New Music Advocacy

Recently the Canton Symphony asked me to give a presentation on music from the perspective of a young composer. After much thought, I've decided to call my talk "New Music: Part of the Problem, Part of the Solution." The below thoughts are merely a preparation for this talk, and I ask for your detailed (and if necessary, brutal) input on the matter.

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For all of our griping, what exactly ARE we doing which is productively bringing new music to wider audiences?

I was recently sent comments from a talk by John Adams, in which he decries the overt conservatism of Orchestras and their audiences. He said that "all the interesting music being written now is generally not for Orchestra, as a result." (This is a loose paraphrase taken from a loose paraphrase.)

Mr. Adams is correct, of course: despite the many talented composers out there, our music is either not being performed, or being usurped by less-accessible "great" old-new music in Boulez-ite tradition. Another famous conductor, asked to defend such programming choices, said that the Bouleschoewebernites "need" such patronage.

Such programming attitudes beg the question: If 75 years of stuffing atonal-serialism down the throats of audiences has yet to do anything BUT alienate said audiences, at what point do we concede to the obvious?

While stubborn artistic directors and conductors seemingly purposefully only choose new (or, dubious 20th century) music to piss off their audiences, yet another generation of composers that DON'T sound like Boulez or any of the bergs and berns are being subsequently swept under the carpet of collective irreletivity.

If I didn't know better, I'd think that some of these "proponents of new music" were purposefully attempting to sabotage contemporary music.

I will propose that the average concert-goer over 50 doesn't realize that most new music being written nowadays is NOT being written in such inaccesible styles. In fact, I will submit (with personal experience) that most young conservatory students are equally in the dark as to what is available to us.

I've already named inaccessible old music and its entrenched proponents as part of the problem. I don't have a solution to this dilemma, but there are things that we can start doing TODAY to change the tide of artistic decline in America.

1.) Every graduate student or new professor who is "stuck" teaching music appreciation needs to quit bitching about it, and instead embrace the opportunity. What if every 200+ person lecture-course resulted in three passionate new music listeners? At over 10,000 universities in our country, we would be adding 20,000 new, hip, and curious listeners to the American audience. That's 200,000 potential new listeners per decade, which is easily enough to turn the establishment on its head by that time.

2.) In keeping with #1, education is always the key. Music teachers tend to be relatively ignorant about contemporary music as well, which is why composers need to start visiting classrooms. I know, I know, we're all ridiculously busy. But if every composer visited one classroom annually, we'd have over 5,000 classroom visits with which to inspire minds and build audiences every year. Think of it as contributing to your future audience, which definitely might make retirement a bit easier. I plan on making at least one visit before the school year is over.

3.) Groups such as Eighth Blackbird are putting on hip, varied, and wonderfully performed programs. In only a few years, they have nearly single-handedly revived the new music scene in Chicago. Here in Cleveland, I've become involved with what will hopefully be our equivalent. Any community with a few musicians can pull this off, and smaller communities are especially ripe for such endeavors. If 500 new groups of such a nature came about in the next five years, think of the possibilities for building audiences and getting new commissions!

4.) Wind Ensembles are our friend. To reject them is to do so at your own peril.

5.) Write music which is considerate of your performers, and treat your performers like gold. I recently had a musician from Taiwan tell me that I had "changed (her) opinion of composers for the better." She now plays in all sorts of new music projects in the area, all because a few composers were really nice to her. In contrast, I saw an established Cleveland-area composer selfishly berate a Pierrot Ensemble of younger grad-student musicians. He got his wish: a tight performance. The way he went about it, however, alienated his musicians from composers.

These are five steps which can change the musical landscape we live in. If we put down our bitterness and become real advocates for our art, the resulting tide will eventually sweep back onto the Orchestral stage.

Rather than be part of the generation of composers which has rejected tradition, I would rather be a part of the generation of composers which has revitalized it.