Some final (but not too final thoughts)

Where did the semester go? And what a semester it has been! This class has been a whirlwind of new composers, new music and new ideas, from the crazy performances of Pascoal, Cage and Zappa to the expansion of established classical techniques and the creation of a uniquely "American" sound through the works of Whitacre, Copland and Rodgers & Hammerstein II.

When I came into this class, I was pretty much focused on 20th Century opera composers and the American Musical Theatre. My big expansion was the works of Copland and Stravinsky (who both ventured into the opera world so they are only a small expansion). I wasn't sure what I was expecting, other than the possible introduction to some weird electronic composer that would make me want to leave the room, as had happened in a previous class (Nono and I are not buddies, I'm sorry to say). But I still needed a history class, and this sounded much more interesting than the other offerings.

I realized very quickly that my ideas of what constituted 20th Century innovation were FAR too narrow to even begin to encompass what we would eventually cover in this class. I would never have imagined listening to the beauty of Eric Whitacre's music one day, and then coming in on another day to watch John Cage pouring water into a bathtub while smacking a piano with a fish on national television. I was excited for my own presentation, and thoroughly enjoyed many of yours. What I enjoyed most was when the debates began, all of us arguing passionately about our own thoughts and feelings on what is music, and what is innovation. I don't think we will ever come to a group conclusion on either term, but I am willing to be that our own ideas are much clearer for having to defend them.

I know that Dr. Brunner was worried about how to gauge our learning in this course, and while I know I still have some writing to do, I would like to say this: every time I listen to music, any music now, I am hearing innovation and connections to this class. One moment in particular was this past Monday as I was driving to work, and listening to the NPR tribute to Andre Previn. My first thought was, "This is pretty" followed by "Wait, didn't he write 'Streetcar Named Desire' (the opera)" immediately followed by, " and he wrote for movies, jazz piano and is still conducting, never mind technically being Woody Allen's father in law?" I finally saw something that made innovation clear, at least to me. Besides the fact that there are so many wonderful composers that we DIDN'T get to talk about.

In the American music world, innovation is re-invention. With the advent of better recording equipment, movies and television, it was no longer important to cater to the tastes of one particular patron. American musicians had the freedom to compose what they liked, and when that didn't pay the bills, they often (though obviously not always, we are Americans after all) honed their skills writing for the masses, or the folks in "The Sticks" as Cohen always called them. But as time change, composers and musicians tried to keep from being bored, by trying out new and unusual ideas to see how they would fit within ones own style. There really are no rules, and the complex level of thought that brought us to this place is absolutely staggering, while the webs of interconnection between composers and performers is constantly revealed to be richer and more complex than I ever thought. Every new innovation is tightly connected to an older innovation, or even a simultaneous innovation. There may be nothing new under the sun, but there certainly is a place for the many new and not-so-new ideas.