Coming to an end....

I can’t believe we’re almost at the end of another semester! And as I begin to assemble my blogs to hand to Dr. Brunner, I am fascinated by the sheer volume and variety of music that we have touched over such a short time. This is definitely not my last blog for the semester but I would like to suggest a few interesting reads if, like me, you require closure.

I, like Brad, frequent Kyall Gann’s blog regularly. In his archives as well as on the Mavericks site, there are several incredible essays that Gann has written. Particularly, there is a whole section on American music, one of my favorite being ‘What is American about American Music?’. In the essay Gann covers a whole spectrum of American music making traditions (1770-1970) way back to William Billings and the ‘New England Psalm Singer’. He reveals the two schools of thought regarding the origins of American music and the sense of pride that is inherent in each composition.

And in Gann’s most recent blog he describes his opinions on the future of music
‘the future of music lies in increased sensitivity and perception…

music now needs to turn inward, to become more meditative’

The musical world is forever changed because of the innovations of Ives, Partch, Cage, and Cowell. Genres were created because of composers like Young, Riley, Zappa, and Miles Davis. And even today, composers are still finding new innovative ways of connecting with listeners eg. Whitacre, Adler, and the electronic world that allows anybody to compose. So whether the future of music, like Gann said, needs to become more meditative, or whether it will become more inclusive, who knows. I’m just happy to be a part of the learning and the listening.