Reflections on the renewal of music: a polemic

Abstract

Pluralism has been accepted as the best broad working definition of the current cultural and artistic situation in the West for some time now. In New Zealand, the debate over 'biculturalism' versus 'multiculturalism' drones on. Commercially this is reflected in both 'market segmentation' and its opposite-attempts at 'cross-over'. Artistically, it has made 'bicultural' works fashionable, as creative attempts are made to fuse various traditions together, especially the Maori and Western, and nowhere more so than in music. The key to making successful 'fusion' pieces seems to lie in first grasping the essential differences between the musics, then trying to resolve the clashes or accommodate friendly juxtapositions.