Black Music in the Academy: The Center for Black Music Research

Abstract

THE CENTER FOR BLACK MUSIC RESEARCH The contributions of people of African descent to the history of Western extend far into the past. The earliest artistic depictions of musicians in Europe date back to the Middle Ages, and the earliest documented composer is the sixteenth-century composer and theorist Vicente Lusitano, whose African heritage was discovered by scholar Robert Stevenson.(1) Information about African American contributions to art music, however, has been slow to reach the general consciousness, and despite ground-breaking studies by Eileen Southern(2) and Samuel A. Floyd Jr.,(3) the term black music continues to be associated almost exclusively with blues and jazz. Art by composers is virtually absent from curricula, and, until quite recently, composers have had difficulty securing performances of their works. The neglect has been widespread, and the full extent of the contributions of composers has remained unrecognized and therefore ignored in the classroom. To remedy this situation and to form a network to foster research in all forms of music, Samuel A. Floyd Jr. founded the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) in 1983 at Columbia College, Chicago, an urban institution dedicated to education in the creative and performing arts. From the beginning, the mission of the CBMR has been to research and promote the of people of African descent throughout the world. The CBMR accomplishes its goals through education, performance, publication, and scholarly discussion. The CBMR Library and Archives supports the mission of the CBMR by maintaining a broad collection of library and archival materials. PUBLICATIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS The center's earliest work focused on its publications program. Floyd began editing the Black Music Research Journal (BMRJ) as an annual in 1980, three years before the establishment of the CBMR. In keeping with the center's goals, BMRJ has covered all aspects of music, from traditional forms to jazz to composed art music. Issues usually focus on specific topics and have covered such widely disparate subjects as the traditions of the Sea Islands and critical studies of Duke Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige.(4) One pioneering issue carried articles applying literary critical theory to music, and a more recent issue was devoted entirely to education and pedagogy.(5) An issue containing a catalog of works by a number of Afro-European classical composers has been of special interest to librarians.(6) BMRJ is now published twice yearly, and articles are usually commissioned from authors. Other CBMR publications include CBMR Monographs (1989-), a series of reference books and indexes, and the newsletter CBMR Digest (summer 1988-), published twice a year and available to individuals and libraries free upon request. The various grant-funded projects of the CBMR have sometimes sponsored their own publications. Kalinda! (summer 1994-fall 1997) was the newsletter of Project Kalinda, named after a dance of African origin found throughout the Caribbean and Latin America as well as in the southern United States. The project, which ended in December 1997, explored the common African roots of American, Latin American, and Caribbean music. Lenox Avenue: A Journal of Interartistic Inquiry (1995-) is a publication of the CBMR's Integrative Studies Program, which brings scholars together to explore common modes of discourse about all of the expressive arts. The Integrative Studies Program sponsors one or two seminars each year that involve senior scholars from a number of disciplines, including literature, art, history, theater, dance, and music. This program is closely linked to the center's Rockefeller Fellowships, through which the CBMR hosts two visiting research scholars each year. The fellowship program, which began in 1995, has been renewed for another three-year term. …