I believe as time passes, the perceived importance of 18th Century German music theory will gradually decline. Although it is a useful way of viewing western classical music, it bears little to no relevance to so many other genres, and to put Western Classical music on a pedestal above the rest is morally and ethically wrong. Because of this, I feel that many schools will instead make any Classical theory courses an elective, or let Music Majors choose between a selection of music theory courses that focus on different teachings from around the world. Or instead, maybe more realistically, we could see schools keeping the Western Classical theory courses as the standard, and gradually change the curriculum to include more international theory and techniques, until we are left with one big melting pot of the world’s music theory in one class.

I feel that although this second possibility is more likely to happen, it would be very difficult to execute to the point that Western Classical is no longer the foundation of the course that is simply seasoned with tangents on music of other cultures, and that’s why I feel that the separate courses of equal value approach is more effective. I also believe it’s very important to educate students learning about figures like Heinrich Schenker of their beliefs and how they structured their studies to the tune of white supremacy. An overall effort to make the historical and political climates clear in the teaching of different movements in music history can only help students gain a stronger understanding of the music itself, and of how important it is to not focus solely on the works of old white men in 18th Century Germany.

I hope to see a day soon where it becomes a common understanding that white men didn’t invent great music. Nearly every musical genre on the planet has been greatly influenced by women and people of color, we wouldn’t have jazz without the wild innovation of black musicians in Louisiana in the early 20th century, and jazz surely wouldn’t be where it is today without the help of greats such as Miles and Coltrane. Rock and Roll might have never existed without the extremely talented Sister Rosetta Tharpe. We’ve seen this happen countless times, I can’t imagine a world without Soul, Funk, Hip-hop, or EDM, all impossible without the help of BIPOC artists. The mere suggestion that any of these genres mustn’t be studied until you have an understanding of classical music is as laughable as it is racist, and we are due for a drastic change in how we teach music.