Professor Wing, and unless I’d been daubed in blackface, I might even have been shunned by my “peers”.