Want to talk about race? Try turning on the radio
‘We, black people, get the feeling that people want our culture but they do not want us. In other words, you want my talent, but you don’t want me.” These were the words of Clara Amfo at the top of her mid-morning show on Radio 1 last Tuesday, in an emotional speech about her personal reaction to the current wave of international debate over racism. Referring to black people’s contribution to music in particular, Amfo quoted the American writer and performer Amanda Seales: “You cannot enjoy the rhythm and ignore the blues.”
One of the reasons Amfo’s speech was so striking and affecting is that radio seems to be an especially constructive medium for talking about race. It’s about listening, after all.
On the subject of music, A History of Black Classical Music (Radio 3) concluded two weeks ago and is still available to listen on BBC Sounds. Presented by the Jamaican composer and pianist Eleanor Alberga, produced by Chris Wines and broadcast in a quiet slot at 11.00pm on Sundays, it was easy to miss. But don’t, because it’s a rich, unusual and exciting guide through the history of classical music from an angle that’s often ignored entirely.
Alberga found historical references to black people professionally involved in music in Europe as far back as the 12th century, and told the story of John Blanke, a black court trumpeter to Henry VII, who was paid well, had equal status to his white colleagues, and was depicted in lavish illustrations of court life. Like other black people in Europe at the time, he apparently lived a life that was free and equal.
Alberga’s history was full of characters whose lives were almost as fascinating as the music they composed and performed. There was Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saintgeorges, for instance. Born in Guadelope in 1745, he was educated in France and proved to be a gifted composer and virtuoso violinist, a champion swordsman, a French revolutionary colonel, and “an agile master in the ballroom, very popular with society ladies”. Alberga played the first movement of Saint-georges’s Symphony in G.
The story and the pieces Alberga played became inevitably intertwined with the history of the slave trade, with the second episode studying the US and the third part looking at British music in the context of colonialism and immigration, a subject to which
Alberga, who grew up in Jamaica, gave a personal perspective.
In fact, Alberga’s whole narrative, while measured and academic, was personal, and always bubbling with an undercurrent of passion for music. Her thoughts on race were complex. “For me, as a composer, racial delineation always jars. To wave the racial flag as a priority only feeds divisions, I think,” she said. “Surely classical art belongs to everyone, and there should be no such thing as a black or white composer, only a name beside the music.” And yet she acknowledged this was an ideal rather than a reflection of the reality. “It’s not always enough to say that talent will out. Bias, unconscious or otherwise, often stands in the way of opportunity. Nonetheless, black people have a need to express themselves through classical music.
“These programmes have taken me on quite an emotional journey,” she said in conclusion, “and I hope in some way they have opened more doors for non-white classical composers and given everyone a deeper awareness of the value they and all composers offer to society.” The final piece played was a composition of Alberga’s own, the last movement of her String Quartet No 3. The series was inspirational and unforgettable, and packed in a huge amount of extraordinary music while still feeling like just a starting point. This recognition of diverse and excellent work by black composers, wrapped in a celebration of common humanity, was a balm.
Unlike, I am afraid to say, The Archers (Radio 4) over the last week or so. I was so pleased by the return of new episodes last Monday but the new socially distant recording regime in Ambridge is already sounding tired. The monologues lack conflict, drama or movement, and the recordings seem almost wilfully stilted. I’m sure there’s a good explanation for why the actors can’t record outside, somewhere with a bit more of a sense of the rural about it, or record interactions with each other over video conferencing software, but I can’t think of one. Listening to them has become an ordeal rather than a treat, and one more reason to be eager for the world to open up again after lockdown.