The notion of tradition is a somewhat troublesome one, capable of both positive and negative interpretation: on the one hand, tradition can be understood optimistically, as historical inspiration, a celebration of lineage and continuity. On the other hand, tradition can connote prescriptive inertia, the axiomatic dogma of former eras. In this paper, I explore the impact that narrowly prescriptive interpretations of tradition have had on contemporary music, and its relationship with cultural policy. I examine the extremely circumscribed manner in which the apparently unproblematic and self-evident term “music” has been conceptualized within several highly influential cultural sectors: in the discipline of musicology; in the context of university music curricula; and in the publishing industry. In the second half of the paper, I go on to consider the ways in which this narrow understanding of “music” has impacted cultural policy, as reflected in representative patterns of arts funding, and in the typical musical repertoire of the contemporary symphony orchestra, which, in tandem with opera, represents the most heavily publicly-funded aspect of present-day musical activity. I argue that “the tradition of all the dead generations” continues to have a profound - and highly restrictive - impact on the funding and support of contemporary music, and I conclude by suggesting the need for a radical reappraisal of music funding priorities. In this way, I argue, the notion of tradition might function, not as a dead weight, but as a genuinely inspirational element in the future development of the contemporary music scene.
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