Black Artistic Invisibility

Abstract

This article follows a long pattern of works where authors (e.g., Alain Locke, The New Negro; Harold Cruse, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual; Amiri Baraka, Blues People) write to provide an aesthetic inquiry and examine what constitutes the politics of the documentation of Black concert music and culture (i.e., symphonies, opera, chamber work, etc.). Writings like these have taken a stab as well at American cultural institutions, which have in the past choked and blocked artistic voices of color and consciousness. The author addresses, celebrates, and critiques some current values carried within the traditional institutional culture around Black composers in contemporary concert music. This piece is a historical essay outlining thematic threads and trends in the concert music circles, and it poses questions to the industry and common listeners interested in music who do not yet recognize or celebrate these important and unique artists.