Domestication of the Avant-Garde

I like to think of the evolution of western concert music in terms of the creation and integration of new, often shocking, musical innovations. It is fun to hear stories of a public’s outrage to music which at a later time becomes a model of excellence to younger generations. I believe that our personal musical development as listeners is similar.   With gentle, but insistent exposure, we may begin to perceive sounds as harmonious and beautiful sounds which we initially judged as harsh or dissonant. We grow accustomed to more complex sounds the way that we grow accustomed to spices in our food. Eventually we may come to crave a certain musical complexity.