IN THE (NEW MUSIC) GHETTO

The Australian’s music critic Matthew Westwood writes about new music and the many opportunities that audience will have to hear it in the next few weeks. Few art forms are as divisive as contemporary music – as evidenced by the letters that we get after a performance. It’s true that not all new music is easy to love. But then, plenty of other contemporary art works are just as difficult. It’s always struck me as odd that plenty of people flock to see difficult movies, read challenging novels or visit art galleries but seem to be afraid that listening to a new piece of music is going to be such an intensely disturbing experience that they’ll never be the same again. Maybe that’s a good thing though. Why bother to experience something if it’s not going to affect you in some way?

Westwood points out that the ‘most visible purveyors of classical music’ are programming new music mini-festivals. But I wonder if this is of any value to new music. The MSO’s Metropolis Series and the Sydney Symphony’s 20th century music festival [‘A Celebration of the Colour of Time’] with David Robertson – as excellent as the programming is – continue to ‘ghettoise’ new music. By placing it in a separate series, often in a different venue, they send a message to their mainstage audience which says ‘you probably won’t like this so we won’t inflict it upon you.’ Instead of giving their audiences to opportunity to discover something new, they continue to feed them the same diet of warhorses, and then market their contemporary concerts to the same small group of listeners. A group which will continue to stay small until orchestras commit to growing it by exposing their entire audience to the best of what’s new.

Matthew Hindson’s new work – like several of the new Australian pieces that the SSO commissioned for 2008 – has been safely tucked away in their Meet the Music series, a set of concerts aimed at secondary school students. Happily, kids seem to be much more open to new sounds than adults so these works will fall on appreciative ears.

And what about new music from countries other than Australia? If you want an immersion in the latest music from around the world you can check out the MSO’s Metropolis series or (subtle plug) come to our Audacious tour in July.

Robert Murray