Eric Hinton and Michael Thomas at IUGTE Conference 2021

As musicians it is important to gain as complete an understanding the music we perform as possible. For some this may mean confronting certain blind spots in one’s cultural competency or becoming well versed in unfamiliar styles. We must also attempt to understand the impact that historical events might a work’s narrative. How do cultural traditions play through a 21st century lens? Our research discusses these questions in a way that hopefully makes this music accessible to everyone, performers and audience members alike.

For this conference, we will present a selection of the works performed along with musical elements drawn from the traditions of the “Sorrow Songs,” HBCU bands, the music of the Black church, and Pan-African music. The combination of these elements paints a picture of the rich contributions of African American music to the Western Musical tradition. We will also discuss the tension between works of African American music that intend to represent some aspect of “Black experience” and those works composed without a specific understanding of “Blackness” in mind. Our research on the cultural context of selected wind band works by African American composers discusses these questions in a way that hopefully makes this music accessible to everyone, performers and audience members alike.