Musicworks is Canada s premier magazine of experimental and avant-garde art music. That means it is devoted to music of the academy, of serious composers, the classical tradition. Thankfully it does not confine its scope to this: it ventures into world music, community radio, jazz, even popular music experimentation, not to mention spoken word, politics and film. It is dense and, to be honest, frequently awkward and/or pretentious. It is also prey to the Artsy Design Plague. But it is worth hacking through the vines, if you have any curiosity about how the I Ching can be used to compose music, or the last days of John Cage, or community radio in Africa, or anarchy as an artistic principle. If none of this interests you, take the invisible plugs out of your ears and listen again.
magazine / publisher: The Music Gallery / main creator: Gayle Young (editor) / $5, $14 for 3 / The Music Gallery, 179 Richmond St. W., Toronto, ON, M5V 1V3