"The Black Perspective in Music": The First Ten Years

Abstract

There has been a proliferation of scholarly journals over the past twenty years or so; new journals and periodicals have cropped up like mushrooms in the academic soil. Their collective history is a melancholy one, for most of the journals did not survive beyond a few issues. Their presses became silent, and they were quickly forgotten. Very occasionally a journal with high purpose comes into existence and has the staying power to fulfill its destiny. Such is the case with the Black Perspective in Music (hereinafter BPIM). Volume 1, 1 was published in the spring of 1973, and BPIM has been published twice each year since then. Success was neither easily nor quickly won: BPIM's circulation for the first year (1973) was a modest two hundred, and the next year it rose to only three hundred. Gradually the musicological community became aware of the journal and its high standards; the circulation has been steadily climbing each year to its present height of one thousand. BPIM is printed on quality paper and is a paradigm of accuracy-every issue is virtually free of typographical errors. The format of BPIM is attractive and has remained consistent throughout the run of the journal. There are usually three or four articles on various topics, and these are followed by several feature sections: Conversations (interviews with a variety of musical luminaries-the quality of these interviews is uneven, but the best of them are enlightening and often amusing); In Retrospect; Book Reviews; Music Reviews (these are especially valuable in view of the fact that much of this music by black composers, particularly concert music, is not commented upon elsewhere); Record Reviews; New Books; Doctoral Dissertations; New Music; and New Recordings. These features, in addition to more occasional appearances of columns devoted to Commentary, Obituaries, Correspondence, and Contributors, occur in most but not all issues. There have been two special issues: A Birthday Offering to William Grant Still (May, 1975) and Bicentennial Number (July, 1976). The goals of BPIM are articulated by Eileen Southern (the journal's editor) on the first page of the first issue; she says, in part: