Statement

The guiding aims of Search are those of sharing perspectives and fostering discourse concerning the creative arts, above all the art of music.

We believe that the creative arts can serve a special role in our culture, realizing a combination of potentials not accessible to other media: they can expand and deepen both experiential capacities and intersubjective understanding. They can offer paradigms of intellectual and performative accomplishment, critically reflect upon the given, and speculate upon the possible.

We believe that original new developments in the creative arts can offer something of great value to our culture. However, the insight they offer is neither instantaneous nor self-evident. A lively, informed discourse concerning these developments is lacking and must be fostered. An important component of this is bridging the gap between expert, specialist audiences and a broader, non-specialist audience committed to the central role of art in our culture.

Search will focus firstly upon sharing information about significant new developments in music and the other arts. Our goal is to reduce the distance - at least "virtually"- between physically, aesthetically, and often ideologically disparate artistic cultures. To this end, the editors welcome a broad range of articles treating the output of original and accomplished composers, improvisers, and performers. Technical analyses will always be welcome, but we especially encourage articles that ground analyses in the aesthetic aims and worldview of the artist. We also welcome input from performers regarding new developments in performative resources for their instruments.

Furthermore, Search will exist as a forum for critical and speculative assessments not only of the work of individual artists and artistic movements, but also of the state of the art form and its possible roles and responsibilities in society.

What will make Search unusual is its commitment to combining the flexibility of on-line interaction with the high academic standards traditionally found in print media. Because a lively, intellectually challenging, and mutually respectful interchange of ideas is one of the primary goals of Search, an open discussion among all members in response to major articles will be encouraged. We hope to allow participants to achieve a shared horizon of understanding without flattening-out the uniqueness of individual outlooks. Through this open exchange of ideas, the article authors will also be able to receive feedback, respond to criticisms, and further elaborate on aspects of their articles.

Search will be published online three times per year. Isolated articles and abstracts will be offered to the general public but the full range of articles, as well as access to and participation in online discussions will only be available to members.

Once a year, a printed edition of Search will be published, consisting of selected articles and discussions. The authors selected for this edition will have the opportunity of presenting revised versions of their articles, including elements from the online discussion if they so desire.

In keeping with its primary goals, Search will offer at least one article in each issue on a composer under the age of 40 and one article on an original mid-career composer. Articles on renowned composers will also be encouraged in the case of significant new works or in order to provide a fresh perspective on their works.

Important themes in aesthetics and the situation and roles of the arts in society will be suggested for each issue. Occasionally issues will be dedicated exclusively to highly original artists or groups of artists.

Reviews of concerts and festivals will be offered regularly, and space will be offered to announce upcoming events. Articles reviewing new CDs/DVDs will also be regularly offered, as well as articles on significant new books. Members will be encouraged to participate in the open dialogue by serving as reviewers.

Search will offer authors the option of submitting their articles for editorial review only, full peer-review, or blind submission, and the review procedure used will be appended to the article. In addition, moderated discussions will open the opportunity for open peer review of each article. Requested and commissioned articles will also appear.

Search would like to acknowledge a program of the same name, created by the Music Composition Department of the University of California San Diego, existing prior to the journal. This was a three-year initiative between 1999 and 2002 and was comprised of a series of events, seminars, and visitors on the La Jolla campus. The name for this journal, however, was imagined independently by members of the editorial board at the time of its inception. There is no association between Search Journal and the UCSD Music Department's three-year program.