What is New Music?

In 1946, the composer Arnold Schoenberg asked, "What is New Music?" In answering his own question, Schoenberg concluded that New Music is music which "expresses something which has not yet been expressed in music...as there is no great work of art which does not convey a new message to humanity."

How is the music of contemporary composers really new? Today, many innovative composers have created their own unique styles, exploring musical worlds they find more expressive than those of Western classical or popular musics. Sometimes, they discover new ways of playing traditional instruments or write music in which live performers interact with electronic or computer-generated sounds. Today's composers may be influenced by the music of Beethoven and Bach but are just as often inspired by musics of other cultures, popular music, and performance art. Some composers even incorporate in their artworks ideas borrowed from other disciplines, such as mathematics and philosophy.

New Music is to classical music what Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol are to the Old Masters. It is what James Joyce is to Charles Dickens, and what Allan Ginsberg is to Emily Dickinson. In the musical realm, contemporary composers have abandoned many of the conventions of yesterday -- and created a world in which the music acts as a mirror to the time in which we live. For those with an adventurous ear and an open mind, this music offers an endless variety of new experiences.