This is a discussion of the programming changes that CBC Radio adopted between 2007 and 2008. It looks at the unintended influence of the societal trend toward anti-intellectualism in the CBC's programming decisions. I begin by examing the motives for the CBC's changes, and why they might have adopted the attitudes that they did. I then explore the confusion between anti-elitism and anti-intellectualism, discuss the problems that these have caused for the CBC, and suggest an alternative approach.

A review of my experiences at the 2006 International Gaudeamus Music Week in Amsterdam. I discuss the format of the festival, the interaction between the composers involved, and my impressions of the experience.

There are various short works on my blog, dealing with topics ranging from sleeping through concerts and the value of art, to the relation between Faust and the sub-prime mortgage fiasco.

There is surprisingly little musicological literature devoted to the subject of nostalgia, especially considering how widely it is used by musicologists in their writing. In this paper, I deal with the question of nostalgia as a discursive tool, and especially with the ways that it can be used as a literary authority.

The discussion opens with an examination of the problematic term "nostalgia". I eventually settle on a more open-ended term that is better suited to my project: nostalgic potentiality. From there, I look at varying degrees of nostalgic potentiality as it is used by a wide range of authors; from Wagner to Berio, and from Fred Lerdahl to Kaija Saariaho, to name a few. The two main categories of examples that I draw from are: (1) nostalgic potentiality used to justify progress or a forward-looking attitude; and (2) nostalgic potentiality as it is used to support anti-nostalgic sentiments. I close the discussion by suggesting other areas that a study of nostalgic potentiality could be usefully applied to, and then comment on the value of being aware of the use of nostalgic potentiality in our writing and that of others.

The genre of outsider music is problematic in many respects. Unlike its art brut or naïve art cousins in the visual realm, it is difficult to come up with a specific categorization of outsiderness in music. Once we begin an attempt at such a definition, philosophical questions about consciousness and the nature of art complicate the issue. Therefore, I address the question of whether or not outsider music should be considered a genre at all, or if more specific descriptors for this music might be more useful.

I begin with an exploration of Irwin Chusid's definition of outsiderness, as outlined in his book on the subject, Songs in the Key of Z. From there, I extrapolate several important elements of his definition: outsider musicians must be sincere in their work, they must not have self-awareness of their outsiderness, and so forth. These are then presented with problematic examples, both from the artists Chusid considers and from other sources. After dealing with Chusid's definition, I suggestion that the term outsider music be abandoned in favour of more specific categories. The paper ends by considering two musicians that have some outsider sensibilities but that do not fall within Chusid's definition, composer Richard Ayres and singer-songwriter Parker Paul.

Changes in Western attitudes toward high art music and developments in internet music technology in the twenty-first century have challenged the traditional values of avant-garde composers; they will therefore need to adapt accordingly. I examine these adaptations by tracing the development of one common avant-garde belief: the belief that certain kinds of music have unique cultural value that others lack.

I begin by looking at the ways in which avant-garde composers during the Cold War were able to gain political support for the idea that their music possessed an inherent superiority (cultural highness). I then discuss the failure of this model in the early 1990s, as well as alternative strategies developed to fill the gap left by the end of the Cold War and changing cultural attitudes toward high art. I propose that these new strategies ultimately fail as well, because internet music technology has destroyed any possibility for unique cultural value within music and re-situated this value in the individual listener’s perspective. Ideas of cultural highness therefore become untenable, and I end with several examples of how composers today are adapting their values and behaviour as a result.