[Smt-talk] Advocating for the humanities

[Christopher Antila]

On 8 April 2014 00:44:49 Whitcomb, Benjamin D wrote:
> Alas, the joke is on you. My point in making my political argument was
> precisely to demonstrate the sort of discussion that I hope we all think
> does not belong on the SMT list, which is why I ended my email by saying
> "Again, how about saving SMT list for the discussion of music theory?"

How foolish of us to have thought the apparent content of your argument was 
actually the point you wanted to make!

So far in this discussion, there's been nothing to joke about. Of course I 
can't speak for everyone, but I'm sure there are others out there who, like 
myself, are quite happy to see this discussion going on. Especially on smt-
talk, we can get so wrapped up in academic arguments that we lose sight of the 
real-world events that affect us.

Rather than being considered off-topic, threads such as this should be more 
common on smt-talk. Our discipline faces an array of political challenges, and 
we continue to ignore them at our peril. Unless we make the right political 
moves, in a few decades there may be nobody left to debate the notation of 
second-inversion chords at certain phrase-endings.

What would Schenker have thought if he knew we were so disengaged from the 
political circumstances we live in?


Christopher Antila

MA Music Theory Graduate, McGill University
http://christopher.antila.ca