No one at present can know just how future historians will regard our era and evaluate the primary direction of our musical culture. Surely no component of musical style -- pitch, harmony, rhythm, texture, form -- has remained untouched by the stylistic explosions that marked the turn of the century. Yet as the century draws to a close, there seems to be an attempt by many to draw from earlier developments rather than to strike out on totally individual and innovative paths. We can see, in some cases, a fusion of trends that at one time seemed headed in opposite directions. The idea of serialism, for example, which was conceived as a systematic means of escape from the deeply entrenched conventions of tonality, has indeed been pressed into the service of what we hear as very tonal music. Recent efforts in electronic music frequently reflect a consolidation of ideas of color and movement from very early in the century. Third stream compositions borrow heavily from the jazz idiom, while many contemporary jazz groups perform works that are scarcely distinguishable from today's "serious" concert music. The pace of technological development has wrought profound changes upon the music profession itself. But whatever the direction we seem to be taking, it is indeed a challenging and exciting time in which to be a musician.