Cracking Open The Classical Canon

Frank J. Oteri bemoans “the Great Man myth that still permeates classical music and which has also found its way into the new music claiming its lineage from that tradition”:

Until we rid ourselves of the notion that the best music of all time was created by a handful of men who lived an ocean away from us and who all died more than a century before any of us were born, we will never have programming that truly reflects the vast array of musical creativity all around us. It’s the same myth that locks American repertoire out of most programming at opera houses and symphony orchestras as well as music by anyone from anywhere who is currently alive. When a work by someone who is alive, American, or female (or a combination of those attributes) is played, it’s inevitably a single work wedged in between the obligatory performances of works by Great Men.

Some progress:

Sound and Music, the national agency for contemporary music in the United Kingdom, is attempting to make a difference. … Under the leadership of its new Chief Executive, Susanna Eastburn, the organization makes clear in its criteria that “it expects applications to its multiple composer programmes to include women composers and that there would need to be an exceptionally good reason why this was not the case to secure funding.”

(Video: A performance of “Nocturne,” a piece by Lili Boulanger)