Thursday, June 18, 2020

Was Beethoven Black? (Tweets From Trending Twitter Thread June 18, 2020)


Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post documents examples of tweets from the "Beethoven" tweeter thread that was on of the top ten tweeter threads in the United States on June 18, 2020.

Article excerpts on this subject (from that date & other dates) are also included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural and historical purposes.


All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Beethoven for his musical legacy. Thanks to other composers who are mentioned in this post and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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EXAMPLES OF TWEETS ABOUT BEETHOVEN AND OTHER BLACK EUROPEAN COMPOSERS

Pancocojams Editor's note:
WARNING: This twitter thread contains some profanity as well as the frequent use of the "n word". Many of the tweets are comedic, but there are some serious tweets in that mix.

This compilation presents some of those serious tweets about this subjects that were published on June 18, 2020.

These tweets may not be given in the order of their posting on that twitter page. All of these examples are given without videos or other visual images.

Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.

1. No Hipsters allowed @nohipstersblog

"Every other year, the theory that #Beethoven was of African descent resurfaces.

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Today, it resurfaced once again, and the composer had been trending all afternoon.
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The basis of the theory is https://instagram.com/p/CBlt7lDJpKs/

[Here's the text from that instagram.com post]
"There is one pencil sketch that has stood the test of time, and was supposedly Beethoven's favorite depiction of himself. This is a photo that he had printed and reprinted, distributing it to all his friends and family as a memento. In this photo his face is broad, his hair is unruly, and his skin is very dark. This is were things started adding up.

We know that Europeans have a tendency to white-wash their history, and I don't mean Huck Finn style.  European colonization dehumanized those with colored skin, ignoring their stories and taking credit for their achievements. At one point, Great Britain alone had control of a fifth of the world's population. The fact of the matter is that white is the de facto "default race" of the vast majority of European art. Non-white artists work's [sic] often goes unrecognized or even go under the name of someone else."

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2. madison @honeyb33f

...·"Also, found an interesting article about this. I am convinced !!!"



[Pancocojams' Editor: Here's a long excerpt of that article] :

"Was Beethoven's African Heritage Whitewashed?
Famed music composer Ludwig van Beethoven created some of the most impressive works of art in his time that are still played worldwide today. Aside from being a musical genius, what most people don’t know is that Beethoven may have roots tracing back to Africa. An exact conclusion has yet to be determined, but there is a lot of evidence and research that strongly supports the claim. If it’s true, why is Beethoven’s African heritage white-washed?

Describing Beethoven
Images of Beethoven are recognized worldwide, depicting a white male with wild hair. But are these images accurate for the famous musician? Photography didn’t exist until around the end of Beethoven’s life so we must rely on artistic paintings and written descriptions of Beethoven to get an idea of his actual appearance. While many of the images detail him with fair skin, written descriptions of the composer render us a different image of Beethoven.

Many sources have been gathered throughout history from anthropologists, historians, and even close acquaintances of Beethoven that have described him in brief detail, raising the question that Beethoven may have had some trace of African heritage based on similar features found in African descendants.

It’s important to reference how Beethoven was considered in the public eye. Many texts have been uncovered that refer to Beethoven as a “Moor.” In this era, ‘Moor’ translates to ‘negro,’ before the term was extended to include Arabs in later times. The German translation for ‘negro’ is also ‘mohr.’ A renowned Beethoven Historian, Alexander W. Thayer, can be quoted stating “Beethoven had even more of the Moor in his features than his master, Haydn.” Many people suggest that Moors introduced the classical music style to Europe, evident by the hint that Beethoven’s musical master was also of Moorish descent.

A description of Beethoven was also discovered, written by one of his close friends, Frau Fischer. Beethoven is described as having a “blackish-brown complexion” and “short, stocky, broad shoulders, short neck, round nose…” A similar description was given by Frederick Hertz, a German anthropologist in his book Race and Civilization. He mentions that Beethoven has “Negroid traits,” “dark skin,” and a “flat, thick nose.”

Combine these descriptions with the visual depiction of his curly hair, and we can draw parallels between characteristics of people of African descent such as African Americans or West Indian mulattos.

Beethoven's Parents
While Beethoven’s African heritage may have been white-washed, examination of his parents may lead to other evidence that the famed composer has roots to Africa. It’s not determined which of his parents’ sides that trace back to Africa but there are possibilities from either.

...One piece of evidence on his father’s side that causes inquiry into his heritage is that Johann was half-Flemish and born in Belgium, a known Moorish territory during his time.

Suggestions of African heritage are also derived on his mother’s side, perhaps more so than from his father. Beethoven’s mother, Maria Magdalena Keverich, was born in Ehrenbreitstein, Germany, also encompassed within the Moor territory. His mother is rumored to be moor or even mixed with a white father and black mother, or vice-versa.

A least favorable consideration for Beethoven’s African heritage could also be that he was an illegitimate child, as some research suggests. Beethoven has been referred to as a ‘kammermohr,’ a German word describing the offspring of relations with a servant of black skin."....

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3. Adewale Alabi @Elawofficial
"Instead of arguing over Beethoven. Let's focus our energy on actual black classical music composers from the same period who did amazing work but did not get as much recognition. Click the link below to learn about them. https://www.choralhub.com/2015/11/black-and-proud-take-a-look-at-black-composers-and-musicians-in-classical-music-history-part-1/
#Beethoven2020 #beethovenwasblack

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4. Dr.  Kira Thurman @kira_thurman

" 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:
-snip-
Dr. Thurman's photograph identifies her as a Black woman. Information in her profile identifies her as a history professor at a German university. This is only a small portion of this twitter thread. Click https://twitter.com/kira_thurman/status/1273663359733334018

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5. Dr.  Kira Thurman @kira_thurman
"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."

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6. Dr.  Kira Thurman @kira_thurman
"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.

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7. Dr.  Kira Thurman @kira_thurman
" 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?

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8. Dr.  Kira Thurman @kira_thurman
"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.

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9.   Dr.  Kira Thurman @kira_thurman"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."

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10. Dr.  Kira Thurman @kira_thurman
"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.

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11. Dr.  Kira Thurman @kira_thurman
"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?"

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12. Emma @EmmaofEngland
"Not Beethoven related, but Mozart was deeply jealous of Joseph Bologne. He was a champion fencer, classical composer, virtuoso violinist, and conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris. I only learnt about him recently so I thought other people might not know."

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13. Nyasha Junior @NyashaJunior
"If you're surprised about Beethoven, I have some news for you about Jesus.

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