Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon....the "Othering" of Minority Composers

Program Notes Writer’s Opinion:
Six Degrees of Separation Kevin Bacon and the "Othering" of Minority Composers

The world of classical music is dominated by a small number of “greats” whose music and legacies  

Fanny Mendelssohn

seem to penetrate every corner of history. For most composers, their pedagogical lineage often turns into something resembling the parlor game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” where composers whose works are performed less frequently are often referred to through their relationship to a major composer. Antonio Salieri was “Mozart’s rival.” Carl Czerny was “Beethoven’s student.” These nicknames can help us situate less popular composers in our music history timeline.

More often than not, however, minority composers frequently undergo a Kevin Bacon-ing before their music can be considered worthwhile. Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847), for example, was taught by a student of J. S. Bach and was a prolific composer in her own right.   Despite this, yet she is primarily known as “Felix Mendelssohn’s sister.” Likewise, Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896) is regarded as one of the most important pianists of the nineteenth century, yet her legacy has been overshadowed by her husband, Robert Schumann (1810-1856). Her legacy thus persists as “Schumann’s wife” for many classical music enthusiasts.  

Their music received far fewer performances and was taken much less seriously because of their gender. During the nineteenth century—and certainly long before and after—the mere image of a

Clara Schumann

woman performing or publishing was considered far too salacious to be considered as a possibility. Prejudiced ideas about inferiority also have had a similar impact on the musical careers of black and indigenous people, and people of color.

It was certainly not just women who experienced, and continue to experience, this othering that strips them of their independence.  Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is perhaps the most prominent example of a black composer whose name is obscured by the Kevin Bacon-ing of music history. Coleridge-Taylor, for example, was born to a white British woman and a Creole man from Sierra Leone. During his three tours of the United States during the early 1900s, he was given the nickname of the “African Mahler” or “Black Mahler” by white American musicians. Although this certainly was intended as a compliment—and more importantly as a way to skirt around notions of racial inferiority in the post-Civil War United States—it is a nickname that seems a bit -off to many of today’s musicologists and musicians.  

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Referring to these composers by their personal or musical connection to the “greats” provided an opportunity for their works to be legitimized in a world where they might otherwise be ignored. By referring to Coleridge-Taylor as the “Black Mahler,” musicians and critics in the twentieth century were able construe him as someone worthy of the name “Mahler.” At the same time, these nicknames minimize a composer’s contribution to the world of classical music.

In the context of our society’s present-day understanding of race and gender, we should allow them to be their own individuals whose compositions and lives should be remembered without playing the game of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” Yes, we should celebrate their differences. It is absolutely remarkable that Coleridge-Taylor achieved such success as a half-black man during a time when many of similar backgrounds struggled to gain access to music lessons. However, we also need to recognize that he was a composer in their own right, whose music does not necessarily need to be validated via Mahler.

                     Perhaps the only appropriate time to describe someone as the “Black Mahler” in today’s
social and political climate is when I talk about my dog, Gustav Mahler-Holst-Nyquist-Wells, as the “Black and White Gustav.”