Each semester, I assign a series of weekly listening assignments to my composition students. The last few semesters, I’ve had a goal of making at least half of the list women and composers of color. One of the challenges of this is that I only get 14 weeks in the semester, and that means if I’m going to address this concern, I have to remove some of the composers and works that I found important and that I was taught when I was a student. We talk a lot about curriculum reform, not just in representation in the repertoire, but also things like technological and entrepreneurial skills. Often, we don’t address the fact that we can’t just keep adding things without taking other stuff away.
I have to trade a William Walton for an Olly Wilson. Good trade, IMO; but you’re free to disagree. Here’s my semester list if you’re curious. Hat-tip to the Women Composers Database and the Composers of Color Database, both projects organized by composer and inveterate list-maker Rob Deemer.
(Where possible, recordings are available in the Spotify playlist. Otherwise, there are links to listen elsewhere.)
- Week 1
- Panayiotis Kokoras: Mutation (2014)
- score video
- Week 2
- Pauline Oliveros: No Mo (2001)
- Week 3
- John Adams: Chamber Symphony (1992)
- optional, Son of Chamber Symphony (2007)
- Week 4
- George Walker: Lilacs (1995)
- Week 5
- Pierre Boulez: Le marteau sans maître (The hammer without a master, 1955)
- Week 6
- Christopher Cerrone: Memory Palace (2012)
- Week 7
- Dorothy Hindman: The Road to Damascus (2010)
- Week 8
- Nico Muhly: Mothertongue (2008)
- Week 9
- Anna Thorvaldsdóttir: In the Light of Air (2015)
- Week 10
- Olly Wilson: A City Called Heaven (1988)
- Week 11
- Mary Ellen Childs: Ephemeral Geometry (2012)
- Week 12
- Week 13
- Aaron Copland: Piano Variations (1930)
- Week 14
- Sofia Gubaidulina: String Trio (1988)