Philip Ewell

Ewell in 2020

Philip Adrian Ewell (born February 16, 1966^[1]) is an American associate professor of music theory at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center. He specializes in Russian music, twentieth century music as well as rap and hip hop.^[2][3]

Education[]

After growing up in DeKalb, Illinois,^[4] Ewell received a BA in music from Stanford University, an MA in cello performance from Queens College (City University of New York), and a PhD in music theory from Yale University.^[2]

Career[]

Ewell's published works include a number of articles on Russian music theory. He has translated Russian writings of and interviews with Russian theorists, such as Yuri Kholopov,^[5] and musicians, such as Vasya Oblomov.^[6] He has written about Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina^[7] as well as Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly.^[8] His forthcoming works include a new undergraduate music theory textbook under contract with Norton and a book entitled On Music Theory under contract with the University of Michigan Press's Music and Social Justice series.^[9][10]

On November 9, 2019, at the 42nd annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory, Ewell participated in a plenary session entitled "Reframing Music Theory" which sought to "critique the confining frames within which [music theory] has been operating and explore ways in which to reframe what constitutes music theory".^[11] He presented a talk entitled "Music Theory's White Racial Frame".^[12] In his talk and in subsequent publications, Ewell argues that the "white racial frame" – a term coined by sociologist Joe Feagin – shapes knowledge practices in Western music theory and its institutions.^[12][13][14] Feagin defines the "white racial frame" as,

an overarching white worldview that encompasses a broad and persisting set of racial stereotypes, prejudices, ideologies, images, interpretations and narratives, emotions, and reactions to language accents, as well as racialized inclinations to discriminate.^[15]

Ewell's talk sparked the 2020 publication of fifteen responses in volume 12 of the Journal of Schenkerian Studies.^{[16][17][18][19]} The volume's contributing authors included the journal's co-founders Timothy L. Jackson and Stephen Slottow,^[16][20] as well as Charles Burkhart, Richard Beaudoin (Dartmouth College, assistant professor of music),^[21] Suzannah Clark, Nicholas Cook, and Jack Boss (University of Oregon, professor of music theory and composition),^[22] as well as "An Anonymous Response to Philip Ewell", which itself drew criticism.^[19][23]

Ewell's work on music theory's white racial frame—and the ensuing controversy from the 2020 publication of Journal of Schenkerian Studies' twelfth volume—has received wide-ranging media attention from Alex Ross at The New Yorker,^[19] The New York Times,^[24] NPR,^[25] and Inside Higher Ed.^[26] The Society for Music Theory's executive board stated that it "condemns the anti-Black statements and personal ad hominem attacks on Philip Ewell perpetuated in several essays included in the 'Symposium on Philip Ewell's 2019 SMT Plenary Paper' published by the Journal of Schenkerian Studies".^[27][28]

His public intellectual work has included appearances on BBC^[29] and Adam Neely's YouTube channel.^[30] In March 2021, Ewell contributed to RILM's blog in which he wrote about his Twitter project "Erasing colorasure in American music theory"^[31] and delivered a public colloquium at Columbia University entitled "On Confronting Music Theory's Antiblackness: Three Case Studies".^[32]

Selected works[]

Articles[]

• Ewell, Philip. (2021). "Music Theory's White Racial Frame". Music Theory Spectrum. 43. doi:10.1093/mts/mtaa031. ISSN 0195-6167.
• Ewell, Philip A. (2020). "Music Theory and the White Racial Frame". Music Theory Online. 26 (2). doi:10.30535/mto.26.2.4. ISSN 1067-3040.
• Ewell, Philip. (2019). "Introduction to the Symposium on Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly." Music Theory Online 25 (1). doi:10.30535/mto.25.1.7.
• Ewell, Philip. (2015). "Amerikanskaia teoriia riadov v perspektive" (American set theory in perspective). Muzykal'naia Akademiia (Music Academy) : 148–55.
• Ewell, Philip. (2014). "The Parameter Complex in the Music of Sofia Gubaidulina." Music Theory Online 20 (3).
• Ewell, Philip. (2013). "Russian Pitch-Class Set Analysis and the Music of Webern." Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic 6 (1).
• Ewell, Philip. (2013). "'I Can't Be Quiet': An Interview with Vasya Oblomov." Echo: A Music-Centered Journal 11 (1).
• Ewell, Philip. (2013). "'On the System of Stravinsky's Harmony,' by Yuri Kholopov: Translation and Commentary." Music Theory Online 19 (2). ISSN 1067-3040.
• Ewell, Philip. (2012). "Rethinking Octatonicism: Views from Stravinsky's Homeland." Music Theory Online 18 (4). ISSN 1067-3040.
• Ewell, Philip. (2007). "Anton Rubinstein, Alexander Serov, and Vladimir Stasov: The Struggle for a National Musical Identity in Nineteenth-Century Russia." Germano-Slavica XVI: 41–55.
• Ewell, Philip. (2006). "Scriabin's Dominant: The Evolution of a Harmonic Style." Journal of Schenkerian Studies 1: 118–48.
• Ewell, Philip. (2002). "Scriabin's Seventh Piano Sonata: Three Analytical Approaches." Indiana Theory Review 23: 23–67.

Dissertation[]

• Ewell, Philip. (2001). Analytical Approaches to Large-Scale Structure in the Music of Alexander Scriabin. PhD diss., Yale University, 2001. Adviser: Allen Forte. OCLC 49527723.

Book chapters[]

• Ewell, Philip. (2020). "Stravinsky Reception in the USSR". In Stravinsky in Context. Edited by Graham Griffiths. Cambridge University Press. pp. 270–78. doi:10.1017/9781108381086.037. ISBN 978-1-108-38108-6.
• Ewell, Philip. (2017). "Russian Rap in the Era of Vladimir Putin." In Hip-hop at Europe's Edge. Edited by Milosz Miszczynski and Adriana Helbig, 45–62. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Edited books[]

• Kaleidoscope of Cultures: A Celebration of Multicultural Research and Practice. (2010). Edited by Marvelene C. Moore and Philip Ewell. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. OCLC 405107620.

References[]

External links[]

• Official website