Was Beethoven Black?

[james]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/tom ... -black

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Does Beethoven's music reveal his African roots?

A new album by the group Beethoven Was African aims to prove that the polyrhythms of the composer’s music point to west African heritage. But does their quest open up a more important debate in classical music?

Tom Service

Tuesday 9 June 2015 14.36 BST
Last modified on Tuesday 14 February 2017 18.32 GMT

My initial response to the question, “Are Beethoven’s African origins revealed by his music?” that has been asked at the website Africa Is a Country, is a definitive “no”. It is based on questionable premises that lack real historical evidence, at least to the story of Beethoven and his music over the past couple hundred of years.

This is far from a new idea. Here, Nicholas T Rinehart outlines the century-long history of the “Black Beethoven” trope and analyses the cultural and racial politics that have made this such a potent idea. He suggests our attraction to the notion that Beethoven was black is a symptom of classical music’s tortured position on race and music: “This desperation, this need to paint Beethoven black against all historical likelihood is, I think, a profound signal that the time has finally come to make a single … and robust effort [to reshape] the classical canon.” Rinehart says we must reimagine the entire history of western art music.

Overturning that conventional wisdom is exactly the point, for the researchers and musicians behind Beethoven Was African, a website and album of new performances. And it’s exactly this narrative that the pianist ANY, a member of the collective, refutes in their interview with Africa is a Country.

ANY gives a spirited interpretation of the possibilities of Beethoven’s African heritage, and believes there are key questions about his background thanks to gaps in the records of his portraiture, biography and social life.
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