The Edward W. Said Days, held since 2018, open the Pierre Boulez Saal season, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the passing of the Palestinian literary scholar. The program is centered around keynote lectures by philosopher Dag Nikolaus Hasse and musicologist Kofi Agawu as well as two panel discussions exploring subjects at the intersection of music and postcolonialism—both central aspects of Said’s work.

Prof. Dr. Kofi Agawu (Graduate Center, City University of New York)
Why is African Art Music Invisible?

The phrase “African music” typically calls to mind either traditional music (of ostensibly precolonial origins, bound to ritual and play, and altogether revealing of African authenticities) or the ubiquitous popular music (newer, accessible, distributed into genres like Hiplife, Afrobeats and Amapiano, and revealing of a modern, urban sensibility). But there is a not insignificant body of choral music, chamber music, orchestral music, and operas written by born-in-the-tradition composers, performed by skilled singers and instrumentalists, and presented to usually non-participating audiences in designated modern spaces, all in the manner of (European) concert music. What explains the invisibility of this tradition of African art music? Said’s text-based readings, our model here, are lessons in focus. They suggest that acts of creation sometimes entail shutting doors, resisting facile claims about music and the worldly, even rendering certain co-present factors simply irrelevant. African art music in this understanding is at once a problem (for its critics), a promise (for its practitioners and audiences), and a rich site for reflection (for its philosophers).

Kofi Agawu was born in Ghana, where he received his initial education before studying composition and analysis in the UK and musicology in the US. He is currently Distinguished Professor at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. His books include Playing with Signs (1991), African Rhythm (1996), Music as Discourse (2008) and The African Imagination in Music (2016). He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (1991), the Dent Medal (1992), and the Harrison Medal (2009). A Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is also Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and Honorary Member of the Royal Musical Association. A collection of essays, On African Music: Techniques, Influences, Scholarship, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

Curated by Prof. Dr. James Helgeson & Prof. Dr. Regula Rapp

The lectures and symposium will be presented in English. Admission is free, prior registration is required.