It's the world’s first virtual new music festival. It's "virtual" because it has no physical existence beyond the sights and sounds made possible by computer software and hardware. It was determined to be the world’s first virtual new music festival because when we searched for "virtual new music festival" and "virtual festival of new music" on 20 August 2006, Google returned zero results in each case. Ours is not the first virtual music festival: there are others, including the BBC, who evidently claim that distinction. But it is the first expressly "virtual new music festival" on the web of which we're aware.

Nu Mu [sic!] Unlimited began on 20 August 2006 and, so far as we’re concerned, it’s here to stay. Our big annual event is the uploading of new music on October 31 (Halloween) of each year.

For decades composers and critics have been heatedly engaged in "Style Wars" over the relative value of tonal and non-tonal forms of art music. The tonal camp maintains that non-tonal composers, including many academics, have focussed so much on novelty at the expense of intelligible communication that they have given new music a bad rap and alienated the public. The non-tonal camp, including modernists and their avant-garde, insists that new music should break with the past and search continuously for new forms of expression. Tonal composers suspect their non-tonal counterparts often lack what it takes to write accessible good music in the traditional keys and modes. Non-tonal composers allege their tonal counterparts are creatively deficient nostalgists out of touch with the modern world.

Nu Mu [sic!] Unlimited was conceived as an experiment designed to get each side to know the other by exchanging roles—and to have some fun doing it. Whether participating composers respond with parody or attempt to create new music by wearing the hats and walking in the shoes of those on the opposing side is entirely their choice. Meanwhile, the public is invited to respond to what they see and hear as events unfold.

Although Nu Mu [sic!] Unlimited is a project conceived and promoted by members of the Delian Society, an international body of men and women dedicated to the revitalization of tonal art music, non-tonal composers are cordially invited to take part.

If you are reading this, you already are participating. Admission is free to everyone with access to our web pages. Just click the links, look, and listen, In the interest of promoting broad participation, you're encouraged to exchange ideas and post comments at the following URL:

If you’re a composer and want to contribute music to the festival, you must, in the Halloween Spirit, wear the musical equivalent of a costume or, otherwise stated, play the devil’s advocate:

Tonal composers—those who write mainly tonal music—may only submit one non-tonal score in PDF format and an mp3 or MIDI performance of the same.

Non-tonal composers—those who write mainly non-tonal music—may only submit one tonal score in PDF format and an mp3 or MIDI performance of the same.

Since our virtual performance space isn’t unlimited in size, your mp3 or MIDI should not exceed approximately three minutes of music.

All materials should be received at least one week before October 31 of the year in which you plan to participate.

If under several megabytes, your submission materials can be e-mailed as attachments to numu@newmusicclassics.com. Please include NUMU in your subject field. In lieu of attachments, you may wish to provide one or more URLs where these materials can be downloaded, especially if they exceed several megabytes of information. We require the following information: your legal name, physical address, e-mail address, and any other relevant contact information (e.g., your web site URL, to which visitors can link from our web site). A concise program note of 100 words or less and a good JPG or GIF photograph of you, the composer, should also also accompany your submission, for use on the web page where your music will be accessed by the public. A portion of your score may be scanned and displayed as an adjunct to the virtual performance. Your text and graphics may be edited to correct any obvious errors and to ensure clarity and legibility within our overall design context.

By submitting your music and other materials as described above, you agree to allow us to upload them to the newmusicclassics.com web site on or immediately prior to October 31 of the year they are received for a period of at least one calendar year.

You further agree that you will not hold newmusicclassics.com and its owner responsible for any illegal misappropriation of your music and materials by a third party. You are advised to protect your music by registering it with the appropriate copyright agency in the country where you hold citizenship.

All materials submitted must be your own. You retain all rights to your materials, and they will be removed from our server upon your written request should you at any time deem this necessary.

We will not include on our web pages any submission or comments received from the public that in our judgment would violate the laws of the United States of America or which might reasonably be construed as hate speech or libel.

Join our Nu Mu [sic!] Unlimited Yahoo Group

Nu Mu [sic!] Unlimited 2006 Main Entry Portal

Dare to be tonal ...

 

numu@newmusicclassics.com

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