Music Studies in Crisis? Notes and Queries on Reframing Music Theory

ABSTRACT Some version of the claim that music studies are in crisis today has been circulating in the academy recently. For example, a 2021 issue of the flagship journal of the Society for Music Theory, Music Theory Spectrum , featured articles based on a 2019 SMT plenary session that identified deficits in how theorists have addressed race, gender, nationality and disability, and urged members to work towards reframing theory and analysis. Ongoing conversations, debates and episodes of talking past one another in a variety of forums continue to highlight concerns about music theory, especially as preached and practiced in the United States. Questions remain, however, about the cogency of these critiques and about the intellectual and pedagogical implications of some of the solutions being proposed. Because these discussions are familiar, this Critical Forum essay addresses only a handful of issues and positions, leaving space – metaphorically speaking – for others to chime in, whether consonantly or dissonantly. My aim is to raise questions about the project of reframing in hopes of clarifying the vision(s) of reformers. I suggest that although questions of demographics and representation are important, they form only a part of a larger problem: namely, the ways in which theory's objects are constituted in the first place. Could it be, then, that the more far‐reaching critique of music theory has yet to begin? I conclude that without a broadening of theory's geo‐cultural reach and a reimagining of its disciplinary bases, the work of reform may be with us for some time to come.