Dr. Kira Thurman @kira_thurman · Jun 18

Hi gang! I'm not on twitter much right now, but because several of you have asked for my take on the question, "Was Beethoven Black?"

Here's my answer as a scholar who writes about black musicians in Europe for a living:

1/?

Dr. Kira Thurman @kira_thurman · Jun 18

Surprise! I can't answer that question yet. I haven't had time to go through original German sources and read them for myself. But I can tell you that the question, "Was Beethoven Black?" has been around since the 1930s, when African American journalists began to circulate it. https://t.co/roDIToa196

Dr. Kira Thurman @kira_thurman · Jun 18

The question, "Was Beethoven Black" got picked up again in the 1960s by Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. See Michael Broyles's book, Beethoven in America. They wanted to associate blackness with genius, which white people constantly denied. 

https://t.co/BygrBFN8jH

Dr. Kira Thurman @kira_thurman · Jun 18

But to my mind, Beethoven being black is a red herring. We don't need him to prove our genius. But do you know a figure who was Black during Beethoven's day?

Dr. Kira Thurman @kira_thurman · Jun 18

Violinist George Bridgetower (1791-1860). The son of an Afro-Caribbean servant and a Polish mother at the Esterhazy palace, he was a student of composer Joseph Haydn and a friend of Beethoven. Beethoven dedicated a violin sonata to him, which was so hard to play many gave up. https://t.co/TEwoMp6rcr

Dr. Kira Thurman @kira_thurman · Jun 18

The African American musicologist Maud Cuney Hare first championed George Bridgetower in 1927, the centenary of Beethoven's death. She noticed that white musicologists only talked about Beethoven—not Bridgetower. https://t.co/n433UFBwxr

Dr. Kira Thurman @kira_thurman · Jun 18

So instead of asking the question, "Was Beethoven Black?" ask "Why don't I know anything about George Bridgetower?" I, frankly, don't need any more debates about Beethoven's blackness. But I do need people to play the music of Bridgetower. And others like him.

Dr. Kira Thurman @kira_thurman · Jun 18

There are already many Black European composers whose music deserves our ears. Chevalier de St. George. Samuel Coleridge Taylor. Edmond Dédé. Amanda Aldridge. Instead of programming Beethoven's 5th another time, why aren't musicians performing their works? https://t.co/t2jrME6M40

Dr. Kira Thurman @kira_thurman · Jun 18

In sum: I'd love to read through the original 18th century sources again and examine the question, "Was Beethoven Black?" But trust me when I say that there are still plenty of Black musicians for us to study—and celebrate!—anyway. We don't need Beethoven, fam.