Death of the new......

Saturday nights at 10 was always a good time for me. KVOD, the Denver all-classical FM station, would broadcast two hours of 'contemporary' music' -- their definition. While sometimes it was only Prokofiev or Shostokovich or Copland, other times it would be Rautavaara or Kaipainen or Del Tredici. It was new music and I hadn't heard it and I liked that!

Reviewing my private library, I believe I've also heard music by the likes of Alwyn, Andriessen, Berio, Bolcom, Ciurlionis, Corigliano, Creston, Crumb, Diamond, Feldman, Golijov, Gorecki, Harvey, Henze, Higdon, Kancheli, Kernis, Laderman, Larsson, Lauridsen, Part, Reich, Riley, Rorem, Rouse, Sallinen, Salonen, Santos, Takemitsu and Varese during those late Saturday nights. I knew about some but hadn't heard much from them, others were completely new.

The announcer had interesting things to say. One sequence went through compositions from the 1940s, then the early 1950s, then late 50s. Centennials or deaths brought an entire evening of one composer, often with longer works that seem never to be played in normal hours. It was almost always interesting and challenging.

Sometimes after listening I would get on a kick and buy CDs by guys like Rautavaara. (What a great first name Einojuhani -- so much better than Sam or Robert or Arthur!) They might be good, sometimes not. Often the CD would also have something by another unknown. Again some good some bad, but fun listening to anyway. KVOD lead the way and I followed.

All that has changed. Now KVOD broadcasts on Saturday at 10 contemporary composers like Bach, Mozart, Debussy, Puccini and some seldom-heard pieces by the new guys Friedrich the Great and Ignace Pleyel. The two hours late on Saturday are now just like the remaining 166 hours each week. There's nothing to look forward to, nothing new and unknown. Just pap, pap, and more pap!

Who knows why KVOD changed its format? Perhaps they ran out of CDs, or, more likely, perception about the contemporary. Regardless, they've lost an interested listener.