In my final article, I mentioned the Proms in relation to COVID-19. Nonetheless, the pandemic was not the one name for change that the BBC Proms confronted in 2020. Whereas not with out controversy, the decision to decolonise the humanities couldn’t be ignored by the Proms. Mentioned name was heightened by the momentum gained within the Black Lives Matter motion following the demise of George Floyd in Minneapolis on the finish of Might 2020. With the Proms one of many few main music festivals nonetheless working this 12 months, the 8-week lengthy occasion took on a particular significance within the context of those debates.
Whereas the worldwide human rights marketing campaign started on social media in 2013 with the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, the current deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor within the USA sparked a brand new wave of protests. These protests have provoked various tough however essential questions which have implications globally in various settings, together with the inventive sphere. The decision for decolonisation has gained an enormous quantity of momentum on account of the newest wave of the Black Lives Matter Motion. It entails the difficult of colonial legacies throughout the humanities, disrupting the methods through which we see, hear, assume and make inside them. Diversification in musical efficiency has typically taken on the type of together with a small variety of ethnic minority performers or composers in a live performance or occasion. Nonetheless, that is overly tokenistic, missing sufficient thought in regards to the points at hand. As an alternative, an entire rethinking of the values upheld in performances and within the genres and cultures being represented is required.
The Proms has at all times struggled with problems with diversification, being deeply rooted in 125 years of British concert-going custom. Nonetheless, in a 12 months the place the necessity to diversify was fuelled by an enormous push within the world Black Lives Matter Motion, there have been steps taken (albeit very small ones). The quantity and number of genres and performers represented on the Proms this 12 months resonated with the goal to decolonise and diversify; one instance included Anoushka Shankar collaborating with composer and producer Gold Panda, the Britten Sinfonia and London-based eight-piece band Kokoroko. Shankar, a multi-Grammy-nominated sitar participant and composer, celebrated the centenary 12 months of her father Ravi Shankar’s delivery in a live performance that aimed to current “ragas and the sitar in a brand new gentle”. She mixed recordings of her father’s works along with her personal sitar improvisations and stay electronics by Gold Panda. Working with conductor and arranger Jules Buckley, Shankar additionally produced new preparations of her personal items for the strings of Britten Sinfonia and percussionist Manu Delago.
This fusion of Indian classical music and Western string devices is one avenue through which classical music performances is perhaps decentred from their colonial legacy. This isn’t with out its issues, because it positions different genres throughout the constructs of western classical music and possibly doesn’t clear up the problem at hand. But, on this context, with Shankar occupying a robust place on stage and within the curating of the efficiency, the fusion is enacted in a manner that decentres the illustration of classical music from its colonial roots. In one other efficiency, Kokoroko introduced a mix of the sounds of Afrobeat, Highlife and Jazz. The performers have their roots throughout Africa and the Caribbean and intention to experiment with what West African music can sound like within the fingers of extremely gifted Jazz musicians.
There was additionally the widely-publicised controversy surrounding the Final Evening of the Proms. On August twenty third, the Sunday Instances reported that the BBC was contemplating axing Rule Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory from its programme, as a result of the “organisers feared backlash because of their perceived association with colonialism and slavery”. These discussions are stated to have been sparked by Dalia Stasevska from Finland, who carried out the Final Evening, and not less than show the Proms’ acknowledgement of the present political local weather. Nonetheless, there have been a number of days of heated debate that adopted this text, displaying the musical occasion’s inextricable hyperlink to its political context. The debates have been heightened when Boris Johnson chimed in that he can be sad about modifications to the Proms, claiming that even with the problematic line “Britons never shall be slaves”, “we need to tackle the substance of problems, not the symbols” and Nigel Farage making his position clear in a comment that suggested the conductor should be dropped instead of the patriotic songs.
“Some extra risk-taking is required to decentre colonial legacies in classical music right now.”
With the backlash the organisers acquired following the plan to axe Rule Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory, it was determined that the unique instrumental variations of the items can be carried out (on account of staging difficulties in the course of the pandemic). But even this acquired a lot backlash that it was determined that the phrases can be sung by the BBC singers. Though drowned by the debates surrounding Rule Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory, the evening included a specifically commissioned reimagining of Parry’s Jerusalem by Belizean composer Errollyn Wallen. The piece was devoted to the individuals of the Windrush technology and remembering all of the nations of the Commonwealth and featured South African soprano Golda Schultz. Regardless of the backlash and a number of modifications of plans for the final evening, helpful discussions did happen that will have resulted in minor modifications for this 12 months’s pageant, however that may definitely should be carried forwards to future Proms.
Possibly this uncommon Proms in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic was what the classical music trade wanted. Destabilising a number of the longstanding traditions sparked the beginnings of change within the type of diversifying and decolonising classical music within the UK and world wide. Nonetheless, because the debates across the Final Evening show, the decision to decolonise the classical music trade is much from being answered. Some extra risk-taking is required to decentre colonial legacies in classical music right now. On this respect, I consider that the Proms missed an opportunity.
