In Conclusion

After a semester in which numerous composers were looked at and their innovative contributions to American music, it is very difficult to give a clear concise summary of what has learned. In fact, such a statement would be ludicrous, since the purpose of the classroom environment is not to serve as the sole place learning occurs, but as the springboard from which one is able to leap forth into greater exploration.
So with this final blog post, instead of looking back at what has been accomplished over the course of this semester, I will look forward to the future, taking what has been discussed and attempting to use it as a compass from which further explorations can originate from.

After all, the concept of innovation is one which attempts to discover and experiment, not look back at what has happened. That is the role of the historian: to look at what has gone on before and to explain it in its proper context. It is a tremendously important job, since in order to understand where we must go, we must first understand where we have been. In order to be innovative, one must understand where the heritage lies so that he can build off of it to create something that is new and different from what has preceded.

So a balance then is in order; while it is obviously terrific to look back at this class and marvel at all the composers of the different decades of the twentieth century, it is just as important to look at the new music being written right now. Is David Maslanka ready to write his ninth symphony for band? Is John Adams ready to write a sequel to his opera "Dr. Atomic", or is Milton Babbitt about to begin writing in the neotonal idiom?
Questions raised above might sound ludicrous, but in reality, they aren't. What one composer is doing now could be the exact opposite of what he will be doing next year. The winds of change blow strong, and a constant effort in order to understand what is going on in the world of music needs to be made, or else one will be left in the dust.
So that is my conclusion for the semester. Instead of saying that I have learned a great deal about alot of composers, I have realized my knowledge to be painfully insufficient. As a DMA student in performance, I need to have a much greater working knowledge of what is new so that I can better communicate it to the audience in a highly comprehensible way.

In a few days, we will all go our separate ways for the summer, with most of what has happened in this class being relegated to distant memory. Yet, the idea of innovation should stick with us all, since it is something that we will need to face not only today or tomorrow, but for the rest of the time that we are creative artists. Thank you all, for an educational semester.