Look, I'm no historian, I'm a conductor. Performing musicians use a (hopefully) rigorous process to analyze a variety of sources to seek broader truths for use in a specific application. Namely, performance. It is definitely not a science, and it is not really a part of the humanities in the traditional academic sense. It is art. Further, I’m a white guy myself. These two facts should help to situate this essay in the space from which it comes and speak to what it can and cannot achieve.
Nonetheless, it’s incumbent on people from every background to speak up about injustice, and use their own platform, however large or small, to add to the chorus of individuals crying out for change, especially around historic inequities that still reach into the present day. As an individual who works for change especially around the music and legacy of Florence Price, I am regularly reminded of the historic difficulties that musicians who are Black, Indigenous, and persons of color have faced in a largely white institution like classical music.
Recreative performing artists (people who perform composed works such as a play or a symphony), rely on data sources such as textual analysis, performance history and practice, original sources, cultural context, and community perspectives to try develop a working concept of the spirit of a work (a piece of music, say) so that they bring a moral core to their own performance. This moral core centers performers in a way that allows them to exudes authenticity and humanity in their work. Somewhere in that moral core must be a commitment to basic principles of justice. This is not a political commitment. I accept that different people can come to different conclusions about how to address the problems we face today. Rather, this is a spiritual commitment to deeper principles; a commitment that transcends parties, ideologies, elections, affiliations, and nations. This is a larger topic for discussion that I will have to return to some other time.
Let’s all continue to think out loud and in print about how to develop a moral core to our society, one that is rooted in an accurate and complete understanding of our history, one that can be a source for just living, and one that can serve as a source for humane art. In light of all that has come to light in a recent look at Oklahoma history, we should apply the motto of another state, one that is popular across certain sectors of our society. It is the same logic of, "don't tread on me" to all of our people.
Santayana. It's cliche because it's a great quote. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Perhaps this is our opportunity to refresh a few critical details so that our future doesn’t resemble our past.