"Tonality" and Its Discontents.

The article discusses the relationship between music theory, musicology, and racism. It argues that musicology has been racist in its exclusion of American Black idioms and its failure to acknowledge the dominance of these genres in Western music history. The article also examines the racist ideologies embedded in the concepts of tonality and its development by figures like François-Joseph Fétis and Heinrich Schenker. It suggests that tonality's hierarchical orientation and demands for eradicating dissonant elements resonate with a racist agenda. The author advocates for a reevaluation of tonality and the adoption of approaches that consider other aspects of music, such as time, affect, and bodily experience. [Extracted from the article]