Sins of the Father: Schenker, Schenkerism and Ewell'sOn Music Theory

Abstract

So, if one argues that the hierarchic thinking that lies at the core of Schenkerian theory is white and racist, what is one to make of the fact that in West Africa, too, modes of hierarchic thinking are pronounced and functionally indispensable to an understanding of many an expressive structure, musical as well as nonmusical? The worst consequence of claiming technical procedures for whiteness is denying the existence of shared ways of proceeding, and in effect enjoining our hypothetical West African theorist to go look for something different, a new grounding principle, better if it is anchored in nonhierarchy, something uniquely his own, something 'black'. The domain of blackness is thus defined in its nonintersection with whiteness. I fail to see how such a strategy can be empowering for black scholars. (Agawu 2021, pp. 15-16) 136Music Analysis, 43/i (2024)