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Philip Ewell

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Philip Adrian Ewell[1] (born February 16, 1966) is an American professor of music theory at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center. He specializes in Russian and twentieth century music, as well as rap and hip hop.[2][3] In 2019, he sparked controversy with his conference talk, "Music Theory's White Racial Frame," leading to a debate on the racial politics of music theory and resulting in his 2023 book, "On Music Theory And Making Music More Welcoming for Everyone."

Philip A. Ewell
Ewell in 2020
Born
Philip Adrian Ewell

(1966-02-16) February 16, 1966 (age 58)
DeKalb, Illinois
NationalityAmerican
EducationPh.D., Yale University, 2001.
Occupation(s)Music theorist, academic professor
Employer(s)Hunter College, The City College of New York
SpouseMarina Vytovtova
Websitephilipewell.com

Early life and education

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Phillip Adrian Ewell was born on February 16, 1966,[4] and grew up in DeKalb, Illinois.[5] His father was an African American intellectual who had attended Morehouse College with Martin Luther King Jr. in 1948.[6] Ewell received a BA in music from Stanford University, an MA in cello performance from Queens College (City University of New York), and a PhD in music theory from Yale University.[2] His dissertation, Analytical Approaches to Large-Scale Structure in the Music of Alexander Scriabin, was advised by Allen Forte.[2][7]

Career

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Ewell's published works include a number of articles on Russian music theory. He has translated Russian writings of and interviews with Russian theorists, such as Yuri Kholopov,[8] and musicians, such as Vasya Oblomov.[9] He has written about Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina[10] as well as Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly.[11] His forthcoming works include a new undergraduate music theory textbook under contract with Norton and a book entitled On Music Theory under contract with the University of Michigan Press's Music and Social Justice series.[12][13] He founded the music theory journal, Gamut, for the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic.[14]

His public intellectual work has included appearances on BBC[15] and Adam Neely's YouTube channel.[16] In March 2021, Ewell contributed to RILM's blog in which he wrote about his Twitter project "Erasing colorasure in American music theory"[17] and delivered a public colloquium at Columbia University entitled "On Confronting Music Theory's Antiblackness: Three Case Studies".[18] As a result of Ewell's work with African American music culture, he became the editor of the newly launched Oxford University Press book series, Theorizing African American Music.[12]

2019 Controversy

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On November 9, 2019, at the 42nd annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory, Ewell participated in a plenary session entitled "Reframing Music Theory" which sought to "critique the confining frames within which [music theory] has been operating and explore ways in which to reframe what constitutes music theory".[19][20] He presented a talk entitled "Music Theory's White Racial Frame".[21] In his talk and in subsequent publications, Ewell argues that the "white racial frame" – a term coined by sociologist Joe Feagin – shapes knowledge practices in Western music theory and its institutions.[21][22][23] Feagin defines the "white racial frame" as,

an overarching white worldview that encompasses a broad and persisting set of racial stereotypes, prejudices, ideologies, images, interpretations and narratives, emotions, and reactions to language accents, as well as racialized inclinations to discriminate.[24]

Ewell's talk sparked the 2020 publication of fifteen responses in volume 12 of the Journal of Schenkerian Studies.[25][26][27][28] The volume's contributing authors included the journal's co-founders Timothy L. Jackson and Stephen Slottow,[25][29] as well as Charles Burkhart, Richard Beaudoin (Dartmouth College, assistant professor of music),[30] Suzannah Clark, Nicholas Cook, and Jack Boss (University of Oregon, professor of music theory and composition),[31] as well as "An Anonymous Response to Philip Ewell", which itself drew criticism.[28][32]

Ewell's work on music theory's white racial frame—and the ensuing controversy from the 2020 publication of Journal of Schenkerian Studies' twelfth volume—has received wide-ranging media attention from Alex Ross at The New Yorker,[28] The New York Times,[33] NPR,[34] and Inside Higher Ed.[35] The Society for Music Theory's executive board stated that it "condemns the anti-Black statements and personal ad hominem attacks on Philip Ewell perpetuated in several essays included in the 'Symposium on Philip Ewell's 2019 SMT Plenary Paper' published by the Journal of Schenkerian Studies".[32][36]

Ewell's publication has been criticized by black linguist and instructor of music history at Columbia University John McWhorter, who published the following in Substack:

"If Ewell's claim is that music is racist when involving hierarchical relationships between elements, then we must ask where that puts a great deal of music created by non-white people. Perhaps more important, the question is: just what do these hierarchical relationships in music structure have to do with human suffering?"[37]

Ewell's recent book On Music Theory And Making Music More Welcoming for Everyone was also criticized by John McWhorter in The New York Times[38] and by Don Baton in the City Journal.[39] In Clifton Boyd and Jade Conlee's 2023 review, they argued that his book was less about Whiteness than about challenging the normative and canonical ways music theory has historically operated, offering the alternative subtitle, "How the Many Mythologies of the Western White-Male Musical Canon Have Created Hostile Environments for Those Who Do Not Identify as White Cisgender Men."[40]

Selected works

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Books

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  • The Engaged Musician: Theory and Analysis for the Twenty-First Century (forthcoming, 2026) W. W. Norton Publishers.
  • American Antiblackness (forthcoming, 2025) New York: Routledge.
  • On Music Theory And Making Music More Welcoming for Everyone (2023) Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
  • Kaleidoscope of Cultures: A Celebration of Multicultural Research and Practice (2010) New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

Articles

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Dissertation

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  • - (2001). Analytical Approaches to Large-Scale Structure in the Music of Alexander Scriabin (PhD diss.). Yale University. OCLC 49527723.

Book chapters

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Edited books

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  • Kaleidoscope of Cultures: A Celebration of Multicultural Research and Practice. (2010). Edited by Marvelene C. Moore and Philip Ewell. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. OCLC 405107620.

Honors and Awards

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References

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  1. ^ "Philip Ewell". The Conversation. June 12, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c "Philip Ewell – Music – Hunter College". Hunter College. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  3. ^ "Philip Ewell". www.gc.cuny.edu. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  4. ^ "Philip A. Ewell" in U.S., Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 2 available on Ancestry.com.
  5. ^ "Dr. Philip Ewell to discuss 'Music Theory's White Racial Frame' at School of Music Convocation". NIU College of Visual and Performing Arts. February 16, 2021. Archived from the original on February 17, 2022. Retrieved June 3, 2021.
  6. ^ "PROFILE: Philip Ewell '01, the cellist shaping music theory's racial reckoning". November 11, 2022.
  7. ^ Ewell 2001.
  8. ^ Ewell, Philip A. (June 1, 2013). ""On the System of Stravinsky's Harmony" by Yuri Kholopov: Translation and Commentary". Music Theory Online. 19 (2). doi:10.30535/mto.19.2.1. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  9. ^ ""I Can't Be Quiet": An Interview with Vasya Oblomov Moscow, Russia; February 27, 2013". Echo: A Music-Centered Journal. Archived from the original on July 19, 2020. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  10. ^ Ewell, Philip A. (September 1, 2013). "The Parameter Complex in the Music of Sofia Gubaidulina". Music Theory Online. 20 (3). Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  11. ^ Ewell, Philip A. (March 1, 2019). "Introduction to the Symposium on Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly". Music Theory Online. 25 (1). doi:10.30535/mto.25.1.7. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  12. ^ a b "Selected Publications | Philip Ewell". philipewell.com. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  13. ^ "Music & Social Justice". musicandjustice.com. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  14. ^ "Philip Ewell | Научный вестник Московской консерватории". nv.mosconsv.ru. Retrieved November 3, 2024.
  15. ^ "Sunday Feature – A Racist Music – BBC Sounds". www.bbc.co.uk. November 24, 2019. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  16. ^ "Music Theory and White Supremacy". YouTube. September 7, 2020. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  17. ^ Ewell, Philip (March 25, 2021). "Philip Ewell: Erasing colorasure in American music theory, and confronting demons from our past". Bibliolore. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  18. ^ "Colloquium with Prof. Philip Ewell (Hunter College of the City University of New York)". Columbia University Department of Music. March 11, 2021. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
  19. ^ . Program of the Archived May 15, 2021, at the Wayback Machine. November 7–10. p. 141.
  20. ^ "SMT 2019 Columbus, 42nd Annual Meeting" (PDF). November 10, 2019. p. 141. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 8, 2022. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
  21. ^ a b Ewell, Philip (November 12, 2019), Ewell-SMT-Plenary, archived from the original on April 27, 2021, retrieved May 21, 2021
  22. ^ Ewell, Philip A. (September 1, 2020). "Music Theory and the White Racial Frame". Music Theory Online. 26 (2). doi:10.30535/mto.26.2.4. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  23. ^ Ewell, Philip (March 11, 2021). "Music Theory's White Racial Frame". Music Theory Spectrum. 43 (mtaa031): 324–329. doi:10.1093/mts/mtaa031. ISSN 0195-6167. Archived from the original on February 17, 2022. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  24. ^ Feagin, Joe (2013). The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. p. 3. ISBN 9780415657617.
  25. ^ a b "The symposium of the Journal of Schenkerian Studies, vol. 12". Denton Record-Chronicle. February 7, 2021. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  26. ^ "Journal of Shenkerian Studies, Volume 12" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  27. ^ "Journal of Schenkerian Studies', issues". University of North Texas College of Music. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  28. ^ a b c Ross, Alex (September 14, 2020). "Black Scholars Confront White Supremacy in Classical Music". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on April 17, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  29. ^ "Journal of Schenkerian Studies". UNT Digital Library. Archived from the original on May 20, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  30. ^ "Richard Beaudoin | Faculty Directory". faculty-directory.dartmouth.edu. September 11, 2017. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  31. ^ "Jack Boss | UO School of Music and Dance". music.uoregon.edu. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  32. ^ a b "Executive Board response to essays in the Journal of Schenkerian Studies vol. 12 | SMT". societymusictheory.org. Archived from the original on May 19, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  33. ^ Powell, Michael (February 14, 2021). "Obscure Musicology Journal Sparks Battles Over Race and Free Speech". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  34. ^ Tsioulcas, Anastasia (July 29, 2020). "Classical Music Tries to Reckon with Racism – On Social Media". NPR. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  35. ^ "Music theory journal criticized for symposium on supposed white supremacist theorist". Inside Higher Ed. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  36. ^ Breeding, Lucinda (August 2, 2020). "A UNT professor challenged claims of racism in music theory, and now he's facing the music". Denton Record-Chronicle. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  37. ^ McWhorter, John (February 16, 2021). "Is Music Theory Really #SoWhite". Substack. Archived from the original on October 5, 2021. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  38. ^ John McWhorter (May 16, 2023). "Is Musicology Racist?". The New York Times.
  39. ^ Don Baton (May 2, 2023). "Ewelldämmerung: Music theory's woke emperor has no clothes". City Journal.
  40. ^ Boyd, Clifton; Conlee, Jade (December 1, 2023). "Review of Philip Ewell, On Music Theory, and Making Music More Welcoming for Everyone (University of Michigan Press, 2023)". Music Theory Online. 29 (4).
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