The attack on classical music has begun in earnest:
The University of Oxford is considering scrapping sheet music for being ‘too colonial’ after staff raised concerns about the ‘complicity in white supremacy’ in music curriculums.
Professors are set to reform their music courses to move away from the classic repertoire, which includes the likes of Beethoven and Mozart, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.
University staff have argued that the current curriculum focuses on ‘white European music from the slave period’, according to The Telegraph.
Documents seen by the publication indicate proposed reforms to target undergraduate courses.
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.
And it added that musical skills should no longer be compulsory because the current repertoire’s focus on ‘white European music’ causes ‘students of colour great distress’.
What this means is that classical music on public radio from the likes of NPR and the BBC are unlikely to survive, as those institutions are immediately proximate to the elite universities, from which they hire most of their employees.
This is why UATV will be adding a classical music channel later this year. We’re already beginning to build the FLAC library required to support it now.