The Inclusion of Concert Music of African-American Composers in Music History Courses

Abstract

The most influential books used in the teaching of music history in American colleges and universities during the twentieth century, Paul Henry Lang's Music in Western Civilization (1941) and Donald Jay Grout's A History of Western Music (1960, 1973, 1980), have largely determined the content of undergraduate music history courses. These monumental products of American musical scholarship chronicled the major historical developments in European music and consequently influenced decisions about which composers and musical works were to be studied. Because of the heavy emphasis on European art music and the exclusion of music from non-European cultures, younger scholars such as Christopher Wilkinson have commented on the limitations of Grout's A History of Western Music and its subtle and implied definition of music.