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comment by scissortail
scissortail  ·  1316 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Music Theory and White Supremacy

    My neighbor? Programmed for Quincy Jones. Professor in music theory at Cal Arts. Here's the book he uses. And the thing is? It's full of a gajillion different music theories that nobody has an anchor into. Wanna hear what that music theory actually sounds like? Guess what. Your class is now hearing Gamelan for the first fuckin' time in their lives.

This is great, and I only wish my degree had required something like it. Unfortunately, the required music theory for most music majors does not, to my knowledge, require learning anything like this--it's regrettably much more in line with what Neely puts out in the video. He doesn't do a perfect job (using Babbitt as an example of the ossification of theory? Really?), but in broad strokes he gets the character of music theory as an academic institution pretty right. I had to take a music survey course, but World Music was an optional elective (to say nothing of classes in the theory and practice of individual styles of world music).

Huun Huur Tu slaps, btw. May Tuvan music never die.