(TheBlaze) – The University of Oxford is reportedly considering removing sheet music from its music curriculum as part of sweeping changes intended to “decolonize” the program. Professors within the university’s music department branded musical notation as a “colonialist representational system” amid a revamp of their musical education offerings, the Telegraph reported on Saturday.
The notation, which has not “shaken off its connection to its colonial past” would be a “slap in the face” for some students of color, professors stated in proposal for change documents obtained by the news outlet.
Elsewhere in the documents, members of the music faculty reportedly questioned the current curriculum’s “complicity in white supremacy.” They specifically took issue with the classical collection taught at the school — which includes works by Mozart and Beethoven — alleging it focuses too much on “white European music from the slave period.”
Additionally, the faculty members proposed that certain classical musical skills such as playing the piano and conducting orchestral arrangements should no longer be mandatory, given that these “structurally center white European music,” causing “students of color great distress.”
Moving forward, the faculty members wish to address the supposed “white hegemony” by offering a more inclusive range of musical topics of study like “African and African Diasporic Musics,” “Global Musics,” and “Popular Musics.” READ MORE
