A key reference for contemporary music devotees, the American label New World Records boasts an extensive catalogue, that covers some historical names of twentieth-century American music, especially the most “pioneering” and experimental ones (such as Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, Julius Eastman, just to name a few). At the same time, for several years now, the label gives much space to emerging and less known authors, who nonetheless are equally interesting, and (sometimes) even radical in their expressive language. After reviewing several NWR’s recordings, we (myself, Marco Paolucci, together with Filippo Focosi) decided to interview Paul M. Tai, one of the label’s board members, in order to deepen the history of NWR, its most distinctive features, and its vision of the present and of the future of music and music production.
Here you can find the Italian Translation
How did the idea of founding New World Records come about? Can you tell us something about the origins of your label?
New World Records was founded in 1975 as a Bicentennial project of the Rockefeller Foundation. New World’s original mission was to produce a 100-disc anthology of American music encompassing the broadest possible spectrum of musical genres. The resulting set of recordings, together with their extensive liner notes, provide a core curriculum in American music and American studies. In 1978 the Anthology was completed and distributed free of charge to almost 7,000 educational and cultural institutions throughout the world, with an additional 2,000 Anthologies being sold at cost to other similar institutions. Through these recordings two hundred years of music and American cultural history were brought to life.
Due to the interest of the public in acquiring these records, the decision was made to create a record label to facilitate this and to continue making recordings to document and disseminate American music ignored by the commercial labels. The label was to be a nonprofit entity so as to enable it to raise funds from both public and private sources.
As one can read on your “mission statements”, your productions focus on “neglected treasures from the past” as well as on contemporary classical or post-classical music (mainly from the American area). Do you have some specific aesthetic or historical criteria that help you to select the artists and the music that you would like to record?
I wouldn’t say that there are specific criteria that determine what we choose to record or release. From the very beginning, there was an artistic committee, usually comprising the Artist & Repertory director and selected members of the board, and the general rule is to provide a platform for the work of composers past and present whom they consider worthy of further exposure through the label, regardless of compositional aesthetic; hence the incredibly diverse range of compositional styles represented in the catalog.
There is, in the United States of America, a considerable amount of labels dedicated to the enhancement of contemporary music written mainly (albeit not exclusively) by American composers (think of, e.g., Cantaloupe, Neuma, Cold Blue, Navona, and so on). What do you think is NWR’s most distinguishing trait – if there is any – with respect to these other labels?
First, we are a non-profit with a particular mandate—to document the work of American (born or naturalized) composers. Beyond that, we have never been and are not solely dedicated to the documentation of contemporary music. Over the past thirty years that has been the primary focus but at the same time we have done an important series of recordings with the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, for example, that chronicles the work of composers of the early twentieth century who wrote music for the theatre. Scott Joplin’s ‘Treemonisha’ and the ‘Black Manhattan’ series are salient examples of this.
I think we are unique in that we are the only label that chronicles the evolution of American concert music from the nineteenth century to the present day. Virtually every important figure is represented and one could teach an in-depth course on American music just from the New World catalog.
Part of your rich catalogue is devoted to key figures in American experimental music, such as Harry Partch, Henry Brant, Lou Harrison, or Julius Eastman. Can you tell us if some more CDs of their music are going to be recorded on your label within the next years? Are there other names, or areas, that might be added as of particular interest on your side?
I think we’ve documented these composers quite extensively so I don’t envision any further recordings. For example, the Julius Eastman set is the urtext for his work and other labels have continued to document his legacy as new material surfaces.
One of trademarks of NWR are the extensive liner notes that are included in the booklet of NWR’s CDs, which one can even download on your website. Do you think that critical writings can help people to better understand, and eventually appreciate, less known and experimental music from XX and XXI century?
The original mission of the label was educational, the reason scholars & experts in their field were commissioned to write the liner notes, which were usually quite exhaustive. A selected bibliography was usually included as well as a selected discography so as to provide as much historical context as possible for listening to the music and for further exploration. This template has been scrupulously followed over the years because we do believe the proper contextualization of the music is essential for a better understanding and appreciation of the composer’s intent.
It seems that in your catalogue there is an increasing amount of recordings devoted to vocal/choral music. Is there some specific reason beyond this sort of “trend”?
I honestly didn’t notice this as a trend since there was nothing intentional about it.
New World Records productions are mainly in CD and digital format. What do you think about the vinyl? Do you think it will find more space in your label in the future? Do you think, more generally, that physical releases will continue to exist despite people mostly use digital and streaming platforms?
We released a couple of titles on vinyl, both of Harry Partch’s music, but we barely broke even so it didn’t make sense to do any others, especially for composers with little to no name recognition. For us, it has become very difficult even to sell CDs so it’s not feasible to do vinyl releases, especially given our limited resources.
That said, we have licensed several titles over the years for LP release to a few boutique labels. Soundohm, in particular, via their “Blume” imprint, has produced beautiful vinyl editions of the Julius Eastman set and James Tenney’s ‘Postal Pieces’, among others. I think that physical releases will continue to exist but for a more limited market that caters to various specialized interests.
Do you have some direct relations with conservatories and universities for your record productions? Have you ever being supported, in some way, by the US government, or do you rely mainly on private funding?
We do not have any institutional relationships that currently provide consistent funding. Our primary funding source for the past forty years or so was a philanthropist, Francis Goelet, who was a music lover and believed in the company’s mission. Once the initial Rockefeller grant was exhausted and the decision was made to make New World Records a label, he underwrote the annual recording budget. When he died in 1998, he left a legacy that continued his support via a Trust, which ended four years ago. The label now supports itself primarily through sales, so we operate on a much more modest budget now. Over the years, we have received support for operating expenses and specific projects from several foundations, both public (the National Endowment for the Arts, for example) and private (the Aaron Copland Fund for Music and the Alice M. Ditson Fund being the most prominent of them).
Do you think that social media may help the promotion of contemporary music? How does the label act on social media?
Social media definitely has a role to play in the promotion of contemporary music (as it does in so many other cultural spheres) and we have a part-time employee who manages that aspect of marketing for us.
How do you imagine the future of contemporary music, especially from the point of view of record labels such as NWR?
Well, given the rapid pace of change these days it’s difficult to say how things will play out. Composers continue to produce a significant amount of new music and live music remains very much in demand. That said, record labels will likely diminish in importance since YouTube and other online platforms provide a quick and easy way to disseminate one’s music to a wide audience without the record label as an intermediary.
Could you tell us something about some of your future projects?
Unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to give any specifics since we are still in the process of finalizing agreements. I can only say that we now do about four titles annually since that is what our budget allows.
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