Links on the topic of race and diversity in music theory, and resources for those interested in developing an explicitly anti-racist music theory curriculum.
Please feel free to contact us with more resources we should add! (editor@musicbyblackcomposers.org)!
Curriculum discussion and content
- Expanding the Canon: Black Composers in the Music Theory Classroom, Melissa Hoag (editor), Routledge, 2022
- “Promoting Equity: Developing an Antiracist Music Theory Classroom,” (Jan. 29, 2020) Dave Molk & Michelle Ohnona, NEWMUSICBOX.
- “The Hidden Curriculum in the Music Theory Classroom,” (2018) Cora Palfy and Eric Gilson, Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy: Vol. 32, Article 5.
- Anti-Racist Music Theory Examples (collaborative spreadsheet created by the Composers of Color Resource Project)
- “Diversity in Music Theory” (from SMT’s Committee on Race and Ethnicity)
- “Toward an Anti-Racist Post-Tonal Analysis” (UChicago, Nov. 12, 2020)
Content by Music Theorist, Dr. Philip Ewell
- Philip Ewell, On Music Theory, and Making Music More Welcoming for Everyone, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2023.
- Dr. Ewell’s homepage
- Video of Dr. Ewell’s plenary talk at the Society for Music Theory (SMT) in 2019
- Philip Ewell, “Music Theory and the White Racial Frame,” Music Theory Online 26 no. 2 (September 2020)
- Dr. Ewell’s blog
Popular media articles
YouTube Videos
- Kofi Agawu – “Tonality as a colonizing force in African music”
- Adam Neely – “Music Theory and White Supremacy”
Podcasts
- The Theory Club: A Music Theory and Musicology Podcast (hosted by Lydia Bangura and Emily Zwijack)
- “Music Theory and the White Racial Frame” (with Dr. William Hussey)
