Category: Commentary

Frank J. Oteri Photo by Melissa Richard

In 1939, six American composers joined forces to create the American Music Center, the first-ever information center devoted to the promulgation of new music. For many years, the American Music Center served as the only repository of scores and recordings of a diverse array of repertoire. This effort proved to be a lightning rod and served as a model for music information centers in more than 40 countries around the world. Now, sixty years later, the American Music Center is embarking on a new journey with the launch of NewMusicBox, the first-ever web magazine devoted to new American music.

Each month, NewMusicBox will feature an interview with one or more prominent figures in American Music in which a variety of topics will be discussed and debated at In The First Person. You will be able to join in the debate as well at In The Second Person. Detailed background on a theme topical to whomever has been interviewed will appear at In The Third Person in what I like to call “hyper-history” form. Instead of a linear narrative, there will be a single quickread page filled with a hopscotch network of links allowing you to determine for yourself how much detail you want. And opinions from a variety of movers and shakers within the music industry will be gathered at Hymn & Fuguing Tune to which you can add as well if there’s something you want to say.

For this first issue, we decided to have a roundtable discussion with the three directors of Bang On A Can, one of the most innovative and successful new music ventures of our time. We were joined by the American Music Center’s Executive Director Richard Kessler, and we were also joined by Fran Richard, Vice President of the Symphonic and Concert Music Department at ASCAP. She even provided us with a comfortable room at ASCAP where everybody was able to talk leisurely about everything from the future of the orchestra to the New Jersey Nets. Now, we invite you to debate with us about attracting audiences for new music.

For our first “hyper-history,” Ken Smith has plunged into the complex network of composer-led new music ensembles throughout the United States, tracing the roots back to the pioneering days of the Copland-Sessions concerts of the 1920s. He has spoken with the directors of 22 of today’s leading ensembles. Sprinkled throughout his journey are some exclusive RealAudio sound snippets of recent concerts from several of these groups including a musical setting of the senate testimony of Monica Lewinsky!

We asked George Steel, Artistic Director of Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, Dean Stein, Executive Director of Chamber Music America, Eugene V. Carr, President of the website CultureFinder, and Jessica Lustig, President of 21st Century Music Management to tell us what makes them attend a new music event. We’d love to know your opinion as well.

There has been a great deal of new American music in the news recently. Melinda Wagner has been awarded the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Music, and NewMusicBox has obtained an exclusive RealAudio sound sample. A special citation was given to 81-year-old composer icon Lou Harrison at the Gay and Lesbian American Music Awards. Nine American composers were awarded Guggenheim Fellowships and 76 American composers were featured at the 1999 SCI Conference. May is also the month of the American Music Center’s Annual Meeting and Award Ceremony which this year honors Elliott Carter, Philip Glass, Harvey Lichtenstein, Ellis Freedman, Mel Powell (in memoriam), and the California EAR Unit.

We have also assembled a national calendar of performances of American music and a list of 1999 recordings featuring music by American composers. There are over 250 performances listed for May and June and almost 60 new CDs, and I’m sure we missed something! If so, please let us know.

Putting together this debut issue of NewMusicBox has confirmed for me what an exciting time this is for American music. I hope you will share in this excitement and visit us frequently.

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George Steel Photo courtesy of George Steel

Conductor and Artistic Director, Miller Theater (Columbia University)

The Elements of Style: What attracts me to a new music concert

• Free drinks: A concert is a celebration. It should feel like one. Any gesture of hospitality is always a lure.
• Unapologetic programming: Nothing makes a program more drab more quickly than the sense that works are being played out of duty or for the sake of appearances. Play music you are crazy about.
• An ensemble of flexible size and instrumentation: There is too much music for the Pierrot + percussion band. If a group has more than ten players, it is manifest that they have the will and desire to explore more interesting repertoire. It follows that if a large number of players have been persuaded to play a piece, it is more likely to be persuasive music.
• Not too many solo works: Unless the concert is Berio’s Sequenzas, a string of solo works is seldom inviting. Variety is a prime attractant.
• Truth in packaging: Marketing materials should make plain the composer’s dates, the date a piece was written, and, if possible, the size of the ensemble. Composerly mumbo-jumbo about pieces should be avoided. Also, any brochure that uses the word “kaleidoscope” is a veiled cry for help. Nothing invites an audience better than a good photograph of composer and ensemble.
• No Beethoven: I don’t know why Beethoven crops up on so many new music concerts. No composer, no matter what influences they claim, will withstand comparison with Beethoven. The practice of putting a common-practice-era work on the second half to make the audience stay to listen is an admission of defeat. I hate it.
• Music I don’t know: I go to new music concerts to hear new works.
• I care if I listen: It is a tautology that needs repeatings — a composer whose work ignores the audience will seldom attract an audience. A concert is a public event, not a private devotion; every advancement in the science of music is not cause for a concert. Precompositional design that is concerned more with structure than affect tends to yield works better seen and not heard.
• A sense of fun: What more need be said?

Eugene V. Carr Photo courtesy of CultureFinder

Former Executive Director, American Symphony Orchestra & President, CultureFinder (The Online Address for the Arts)

Whenever I go to a modern dance performance I’m usually thrilled by the air of expectation in the house. People are eagerly waiting to see what their favorite dancers and choreographers are up to. I go to new music concerts with the same mindset. I try to be open to new things and look forward to being surprised and challenged.

Jessica Lustig Photo courtesy of Jessica Lustig

When I attend new music events I feel a sense of adventure and hope. The adventure comes when I’m not sure what the music will sound like. The hope is that I may be lucky enough to be among the first to hear a work that will make a lasting impact on many people. If I am familiar with a composer’s music, when listening to a new piece I’ll look for what has changed, as well as what has been integrated into the composition from older works.

When I hear music of a composer who is unfamiliar to me, I’ll listen for a distinctive voice that grabs and demands my attention. Although nothing matches the thrill of being a witness to a new musical creation at a premiere, and it is also very satisfying to hear a work a few years after the premiere, knowing that with each subsequent performance, its chances of entering the repertory increase.