The first thing that stands out in Philip Ewell’s On Music Theory And Making Music More Welcoming For Everyone is how specific the music theory world is. His thesis concerns structural issues as he experiences them: the pursuit of tenure, the peer-review process for the Society of Music Theory, critiques of foreign-language requirements for graduate theory programs, and even the U.S.’s particular passion for Schenkerian analysis. Entertaining those critiques requires at least a cursory understanding of the legislative functions of Title IX and the First Amendment rights. Readers familiar with the American university system will recognize many of Ewell’s arguments, and be able to transpose them onto their own contexts. But for people living outside of those structures (which, let’s be real, is a fair amount of the population), the setting Ewell describes can seem like another land.
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