Stick Time: The Quest for New Music

For an apparently significant percentage of us, the hunt for new music is a never-ending quest.   Like so many made-for-TV zombies, choral conductors prowl the musical countryside in an effort to feed that burning yearning for “The New.”

 

The matter of “new” music verses “old” music has been something of a mini-controversy for several years, with courageous authors opining in the page of the Choral Journal.  As of this writing, there are numerous studies underway examining the balance between new music and the body of standard repertoire performed during ACDA conferences.

 

Have you ever examined exactly what it is about a musical work that you find particularly appealing?  As one considers the musical merit of any work, whether new or old, one must of course evaluate a whole plethora of items.  What is it, though, about new music specifically that drives the selection? Is the conductor simply bored with the standard repertoire? Has one succumbed to the notion of new as good thus old is bad?

 

While pondering these ideas, enjoy a world premiere selection from a recent ACDA divisional conference.