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A Choral “Magical Negro”: A Lived Experience of Conducting Choirs in Canada

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The Palgrave Handbook of Race and the Arts in Education

Abstract

In this chapter, the author discusses her experiences in Canada as a Black choral conductor, and how the dominant White choral order adjudicates her presence among them. Using the lenses of Critical Race Theory and film criticism, she explores the prevailing images of Blacks involved in classical music and how these images have influenced both the choral order’s treatment of her and her interactions with them.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In accordance with the APA Publication Manual, I am capitalizing racial groups, except where I am quoting directly from another author.

  2. 2.

    See http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Trope

  3. 3.

    Classical music refers to serious or conventional music written in the European tradition.

  4. 4.

    Jazz music is an art form developed from the collision of African and European musical traditions in the United States.

  5. 5.

    Calypso music is a type of folk song primarily from Trinidad, though sung elsewhere in the southern and eastern Caribbean islands. The subjects of calypso text, usually witty and satiric, are local and topical events of political and social import (see www.britannica.com/art/calypso-music).

  6. 6.

    Jim Crow refers to the laws and norms that enforced racial segregation and hierarchy in the southern region of the United States.

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Wahl, C.P. (2018). A Choral “Magical Negro”: A Lived Experience of Conducting Choirs in Canada. In: Kraehe, A., Gaztambide-Fernández, R., Carpenter II, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Race and the Arts in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65256-6_29

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65256-6_29

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65255-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-65256-6

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