{"id":2389,"date":"2017-10-29T21:16:18","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T02:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=2389"},"modified":"2017-10-29T21:16:18","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T02:16:18","slug":"a-comparison-of-st-olafs-contribution-to-the-oppression-of-marginalized-composers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2017\/10\/29\/a-comparison-of-st-olafs-contribution-to-the-oppression-of-marginalized-composers\/","title":{"rendered":"A comparison of St. Olaf’s contribution to the oppression of marginalized composers"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the perspective of St. Olaf, our institution has supported the oppression of marginalized composers, and it is evident when looking through the archives of the <\/span>Manitou Messenger<\/span><\/i>. For example, when searching Amy Beach\u2019s name, only one article comes up: <\/span>Month showcases women\u2019s work<\/span><\/i><\/a>. The 2008 article discusses a student recital of works by female composers as well as a faculty recital honoring Amy Beach\u2019s work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Extending the search to female composers, 3 articles appear, only 2 of them holding relevant information in support of female composers. The 2002 article <\/span>Cecilia\u2019s Circle visits<\/span><\/i><\/a> discusses the four-woman ensemble Cecilia\u2019s Circle, who came to St. Olaf for a week-long visit in order to honor female composers from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque eras. St. Olaf was lucky to have the opportunity to have a group like this come to give recitals, masterclasses, and guest lectures, but it\u2019s also very disappointing that there has only been one other major occasion in which female composers have been celebrated on our campus in 15 years. In addition, the Halvorson music library only has six LPs that feature her works, five of them compilations with other composers and just one focusing on her piano works (<\/span>The Piano Music of Mrs. H. H. A. Beach)<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, there are no results in the <\/span>Manitou Messenger<\/span><\/i> archive when searching \u201cWilliam Grant Still,\u201d and only one article from 1979 when searching \u201cblack composers.\u201d The article <\/span>Lecturer to appear for Black History Month<\/span><\/i><\/a> discusses St. Olaf guests William Nelson (Ohio State University political scientist) and Raymond Jackson (pianist) and Jackson\u2019s recital of piano music by black composers. To me, this seems like an enthralling event that is long overdue to be done again on this campus. The article also cites the composers whose pieces Jackson played, so it is possible to use that as a starting point when searching for music by black composers. When turning to Halvorson\u2019s LP collection, we only have two compilation albums that feature Still\u2019s work, and no albums of only his works.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mitchell, Elizabeth. \u201cMonth showcases women\u2019s work.\u201d <\/span>The Manitou Messenger,<\/span><\/i> No. 14, Vol. 121 (2008): 1.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dion, Laurie. \u201cCecilia\u2019s Circle visits.\u201d <\/span>The Manitou Messenger,<\/span><\/i> No. 13, Vol. 115 (2002): 14.<\/span>
\nUnknown. \u201cLecturer to appear for Black History Month.\u201d <\/span>The Manitou Messenger,<\/span><\/i> No. 12, Vol. 92 (1979): 3.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the perspective of St. Olaf, our institution has supported the oppression of marginalized composers, and it is evident when looking through the archives of the Manitou Messenger. For example, when searching Amy Beach\u2019s name, only one article comes up: … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-Cx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2390,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions\/2390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}