@@finismalorum9746 What are you talking about? I love classical music. Mozart is also a favorite composer of mine. Furthermore, everyone is free to have their likes and dislikes. What I dislike is racism!
Last quarter I actually took a class on beethoven, and we had to do a final project on anything related to him we hadn't already covered. my roommate and i did it on whether beethoven was black, because we'd seen that one tumblr post about it. after a fair amount of research, we actually came to the conclusion that, although he was not considered attractive at all, he probably wasn't black. like, one of the pieces of "evidence" is that his skin was "ruddy"....which is usually used to refer to reddish skin, like sunburned or flushed, not as much to dark skin in the sense of being black or mixed. i wish i remembered more of what we researched, but we both had the flu at the time, so we just wanted to get it over with, and it was a podcast, so i don't really want to go find the file and listen to it because the whole listening to your own voice recorded weirdness.
Thank you so much for this video! I never thought about this, but it's definitely something to think about. I personally understand where this is going to affect me later in my career. I'm a junior in college studying to become an opera singer and other than talking about how fabulous Anderson, Norman, Price, Battle, Brownlee, etc. are, there's never a mention of other influential black composers and performers and how blackface is still accepted in the opera world. I'm OBSESSED with Jessye Norman singing "Près des ramparts de Séville" from Bizet's "Carmen": ruclips.net/video/DkADJFzJW28/видео.html
Now for a recommendation: Jessye Norman sings everything with such passion, but look for these two songs in particular: Die Nachtigal by Alban Berg Zeuignung by Richard Strauss In both cases, she is unmatched by any singer of the recorded age.
I found this video while looking for footage of Julius Eastman (a postmodern black composer) since I'm doing a video presentation on "controversial" classical figures and his work is so heavily censored that the first recording for purchase wasn't released until 2005 when his peak was in the 70s. There is no video footage of him, just images and only parts of his compositions can be found online. Though since you asked for my favorite piece by my favorite black composer, I'd say Evil N. It's very repetitive, but it can also hold my attention for 30 minutes. Its very story-driven as whenever I listen to this piece, I imagine a man (usually black) on the run late into the night in the streets of NY. He is being chased by some mad man. The man on the run finds refuge in a subway station but the madman finds him and the peice just gets darker and darker as the song progresses, repersenting beating and possible murder. Ironically, this peice is very relaxing.
There are also lots of non-white modern 'classical' composers that, thanks to the internet, are a lot more accessible than back in the 18th century. So it's even easier to support diverse 'classical' music nowadays.
Chevalier de saint-georges Violin duo no. 3, the only recording i was able to find on youtube was by augustin hadelich: ruclips.net/video/VLOSpuFyOZc/видео.html
Lixsania Fernendez: ruclips.net/video/XJluqMBk0ks/видео.html Great gambist. Her playing is more free and bouncy than other gambists (e.g. Savall), it's sort of unconventional but very nice in the ears.
I've seen both Demarre and Anthony McGill perform at my college. Both are absolutely phenomenal musicians and such lovely people. Anthony's performance of the Poulenc Clarinet Sonata completely blew me away. I could only find the third movement: ruclips.net/video/UgUlNF05ZAg/видео.html I couldn't find any solo recordings of Demarre unfortunately. I do remember that he played the hell out of the Copland Duo for Flute and Piano though.
Heimliche Aufforderung as performed by Angel Blue, as originally composed by Richard Strauss! Although I'm not typically one for opera-centered performances, I still appreciate the tenderness in her vocal qualities ruclips.net/video/6fAJ8dtqPVI/видео.html&feature=emb_title
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's violin concerto! /watch?v=Wp9uaOXESYA the way he uses the same motif to convey so many different feelings is beautiful. I only wish I was good enough to play this piece and do it justice. Someday! :P
This was a GREAT video. Very effective way to counter those silly arguments. That Jessye Norman video makes me WEEP every time I watch it. Here's an awesome video of Leontyne Price singing the crazy Libera Me solo in the Verdi Requiem. Her register shifts are just EPIC. ruclips.net/video/js8Jf1XsUi4/видео.html
OH MAN THAT WAS SO GOOD thank you so much for sharing!! That low chest voice is amazing and she has such great control of it and thanks you've got me gushing
William Grant Still. The cross over between the Jazz and classical ages are woefully under represented. PS - fix the reflection issue on your glasses; looks like you got google glasses goin' on there.
Now, for the most part, I wholeheartedly agree with you. The black community is wildly underrepresented in classical music and that is a big problem. I disagree with your comment about Otello and Aida. Those roles are fiendishly difficult to sing (Otello in particular). While I agree it would be amazing to see more diversity, I am unwilling to sacrifice quality. I love the music of Lawrence Brownlee, but he is utterly wrong for the role of Otello. It simply doesn't fit his voice. Rather, I would love to see an openness to having great singing in all roles. This could mean that we abandon some of our preconceived notions, i.e. having a skinny, young, attractive woman in the role of Salome (different discussion) or having politically correct casting. Let's celebrate the accomplishments of black singers not by insisting that they get pidgeonholed into a few roles that fit their appearance, but instead welcoming them into the repertoire as a whole- true colorblind casting based only on the talent of a singer and their merits on stage. Leontyne Price was a phenomenal Aida, but imagine if she never performed Tosca? We need to cast our best singers for the roles they will be triumphant on, and not just the roles we think that they should play. If this means that the opera world holds apologetically on to black face, it is less bad than restricting black performers. Let's let the Jessye Normans, Lawrence Brownlees, Kathleen Battles, etc. Sing what is in them to sing - nothing more and nothing less.
ohhhhhhhhhhkay there's a lot here to parse through and a lot of it I'm very much not okay with 1.) I never said that Brownlee would be good for Otello. In fact, I very specifically said we should have _more black singers_. I will 100% guarantee that there is a black man out there who can play Otello, and if not, one who has enough talent and drive that he *will* be able to play Otello given access to the necessary training. 2.) Blackface is not. okay. not. ever. If you can't find a black singer, sorry, you can't do Otello or Aida. It's not like we're running out of Verdi operas to perform. 3.) I literally don't know what you're talking about when you claim I talked about pigeonholing black singers or not encouraging colorblind casting. I very specifically said no blackface, give black people more roles. When the character is specifically black, you hire a black performer. When race doesn't matter, you use colorblind casting. I don't think that's too much to ask.
I'd like to reword some of my statements, because I'm not sure that I explained my point well. I am absolutely NOT in support of blackface performances. I think it is a shameful reality of the past that wasn't OK then and is not OK now. I will not argue your point there, but I still disagree that Otello and Aida must be performed race-specifically. There are black singers in the world who could sing Otello, yes. But what about the black singers who would love a chance to sing Desdemona or Jago? I'd like to give them the chance to sing these roles. And what about the black tenors who would give a complex and nuanced Radames? What I tried (and clearly failed) to argue is that I am in it for the music before the theatre in this case. I would like to see the best tenors and sopranos sing the roles of Otello and Aida. And for that matter, the theatre would only be hindered slightly, and the story only hindered slightly. Can we not explain to audiences these decisions? Let's absolyely encourage the careers of black singers, and let them sing any role that fits their voice, regardless of if that role is intended for a specific race or not. Perhaps this is foolish to suggest. It does, I admit, sacrifice story and theatre to some extent, but for the sake of equality and for the sake of music. In regards to my pidgeonhole argument, let me explain a little better. Aida was performed 272 times in the 2012 - 13 season. Otello was performed 143 times. Even if we were to limit the singers eligible, we would not change the demand for this music. Now, I could see this working out a few ways, possibly all at once. 1. The demand for these works encourages young black singers to get into the business - a great plus. 2. The singers who sing the role well and are black get offered a smaller and smaller variety of roles to help meet the demand. Not bad, certainly there are singers who had only a handful of roles across a whole career, but this should be a choice. 3. Singers who are black, but not vocally ready or vocally able might get pressured into these roles too early and at great detrement to their careers. The list could feasibility go on. There is good and there is bad to both sides of the coin. Me, personally, I would like to see the best singers sing regardless of race, and without employing blackface.
The Listener's Guide I must comment on your comment Steve. First, I disagree with you. Blackface is okay when you can't find the right singer for the part or he is unavailable. The political and social baggage of a blackface performance is mainly a problem in the US. Second, I find that color blind casting sometime disturb my suspension of disbelief when the setting is historical or semi historical. For example Angel Coulby version of Guinevere on BBC's "Merlin" was one of the reasons I was put off by the show. Color blind casting should not be the norm in historical dramas but the casting agent should be open to the possibility. For example I think Denzel Washington's Don Pedro in "Much Ado about Nothing" was the best I have ever seen. I think Moffat said it best when he was asked about a woman playing The Doctor that he is open to the possibility and if a woman would show up to audition he would not turn her away just because of her gender. If she would give a performance that would be brilliant he'll cast her but he is looking mainly at males at the moment. An actor should not be cast in a role because it is PC. If there are two similar actors for the same historical role then I am sorry but race should be a consideration. The name of the genre is historical drama and not drama and sadly enough most historical dramas are set in Europe and are about white people. This is the same reason that I found Ridley Scott's Exodus to be unwatchable. You should not cast only European looking actors for a movie set up in historical middle east.
jackoftrades80 1.) blackface is just as much of a problem in Europe and Europeans of color have been talking about it since forever, but white Europeans haven't been listening. Zwarte Piet is the first example that comes to mind; black people in Europe have protested that and the white onlookers come up with every excuse in the book to keep him. Europe is the place that _invented_ racism, after all. 2.) If you only envision white people in your historical Europe, then it is _you_ who has the historically inaccurate version of Europe. One of my favorite blogs, medievalpoc, is all about this misconception and I highly recommend you check them out because there is far too much here to unpack for one RUclips comment. 3.) If you talk about willing suspension of disbelief as if it is something natural and not something you specifically choose, then first of all you need to look up the definition of "willing" and second of all you need to think long and hard about how you can accept someone doing something fantastic like magic but not something perfectly natural like having black skin.
Benjamin Winkler I don't know how much more clearly I can state that I am not making a race essentialist argument. If the role is specifically black, then it needs to be played by a black person. I don't think we disagree on that. (though apparently we disagree on whether Radames is black? Literally everyone in Aida is black.) If it is not specifically black (or another race), then it should be colorblind. Furthermore, I find the "best singers" argument to ignore a huge part of opera - the drama. If you are only there for the singing, you may as well attend a concert. And in that case, divorced from the drama, you can really have whoever play whatever and it's no big deal (at least to me, but as a white person I am not in a position to decide how that would affect black performers, who I think should have a bigger voice in this anyway). But since there is drama involved, you have to cast according to the drama, not just the voice. And your hypothetical slippery-slope argument is a little troublesome to me. Sure, some people will get typecast; that already happens. But when I say "let's have black characters played by black performers" and you already have three examples of how that could possibly play out to the extreme, you're ignoring the fact that we currently don't have black performers playing a lot of specifically black roles, and that we're nowhere near those extremes to worry about it yet. Sure, that COULD be a problem in the future, but this IS a problem now that we need to try to fix.
Steve I got to say this. I didn't like this video, I loved it. It was informative and fun. I always struggled with the Listener's guide videos and didn't know why. Seeing this video it finally stuck. My problem in the past was that the videos were more like straight lectures. This time the interaction with your TV self added narrative and kept me interested though out it. Keep up the good work.
Interesting and important video! I had never even reflected over the fact that classical music is such a white-dominated field, which is frighetning. Thanks!
My eyes have been opened to the world of black classical music! Thanks so much for making this video
Thanks so much for making this much needed video.
Thank you for your honesty in speaking about the racism in classical music and for offering ways to support Black classical music. Bravo to you!
Gabrielle Goodman Why don’t you just like Classical music? And not base your love on a composer, on their race.
@@finismalorum9746 What are you talking about? I love classical music. Mozart is also a favorite composer of mine. Furthermore, everyone is free to have their likes and dislikes. What I dislike is racism!
Sheku Kenneth Mason :Cellist
Also check out the Cheneke orchestra: UK based black and minorities orchestra.
Last quarter I actually took a class on beethoven, and we had to do a final project on anything related to him we hadn't already covered. my roommate and i did it on whether beethoven was black, because we'd seen that one tumblr post about it. after a fair amount of research, we actually came to the conclusion that, although he was not considered attractive at all, he probably wasn't black. like, one of the pieces of "evidence" is that his skin was "ruddy"....which is usually used to refer to reddish skin, like sunburned or flushed, not as much to dark skin in the sense of being black or mixed.
i wish i remembered more of what we researched, but we both had the flu at the time, so we just wanted to get it over with, and it was a podcast, so i don't really want to go find the file and listen to it because the whole listening to your own voice recorded weirdness.
Thank you so much for this video! I never thought about this, but it's definitely something to think about. I personally understand where this is going to affect me later in my career. I'm a junior in college studying to become an opera singer and other than talking about how fabulous Anderson, Norman, Price, Battle, Brownlee, etc. are, there's never a mention of other influential black composers and performers and how blackface is still accepted in the opera world.
I'm OBSESSED with Jessye Norman singing "Près des ramparts de Séville" from Bizet's "Carmen": ruclips.net/video/DkADJFzJW28/видео.html
Now for a recommendation: Jessye Norman sings everything with such passion, but look for these two songs in particular:
Die Nachtigal by Alban Berg
Zeuignung by Richard Strauss
In both cases, she is unmatched by any singer of the recorded age.
I found this video while looking for footage of Julius Eastman (a postmodern black composer) since I'm doing a video presentation on "controversial" classical figures and his work is so heavily censored that the first recording for purchase wasn't released until 2005 when his peak was in the 70s. There is no video footage of him, just images and only parts of his compositions can be found online.
Though since you asked for my favorite piece by my favorite black composer, I'd say Evil N. It's very repetitive, but it can also hold my attention for 30 minutes. Its very story-driven as whenever I listen to this piece, I imagine a man (usually black) on the run late into the night in the streets of NY. He is being chased by some mad man. The man on the run finds refuge in a subway station but the madman finds him and the peice just gets darker and darker as the song progresses, repersenting beating and possible murder. Ironically, this peice is very relaxing.
There are also lots of non-white modern 'classical' composers that, thanks to the internet, are a lot more accessible than back in the 18th century. So it's even easier to support diverse 'classical' music nowadays.
Can you tell me the spelling of the black aristocrat in France who had such an influence upon Mozart?
Chevalier de saint-georges Violin duo no. 3, the only recording i was able to find on youtube was by augustin hadelich: ruclips.net/video/VLOSpuFyOZc/видео.html
This is a great video
This is awesome!
Lixsania Fernendez: ruclips.net/video/XJluqMBk0ks/видео.html
Great gambist. Her playing is more free and bouncy than other gambists (e.g. Savall), it's sort of unconventional but very nice in the ears.
It's too bad she lives so far away because I think I'm in love :O
I've seen both Demarre and Anthony McGill perform at my college. Both are absolutely phenomenal musicians and such lovely people. Anthony's performance of the Poulenc Clarinet Sonata completely blew me away. I could only find the third movement: ruclips.net/video/UgUlNF05ZAg/видео.html
I couldn't find any solo recordings of Demarre unfortunately. I do remember that he played the hell out of the Copland Duo for Flute and Piano though.
Thank you💕
This guy is a BOSS
Kathleen Battle in Mozart's Coronation Mass.
Well, I learned something new today, thank you for the informative video. 😀👍👍
Heimliche Aufforderung as performed by Angel Blue, as originally composed by Richard Strauss! Although I'm not typically one for opera-centered performances, I still appreciate the tenderness in her vocal qualities ruclips.net/video/6fAJ8dtqPVI/видео.html&feature=emb_title
Gracias !!!
Probably The greatest thing that happened to jazz is that charles mingus was rejected as a classical cellist, and turned to jazz as an alternative
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's violin concerto! /watch?v=Wp9uaOXESYA the way he uses the same motif to convey so many different feelings is beautiful. I only wish I was good enough to play this piece and do it justice. Someday! :P
Holy wow that's a good piece. I might have this week's obsession.
The Listener's Guide I think for me it's this year's.
Grace Bumbry’s Seguidilla
Imani winds!!! They are the best!
This was a GREAT video. Very effective way to counter those silly arguments. That Jessye Norman video makes me WEEP every time I watch it.
Here's an awesome video of Leontyne Price singing the crazy Libera Me solo in the Verdi Requiem. Her register shifts are just EPIC.
ruclips.net/video/js8Jf1XsUi4/видео.html
OH MAN THAT WAS SO GOOD thank you so much for sharing!! That low chest voice is amazing and she has such great control of it and thanks you've got me gushing
William Grant Still. The cross over between the Jazz and classical ages are woefully under represented.
PS - fix the reflection issue on your glasses; looks like you got google glasses goin' on there.
Thank you for telling the world, as a man with very little melanin, that modern opera companied still do black face.
Now, for the most part, I wholeheartedly agree with you. The black community is wildly underrepresented in classical music and that is a big problem. I disagree with your comment about Otello and Aida. Those roles are fiendishly difficult to sing (Otello in particular). While I agree it would be amazing to see more diversity, I am unwilling to sacrifice quality. I love the music of Lawrence Brownlee, but he is utterly wrong for the role of Otello. It simply doesn't fit his voice. Rather, I would love to see an openness to having great singing in all roles. This could mean that we abandon some of our preconceived notions, i.e. having a skinny, young, attractive woman in the role of Salome (different discussion) or having politically correct casting. Let's celebrate the accomplishments of black singers not by insisting that they get pidgeonholed into a few roles that fit their appearance, but instead welcoming them into the repertoire as a whole- true colorblind casting based only on the talent of a singer and their merits on stage. Leontyne Price was a phenomenal Aida, but imagine if she never performed Tosca? We need to cast our best singers for the roles they will be triumphant on, and not just the roles we think that they should play. If this means that the opera world holds apologetically on to black face, it is less bad than restricting black performers. Let's let the Jessye Normans, Lawrence Brownlees, Kathleen Battles, etc. Sing what is in them to sing - nothing more and nothing less.
ohhhhhhhhhhkay there's a lot here to parse through and a lot of it I'm very much not okay with
1.) I never said that Brownlee would be good for Otello. In fact, I very specifically said we should have _more black singers_. I will 100% guarantee that there is a black man out there who can play Otello, and if not, one who has enough talent and drive that he *will* be able to play Otello given access to the necessary training.
2.) Blackface is not. okay. not. ever. If you can't find a black singer, sorry, you can't do Otello or Aida. It's not like we're running out of Verdi operas to perform.
3.) I literally don't know what you're talking about when you claim I talked about pigeonholing black singers or not encouraging colorblind casting. I very specifically said no blackface, give black people more roles.
When the character is specifically black, you hire a black performer. When race doesn't matter, you use colorblind casting. I don't think that's too much to ask.
I'd like to reword some of my statements, because I'm not sure that I explained my point well. I am absolutely NOT in support of blackface performances. I think it is a shameful reality of the past that wasn't OK then and is not OK now. I will not argue your point there, but I still disagree that Otello and Aida must be performed race-specifically. There are black singers in the world who could sing Otello, yes. But what about the black singers who would love a chance to sing Desdemona or Jago? I'd like to give them the chance to sing these roles. And what about the black tenors who would give a complex and nuanced Radames? What I tried (and clearly failed) to argue is that I am in it for the music before the theatre in this case. I would like to see the best tenors and sopranos sing the roles of Otello and Aida. And for that matter, the theatre would only be hindered slightly, and the story only hindered slightly. Can we not explain to audiences these decisions? Let's absolyely encourage the careers of black singers, and let them sing any role that fits their voice, regardless of if that role is intended for a specific race or not. Perhaps this is foolish to suggest. It does, I admit, sacrifice story and theatre to some extent, but for the sake of equality and for the sake of music.
In regards to my pidgeonhole argument, let me explain a little better. Aida was performed 272 times in the 2012 - 13 season. Otello was performed 143 times. Even if we were to limit the singers eligible, we would not change the demand for this music. Now, I could see this working out a few ways, possibly all at once. 1. The demand for these works encourages young black singers to get into the business - a great plus. 2. The singers who sing the role well and are black get offered a smaller and smaller variety of roles to help meet the demand. Not bad, certainly there are singers who had only a handful of roles across a whole career, but this should be a choice. 3. Singers who are black, but not vocally ready or vocally able might get pressured into these roles too early and at great detrement to their careers.
The list could feasibility go on. There is good and there is bad to both sides of the coin. Me, personally, I would like to see the best singers sing regardless of race, and without employing blackface.
The Listener's Guide I must comment on your comment Steve. First, I disagree with you. Blackface is okay when you can't find the right singer for the part or he is unavailable. The political and social baggage of a blackface performance is mainly a problem in the US.
Second, I find that color blind casting sometime disturb my suspension of disbelief when the setting is historical or semi historical. For example Angel Coulby version of Guinevere on BBC's "Merlin" was one of the reasons I was put off by the show. Color blind casting should not be the norm in historical dramas but the casting agent should be open to the possibility. For example I think Denzel Washington's Don Pedro in "Much Ado about Nothing" was the best I have ever seen.
I think Moffat said it best when he was asked about a woman playing The Doctor that he is open to the possibility and if a woman would show up to audition he would not turn her away just because of her gender. If she would give a performance that would be brilliant he'll cast her but he is looking mainly at males at the moment.
An actor should not be cast in a role because it is PC. If there are two similar actors for the same historical role then I am sorry but race should be a consideration. The name of the genre is historical drama and not drama and sadly enough most historical dramas are set in Europe and are about white people. This is the same reason that I found Ridley Scott's Exodus to be unwatchable. You should not cast only European looking actors for a movie set up in historical middle east.
jackoftrades80 1.) blackface is just as much of a problem in Europe and Europeans of color have been talking about it since forever, but white Europeans haven't been listening. Zwarte Piet is the first example that comes to mind; black people in Europe have protested that and the white onlookers come up with every excuse in the book to keep him. Europe is the place that _invented_ racism, after all.
2.) If you only envision white people in your historical Europe, then it is _you_ who has the historically inaccurate version of Europe. One of my favorite blogs, medievalpoc, is all about this misconception and I highly recommend you check them out because there is far too much here to unpack for one RUclips comment.
3.) If you talk about willing suspension of disbelief as if it is something natural and not something you specifically choose, then first of all you need to look up the definition of "willing" and second of all you need to think long and hard about how you can accept someone doing something fantastic like magic but not something perfectly natural like having black skin.
Benjamin Winkler I don't know how much more clearly I can state that I am not making a race essentialist argument. If the role is specifically black, then it needs to be played by a black person. I don't think we disagree on that. (though apparently we disagree on whether Radames is black? Literally everyone in Aida is black.) If it is not specifically black (or another race), then it should be colorblind.
Furthermore, I find the "best singers" argument to ignore a huge part of opera - the drama. If you are only there for the singing, you may as well attend a concert. And in that case, divorced from the drama, you can really have whoever play whatever and it's no big deal (at least to me, but as a white person I am not in a position to decide how that would affect black performers, who I think should have a bigger voice in this anyway). But since there is drama involved, you have to cast according to the drama, not just the voice.
And your hypothetical slippery-slope argument is a little troublesome to me. Sure, some people will get typecast; that already happens. But when I say "let's have black characters played by black performers" and you already have three examples of how that could possibly play out to the extreme, you're ignoring the fact that we currently don't have black performers playing a lot of specifically black roles, and that we're nowhere near those extremes to worry about it yet. Sure, that COULD be a problem in the future, but this IS a problem now that we need to try to fix.
Here's a link to some more history of black people in the classical music genre 👇🏾 ruclips.net/video/v6LKFs-9YJA/видео.html
Steve I got to say this. I didn't like this video, I loved it.
It was informative and fun.
I always struggled with the Listener's guide videos and didn't know why. Seeing this video it finally stuck. My problem in the past was that the videos were more like straight lectures. This time the interaction with your TV self added narrative and kept me interested though out it.
Keep up the good work.
Wow thanks! I did like the TV angle, even though it took a little extra work. I'll definitely keep this in mind :D
ruclips.net/video/zhIJiF3_L5g/видео.html
David Harrison....pianist I have listened to for years - African-Asian American.
Interesting and important video! I had never even reflected over the fact that classical music is such a white-dominated field, which is frighetning. Thanks!
Afro-American Symphony
Me gustó tu vídeo.
Pensé que iba a hablar de Samuel Coleridge-Taylor,William Grant Still,William Dawson o José White (el Paganini mulato).