Desegregating, Classically

CONNOISSEURS OF CLASSICAL MUSIC, consisting of only a small segment of the American people, tend, like connoisseurs of all kinds of music and other artforms, to have their personal favorite creators, and to stick pretty close to home. What distinguishes classical music lovers is that they focus not on the performers so much as the writers. People who are not interested in classical music have generally heard of four composers: Bach, Brahams, Beethoven, and Mozart, among the thousands, living and dead, who have contributed to the genre. Sometimes Tchaikovsky sneaks in the back foor, usually not. Like everyting else, liking classical music is largely a matter of being exposed to it sufficiently, at a young enough age. Its hard to get people to listen to it. One problem is that most classical compositions are more than two minutes long, and in a culture devoted to the song form, longer attention spans are at a premium. Most classical composers actually wrote in the song form, usually as a departure from their preoccupation with longer formats. Songs written in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by classical composers are much different in sound than our modern, familiar forms in country, pop, and rock. The melodies are more subtle, and lack the "catchy" quality of the modern American songbook. They are best sung by operatic voices; Bob Dylan and Taylor Swift need not apply. Its hard to get people unfamiliar with classical music to actual listen to it. To properly appreciate, it is necessary to actually focus on it, preferably while sitting comfortably and focusing on it, without any distractions. That, of course, is a problem in a culture in which some high tech device is constantly screaming in our pockets. People answer their phones, or look at them, or get up and get to work cleaning house, assuming that they can hear the music while moving around, relegating the music to background noise. That, as they say, don't feed the bulldog. People always seem surprised when I tell them that the sheer amount of classical music in the world in immense, hundreds of times greater than the amount of rock, pop, or country, because classical music has been around for more than four centuries, and the rest, but a few decades. People also often seem surprised to learn that classical music is alive and well, that there are many, many classical composers alive today, writing and publishing prolifically, adding to the enormous extant opus. Its almost as if folks just assume that all classical music was written over a hundred years ago, and that the artform somwhow went extinct, and was replaced by our modern music. That's the time to throw some Philip Glass in their ears. Or maybe some Alan Hovhaness. There are hundreds, many still living and composing, from which to choose, all good. Like every other aspect of human culture, tehe classical music community is beset with racism, and, like every other aspect of human culture, more so in the United States of Asininity than anywhere else. Of these composers, of whom have you heard? (Be honest): Florence Price, William Dawson, William Grant Still. These are all African-American composers, composers of the highest quality, comparable in quality, all kidding asie, to Mozart and beethoven. Florence Price was born in Arkansas in the late nineteenth century, and, an obvious musical genius, was allowd to play the piano in the mansion of a wealthy white Little Rock family while her parents cleaned the house. He obvious natural talent led to her getting a good education musically, and in the eighteen nineties she studied music in New York. Her favorite composer was the great Czech composer Anton Dvorak, who spent two years in New York as director of the New York music conservatory. Price's symphonies are remindful of Dvorak, and they are surpassingly beautiful. Like all African-American composers, in her music can be heard echoes of negro spirituals, and jazz, which of course was invented by African-American culture. One need only listen to anything any of them wrote, which one can easily do online, to appreciate their extraordinary music. William Dawson wrote one and only one sypmphnoy, which he named the "Negro Folk Symphony". It debuted in 1939, and was well receeived - then, forgotten. It is a work of superb quality, easily equal in quality to any composition by any composer who ever lived. Only recently has this masterpiece begun to be played, recorded, and appreciated. All three of these composers would be as famous as, say, Aaron Copeland, or certainly Rex Harris, both fine American compsoers, were they but white. Florence Price suffered, and still suffers the obstacle of having been not only black, but female as well. William Dawson never wrote another symphony. He was given no support, no encouragement, no respect, no appreciation...so...why bother? Racism harms culture, and society. Our saving grace is that we still possess the creativity of African-Americans, past and present. So, we have a scond chance, whether or not we deserve it. We need only take advantage of it. Its up to us.