Music and Antisemitism

Oxford's ecclesiastical roots are well known and well manifest. Gowns, spires aplenty, regular bells, Latin graces: all are largely secularised symbols of a past Christian exclusivity. In its musical life, however, the continuation of chapel choir culture is still blatantly oppressive. Here are a few reasons why. Firstly, the matter of organ and choral scholarships. Most colleges at Oxford offer these. Organ and choral scholarships reward talent at - you guessed it - singing and playing the organ with money, sometimes hundreds of pounds a year, and other perks, such as free lunches. As well as the face value of the scholarships, colleges pour in thousands of pounds into these scholars' development, hiring part- and full-time directors of music to oversee training and services. With an immense amount of resources thrown their way, Oxford's organ and choral scholars are primed for leaving university as some of the best-connected young performers in the country. Of course, eac...

I recently applied for a scholarship (which will not be named). The interview was uncomfortable - mainly because there were no representatives from the humanities on the panel - and reaffirmed the arguments that this blog has been espousing. As supporting documents for the application I submitted a personal statement which talked about issues of antisemitism* in music as my main area of interest; a link to this blog was also included in my CV. I would hope that all of the panelists read both, but it seems the message was lost. One panelist obviously thought they were on the ball, asking confidently: 'Should we listen to Wagner?'. This is an worn and somewhat irrelevant. Firstly, music taste is highly personal: you can listen to Wagner if you like, or not if you don't like. Secondly, I don't believe that most people who listen to Wagner (or indeed programme Wagner's music in concerts or for broadcast) do so politically. What matters more is how we talk about Wagner. ...

Last year, being a budding composer, I was excited to see an advert for a competition to set a psalm (or an excerpt/collection) for choir and organ. What persuaded me most to enter was the option to use original Hebrew text. I chose Psalm 118 ('Hodu l'adonai ki tov, ki l'olam khasdo', which forms the end part of Hallel) due to its regular rhyme scheme, call-and-response like lines, clear sections, and broadly cyclical structure. The music was composed sympathetically, I believe, and ended up sounding quite post-minimalist, with outbursts of Gustav Mahler-inspired expression and some lovely quartal harmonies. All finished, the piece was sent off to be judged; the results email that returned exposed a deep problem and misunderstanding of Jewish music within the English choral tradition. Three things stood out.  Firstly, the gist was that the composition would have won, but that due to the complexity of the Hebrew, the choir would not be able to learn it in time for the co...