Likewise, Virgil and Homer had last names. How come nobody ever uses them?
Tibbs and Simpson, just so you know.
Posted on 10/25/2020 1:08:55 PM PDT by Borges
There will be a time when we’ll go to concerts again. We will buy our tickets, shuffle shoulder to shoulder down the aisle, and find our seats. The lights will dim, and the conductor will walk onto the stage to introduce the program. They might talk about Beethoven, Schumann, and Bartók. And they might talk about Alma Mahler, Florence Price, Henry Burleigh, and Caroline Shaw. Many of us, used to the conventions of classical performance, will hardly notice the difference: “traditional” white male composers being introduced with only surnames, full names for everyone else, especially women and composers of color.
The habitual, two-tiered way we talk about classical composers is ubiquitous. For instance, coverage of an early October livestream by the Louisville Orchestra praised the ensemble’s performance of a “Beethoven” symphony, and the debut of a composition memorializing Breonna Taylor by “Davóne Tines” and “Igee Dieudonné.” But ubiquity doesn’t make something right. It’s time we paid attention to the inequity inherent in how we talk about composers, and it’s time for the divided naming convention to change.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
:)
Likewise, Virgil and Homer had last names. How come nobody ever uses them?
Tibbs and Simpson, just so you know.
That was a Cracker of a post.
If I say “Anna,” to my (10 YO) granddaughter, she knows whom I am talking about!
ML/NJ
Black composers who are known by their last names only:
Joplin, Marsalis (unless you have to distinguish him from his brother), Ellington, Armstrong (often called Satchmo or Louie), Gordy, Holliday, Cooke, Lamar, Combs, Hayes, Drake (actually a middle name), Parker, Coltrane, Davis (Despite how common it is), Monk, Hancock, Gillespie, Doggie Dogg (just kidding).
Also worthy of note: Michael (not Jackson because of his siblings), Prince (not Rogers who wrote the Sound of Music), Ella, Fiddy (not Twenny).
Great composers are known by the quality of their music, not the color of their skin. A first name isn’t needed for the great ones. Everyone knows who they are. The “also rans” need complete names since they are unrecognizable with out them. Who cares what their skin color or gender is.
Dutch ancestors
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