To the question "New music, why bother?", one of our members rightly
pointed out that all music was at one time new music.  But I think the
question raises a deeper issue: that of the very difference between
modern and traditional cultures.  In one of his essays, V.S. Naipul
imagines himself trying to explain his ambition to become a writer
to his traditional, Hindu Brahmin grandfather.  Grandfather would not
have understood, because in his world-view, everything had already been
written, there was nothing left to write.  [Grandfather was perhaps on
a wavelength rather similar to that of the question "New music, why
bother?"] However, this view is precisely what modern (originally European,
now to a large extent world-wide) culture has rejected.

One result is the tremendous mutability of modern cultural forms,
including classical music, compared with their counterparts in traditional
cultures.  For example, in 400 years, I believe that Indian classical
music has scarcely changed at all in its forms, instrumental resources,
or even its scales.  In our culture, 400 years spans the time from
Monteverdi to the present, during which our classical music has changed
far more than Indian classical music, beautiful as the latter is.  Western
CM has passed through a rapid succession of styles and creative episodes,
including episodes called Bach and Beethoven.  The point is not that
these succesive creative episodes are "progressive" in the sense that
any one is better than another.  But they do represent tremendous variety,
a more far-ranging exploration of creative possibilities than in any
traditional culture.  This intensive, many-sided exploration of what one
might call "creativity space" is the defining feature of modernism.

Let me add that this exploration of creativity space in respect to
understanding the physical world is precisely what gave Western culture
its ability to *discover* so much about the physical world.  Artistic
exploration may not be cumulative, but scientific exploration certainly
is.  With that example before our eyes, maybe there is a lot to be said
for the Modern idea of exploring every corner of creativity space.

Jon Gallant                and                    Dr. Phage