It may seem a deep irony, but the fact remains that I haven't enjoyed the majority of the New Music that I've encountered over the years. Or, I should say, a lot of it is okay and more than its fair share seems pretty pointless beyond providing the composer an opportunity to occupy someone else's time and attention for a space. I will, for instance, tend to enjoy a random pop song for what it is more often on average than a random work of Contemporary Art Music. I guess I've just found way too much of what I've heard at concerts and across the field to be wanting in the things that I most value in that music. Too often, new pieces seem to lack either seriously original ideas or a real interest in presenting the audience with a thoroughly well-crafted and well-considered work, if not both.
However, while I may too often find the results of my genre/style/field/whathaveyou to be fairly jejune, and while I'm suspicious that too much New Music is actually about concerns other than the art work itself, the key for me is that when this music does work well, the resultant experience is more thoroughly engrossing and comprehensively remarkable than any experiences I've had with exceptional examples hailing from any other musical genre. I've indeed been heavily influenced by and continue to love all kinds of music, and have engaged very personal and magical experiences with, for instance, the works of Jane's Addiction. Nonetheless, a truly exceptional, original, and well-crafted piece of Contemporary Art Music occupies me in a way no other music quite can.
This music can be difficult. This is Pollock, not Kinkade. Complex art requires a personal investment from us in order to truly bloom. However, wonderful complicated works can multiply this personal investment, while the unexceptional simply occupies our time and frustrates attempts at any kind of understanding. It's up to the composer, the artist, to make every bit of difficulty well worth the effort - because time is not something to waste, and because when this music does pay off, the experience can be special in unimaginable ways.
