Scott Wilson asks:

>Is there anything necessary or valuable about the new?

Well, I once wrote a dissertation claiming that originality is interesting
and valuable in itself and, although that was a long time ago, I still
believe it, though not necessarily everything else I claimed at the time.
It is so easy to get burned out and bored with the same old stuff that,
to stay fresh oneself, it is important to ration exposure to particular
works, however great or wonderful one may find them.  Accordingly, since
music is central to my life, I find myself constantly looking for works
that are new and inventive--with enough success to keep me satisfied--but
also to keep me looking.  Beyond my own private satisfactions, it is
important to me that orchestral music--which is what chiefly interests
me--be alive and well as a living and developing tradition.  It would
be upsetting to believe that its innovations were all behind us and that
its world is complete and closed.

Jim Tobin