Behind Closed Doors

Behind Closed Doors

NewMusicBox talks to three composition competition judges about the inner workings of the awards process.

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NewMusicBox Staff

Do you tend to gravitate toward applicants whose music is stylistically similar to yours or contrapositively do you tend to gravitate toward music that is not at all like yours?Informant A: Either way, no. I think we all come to a point—otherwise we shouldn’t be on a panel as artists (or a lot of other places either)—where we know the difference between something we don’t like and something that just isn’t good art. But there’s absolutely no equation for that.Informant B: I try to make it a non-issue. I don’t think I’m there to judge the music against a template of my own music. I’m there to judge the music on its own merits. Recently I was talking to somebody and I was saying that I really don’t like Dvorak, but I recognize that he’s a great composer. But if I never hear another note of Dvorak’s music again, I don’t care.Informant C: I think that I have gone out of my way to understand and support music that is different from mine. I don’t know whether I carry a bias against it. I know more of the music that is stylistically similar to mine than the music that is stylistically different.</table