"The fact that style has a history makes sense given the drive for the familiar unfamiliar. It is the yearning for the unfamiliar that propels us toward change, and so in the direction of the new; it is the lust after characteristically familiar forms of novelty that keeps us safely in the comfort zone set up by our local horizon. Music, from this standpoint, is a conversation that elapses in time. We are done with what’s been said, but not interested in just any old thing that might be sayable, only in what is pertinent to current concerns. As the musical conversation unfolds over time our expectations and interests change, and so the invisible shows up, the new gets old, and the old acquires the comfort, and the emotional value, of, say, an old sweater. (Some old sweaters are cherished; we give others away, and throw others out.)"
