CMS/ATMA: Music School for Tomorrow (1)
The CMS/ATMA (Alliance for the Transformation of Musical Academe) Virtual Conference, “Music School for Tomorrow— Foundational Educational Training of 21st Century Musicians,” ran from April 16-18, 2021. This was a particularly impressive conference, both for the challenges and timeliness of the content, but also because it was largely organized and administered by students. I had to miss the Friday sessions, but on Saturday, I attended both, “Foundational Educational Training of 21st Century Musicians,” and “Black Music Matters: The New Basis for Musical Education.”
Foundational Educational Training
The first session on Saturday, “Foundational Educational Training,” was moderated by Samuel Dunlap and featured panelists Garrett McQueen, LaTanya Hall, Miles Okazaki, Tawnya Smith, Anthony Branker, and Jeff Scott.
The discussion began with a consideration of whether the core courses in music programs cover the skills actually needed for professional life. The consensus was that they didn’t, and the panelists described learning what they actually needed largely after graduation, “on the job.” In considering what the core should actually teach, the theme of “other ways of knowing” emerged consistently. Music programs, they felt, should foster curiosity, discovery, and skepticism, and expose students to the broadest possible range of musical styles. Some of the specific skills proposed included:
Collaboration (understanding how to fit in to an unfamiliar sound environment)
Improvisation
Playing by ear and rote learning (as the majority of world music styles don’t use notation)
Rhythm
Memory
Business (including streaming models, digital platforms, and branding)
Above all, students should be mentored to develop a unique, individual sound. Two other important themes in connection with this were appreciating the students’ perspectives and allowing them greater autonomy. As regards the former, Gen Z has had a very different experience from previous generations, and it is important to be willing to learn from them—to let them show us new ways of knowing, rather than insisting that we know better. As regards the latter, the panel agreed that students’ voices mattered and that they should contribute to the shaping of their education. Indeed, how else will they develop the individuality they will need?
A substantial portion of the discussion concerned the importance of Black music in the curriculum. Garrett McQueen passionately decried the Western canon as centered on whiteness, and called for its abolition, in favor of the breadth and diversity of Black music, which itself includes Classical genres. Not everyone was prepared to go this far, and argued in favor of integrating Black music into the Western canon throughout the curriculum;. Creating a single course in Afro-American Music that counted for diversity credit, they insisted, was actually more racist than omitting it entirely. Ed Sarath, the founder of ATMA and a panelist in the next session, “Black Music Matters,” stepped in to assert that Black music was the foundation of music in the US, and Garrett reminded the panel that “we can all benefit from the Black experience.”
Both La Tanya Hill and Tawnya Smith lamented that Black musicians were frequently rejected by higher ed. music programs because academics in the Western tradition consistently refuse to recognize the validity of improvisation-based styles, particularly if the students don’t read music. Tawnya Smith, a music education specialist, observed that frequently, these students would be the best candidates for music education: charismatic, energetic, and able to speak to non-white populations authentically. Music education graduates, she explained, were predominantly white, while the K-12 student population is already over 50% non-white. With this demographic shift, student enthusiasm for the tradition Western band, orchestra, and chorus programs is waning. Unless we meet the student populations in specific communities where they are, celebrating and respecting the music they already know and love, we will quickly become irrelevant.
Black Music Matters
The second session on Saturday, “Black Music Matters,” was also moderated by Samuel Dunlap and featured panelists Ed Sarath, Michael Nickens, Fredara Hadley, Damani Phillips, and W. Weldon Hill. The themes that emerged from this discussion included the role of music in systemic racism, how and why to integrate Black music in the short term, and the importance of authentic community engagement.
Music, the panelists argued, has its own form of institutional racism: Black music has been systematically excluded from the curriculum, and even when included, is often sequestered into Jazz Studies programs as a token diversity piece. This racism is also evident in the hiring process: not only are Black people underrepresented, but many instrumental faculty don’t even have music by Black composers in their repertoire. This also raises serious questions about faculty qualifications to teach Black music. Damani Phillips encouraged all of us to take an honest inventory of our knowledge and conscientiously address any gaps. Fredara Hadley shared the following resources:
JH Kwabena Nketia, Music of Africa
Samuel Floyd, Power of Black Music
Portia Maultsby, Africanisms in Black Music
other books by Meki Nzewi and Eileen Southern
Ed Sarath also recommended Christopher Small’s Music of the Common Tongue, and his own Black Music Matters.
Fredara Hadley also observed that while, in the West, the Academy held itself up as the citadel—a repository of history and culture to which people had to come in order to learn, Black music itself was a repository of history and culture. Similarly, Damani Phillips asserted throughout the session that, in order to understand Black music, the Academy had to go out and learn by participating in the culture.
The panelists were generally in agreement that while systemic change would be desirable in the long-term, smaller, tangible changes would be necessary in the short-term. Damani Phillips pointed out that the reality of the mismatch between what was considered “music” inside and outside the academy has become painfully obvious, and even common sense would suggest an immediate change in emphasis. He further pointed out that Black music itself shifted to meet audience demands, giving rise to genres like Smooth Jazz. On the question as to whether the Academy should create Black music courses, or integrate Black music into current courses, the answer was “both”; Black music should be included regardless. The panel considered Jazz Studies programs at some length. Jazz was regarded as the most convenient aperture into Black music, and it was recommended that it be supported with African-American music history, not simply Jazz history, since Jazz existed within the larger context of Black music and frequently made allusions to it. There was some irritation that students in Jazz Studies programs were frequently required to take courses in the Classical curriculum, but not the reverse. This did a disservice to the Classical students, who then missed an opportunity to encounter different ways of thinking about music. When asked to elaborate on the skills Black music develops, the panel listed the following:
Improvisation
Rhythm
Emotional expression, even when it required “breaking the rules”
Connection with physicality through dance
One final topic the panel addressed was community engagement. Too often, Fredara Hadley observed, music programs went into the community with a colonialist attitude, as though assuming that there would be no music in the community unless they brought it. In fact, most communities have a robust culture featuring many “musics.” If the Academy would instead come to the community with the intent of making an exchange, demonstrating humility and showing respect people, they would see better outcomes in both student learning and community relations. W. Weldon Hill called this approach “authentic engagement,” and Damani Phillips reminded the panel that “the streets are watching”—the colonialist approach had contributed to a erosion of trust in higher education generally.
Since I have played a significant role in music curriculum design, and also teach a Hip-Hop class in the honors program, I found these sessions both heartening, as our music program is doing some things right, and challenging. I am certainly unqualified to teach Hip-Hop, and my intention in creating the course was to demonstrate first, how necessary it was (it consistently fills and gets positive course evaluations), and second, to provide a space for a future, more knowledgeable instructor. We have a long road ahead in several respects, but virtually unlimited opportunity to effect some profound changes.