Classical Music is Racist

https://spectator.org/liberal-activism-threatens-to-destroy-the-classical-music-tradition/

by Caelan Elliott

Increasing charges of systemic racism have been levied against the classical music tradition since the death of George Floyd, and members of the classical music scene are being forced to grapple with the fact that the tradition’s rich practice and legacy are being called into question by extremist rhetoric.

Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute reported this month in “Classical Music’s Suicide’s Pact” (Part 1 and Part 2) that progressives are accusing orchestras of routinely discriminating against black musicians and composers (because black representation among orchestral musicians in the U.S. is only 1.8 percent) and are rejecting the canonical classical repertoire as inherently racist — a result of white supremacy and African suppression.

Some of Mac Donald’s findings on the excesses of imposing the race lens on classical music were particularly troubling.

For example, Hunter College music theory professor Philip Ewell claimed in a blog post titled “Beethoven Was an Above Average Composer—Let’s Leave It at That” that Beethoven’s wide acclaim is mostly due to his “whiteness” and “maleness” and the Ninth Symphony is no unique masterpiece.

Garrett McQueen, who was an announcer for American Public Media at the time, told a Composers Forum roundtable in June 2020: “You are complicit in racism every time you listen to Handel’s Messiah,” because Handel held stock in a slave-trading company.

Perhaps most shockingly, the lead reviewer for the New York Times, Anthony Tommasini, argued that orchestra auditions should no longer be “blind,” taking place behind a screen — the usual practice to avoid bias or favoritism — because orchestras must fix the “appalling racial imbalance” of their membership.

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